Z.S7     , 


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MEMOIRS  OF  THE  LIFE 


SIR  WALTER  SCOTT,, BART 


BY 

JOHN  GIBSON  LOCKHART. 


3|llu$trateD  ILibrary  (Qftition, 


NINE  VOLUMES  IN  THREE. 
VOLS.  I.-III. 


f  \ 

(UNIVERSITY) 


BOSTON: 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY. 


TO 

NATHANIEL    HAWTHORNE, 


LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT, 
is  DEDICATED  BY  THB  PUBLISHERS. 

Boston,  January,  1861. 


HSITY; 


BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCH  OF  THE  AUTHOR 


JOHN  GIBSON  LOCKHAKT,  the  biographer  and  son- 
in-law  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,  was  born  in  the  manse 
or  parsonage  of  Cambusnethan,  County  of  Lanark, 
Scotland,  in  the  year  1794.  He  died  at  Abbots- 
ford  on  the  25th  of  November,  1854,  and  now  lies 
in  the  same  grave  with  Sir  Walter  at  Dryburgh. 

He  was  the  first  son  by  the  second  marriage  of  the 
Rev.  John  Lockhart,  minister  of  Cambusnethan,  with 
Elizabeth  Gibson,  daughter  of  the  Rev.  W.  Gibson, 
minister  of  St.  Cuthbert's,  Edinburgh.  His  father 
was  afterwards  appointed  to  the  College  Church, 
Glasgow,  and  in  that  city  John  received  his  first 
education.  His  appetite  for  reading,  even  as  a  boy, 
was  insatiable,  and  though  somewhat  idle  as  regard? 
school  study,  he  greatly  distinguished  himself  at 
College,  obtaining  one  of  the  valuable  bursaries, 
(worth  about  .£150  per  annum,)  in  virtue  of  which 
he  proceeded  to  Baliol  College,  Oxford,  in  1809, 
entering  at  the  early  age  of  fifteen.  Dr.  Jen- 
kyns,  the  late  dean  of  Wells,  was  his  tutor.  Before 
leaving  the  University  he  took  honours  as  a  first- 


Vlll          BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

class  man,  and  retired  with  the  degree  of  LL.  B, 
After  a  tour  on  the  Continent  he  was  called  to  the 
Edinburgh  Bar  in  1816,  hut  he  failed  to  make  an 
impression  as  an  advocate,  wanting  the  gift  of  elo 
quence  to  enable  him  to  shine  in  that  capacity. 
His  wit,  his  learning,  and  extensive  reading  scon 
found  a  ready  outlet  through  his  pen.  Being  more 
attached  to  literature  than  to  law,  on  the  establish 
ment  of  "  Blackwood's  Magazine,"  in  1817,  he  be 
came  a  contributor  to  its  columns.  For  a  period  of 
seven  or  eight  years  there  were  few  numbers  of  that 
periodical  which  did  not  contain  some  pungent  or 
graceful  article  from  his  pen.  He  tried  all  styles 
and  subjects ;  he  translated  from  the  German  and 
Spanish,  reviewed  books,  indited  stinging  political 
articles,  and  no  one  excelled  him  either  in  sarcasm 
or  invective.  In  1818  he  was  introduced  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  who  evinced  his  esteem  and  affection 
for  him,  by  giving  him  in  marriage,  in  April  1820, 
his  eldest  daughter,  Sophia  Charlotte.  Previous 
to  this,  Mr.  Lockhart  had,  in  conjunction  with  his 
friend  Professor  Wilson,  written  "  Peter's  Letters  to 
his  Kinsfolk,"  a  lively  picture  of  Scottish  society, 
character,  and  manners.  Soon  after  his  marriage, 
he  removed,  with  his  wife,  from  Edinburgh  to 
Chiefswood,  a  pleasant  retreat  within  two  miles  of 
Abbotsford.  He  remained  an  industrious  contribu 
tor  to  "  Blackwood,"  engaging  with  no  mean  skill  in 
all  the  party  questions  of  the  day.  Unfortunately 
the  strife  was  not  confined  to  squibs,  and  at  least  cne 
fatal  catastrophe  was  the  result.  In  1821  appeared 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  I* 

his  novel  of  "  Valerius,"  an  exquisite  Roman  story, 
said  to  have  been  written  in  three  weeks  ;  in  1822 
"Adam  Blair,"  a  Scottish  tale  of  domestic  life,  con 
taining  some  powerful  painting  of  the  passions.  In 
the  same  year  he  edited  an  edition  of  "  Don  Qui 
xote."  with  numerous  notes ;  in  1823  he  published 
a  tale  of  English  University  life,  called  "  Reginald 
Dalton  ; "  also  a  translation  of  "  Ancient  Spanish 
Ballads,"  remarkable  for  elegance  of  style  and  ver 
sification.  Those  ballads  caught  at,  at  once,  and 
live  in,  the  general  ear.  They  have  every  charac 
teristic  beauty  of  ballads,  —  life,  rapidity,  pictur- 
esqueness,  and  grace.  In  1824  he  published  a 
novel  somewhat  in  the  style  of  Godwin,  entitled 
"  Matthew  Wald."  In  1825  he  became  the  editor 
of  the  "  Quarterly  Review,"  which  continued  in  his 
hands  for  twenty-eight  years.  He  conducted  it  un 
til  failing  health  compelled  him  to  resign  the  labor 
in  1853.  He  was  only  thirty-four  years  of  age 
when  he  accepted  the  editorship  of  the  renowned 
periodical,  but  under  his  charge  he  maintained  and 
increased  its  reputation.  His  connection  with 
"  Blackwood's  Magazine"  he  never  entirely  relin 
quished.  Many  of  the  cleverest  things  in  the 
"  Noctes  Ambrosianas "  were  from  his  pen.  In 
1.828  he  wrote  for  Constable's  "Miscellany"  a  life 
of  Burns,  also  a  life  of  Napoleon  for  Murray's 
*  Family  Library."  In  1836  appeared  his  "  Mag 
num  Opus,"  his  life  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  For  the 
biographer  of  the  great  novelist  he  was  immediately 
named.  His  strength  lay  in  that  department  of  lit> 


X.  BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF   THE    AUTHOR. 

erature,  and  as  the  husband  of  Scott's  daughter,  en 
joying  the  friendliest  relations  with  the  father,  no 
one  else  had  a  juster  claim  to  the  honour ;  bit  it  was 
a  work  of  great  difficulty  and  delicacy.  He  had  to 
fill  a  broad  canvas  with  living  or  recent  characters, 
and  with  contemporary  events.  He  had  to  enter  a 
critical  arena,  preoccupied  by  the  greatest  names  of 
the  age,  and  to  deal  with  aifairs  of  active  life  and 
business,  as  well  as  with  matters  of  intellect  and 
imagination.  He  aimed  at  strict  impartiality ;  and 
in  a  private  letter  he  declared,  that  he  wrote  as  if 
the  spirit  of  Scott,  intent  only  upon  truth,  looked 
down  upon  him  at  the  moment  of  composition. 
His  work  must  redound  to  his  praise  as  a  wise, 
faithful,  and  masterly  biographer.  We  recognize  in 
it  his  manly  and  independent  tone  of  criticism,  his 
true  and  penetrating  estimate  of  life  and  conduct, 
and  the  eloquent  powers  of  description  and  analy 
sis  which  he  brought  to  his  task.  As  a  mere  lit 
erary  work,  in  style  and  treatment,  it  must  rank  in 
the  first  class ;  and  as  a  biography,  for  fulness  and 
interest,  it  is  only  surpassed  by  Bos  well's  "  Life 
of  Johnson." 

In  1843  Mr.  Lockhart  received,  through  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  the  sinecure  appointment  of  auditor 
of  the  Duchy  of  Cornwall,  worth  <£400  per  annum> 
This  sum,  with  the  large  endowments  received  from 
his  literary  labours,  placed  him,  pecuniarily,  in  easy 
circumstances,  but  the  latter  years  of  his  life  were 
far  from  being  happy.  He  had  survived  his  wife, 
his  two  sons,  and  all  the  family  of  Sir  Walter 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR.  XI 

Scott.  Irregular  health  and  study  impaired  his 
strength,  and  he  endeavoured  by  a  winter  in  Italy 
to  renovate  his  shattered  constitution.  He  returned 
to  Scotland  somewhat  invigorated,  but  he  felt 
acutely  that  premature  old  age  had  set  in.  He 
had  intended  never  again  to  visit  Abbotsford  after 
Scott's  death  ;  but  in  the  desolation  of  his  last  days, 
when  his  spirit  was  broken  and  health  had  utterly 
fled,  he  turned  to  it  once  more.  There,  on  the 
25th  of  November,  1854,  having  just  completed 
his  sixtieth  year,  he  breathed  his  last  in  the  arms  of 
his  daughter,  the  sole  survivor  of  the  line  of  Scott, 
in  the  second  generation.  His  parting  spirit  was 
soothed  by  the  attentions  of  filial  duty  and  tender 
ness,  amid  those  scenes  immortalized  by  genius, 
which  had  witnessed  his  youthful  ambition  and 
happiness. 

The  "  London  Times,"  in  noticing  the  death  of 
Mr.  Lockhart,  spoke  of  his  character  in  terms  which 
are  not  inappropriate  to  be  reproduced  at  the  close 
of  this  biographical  sketch.  The  following  extracts 
are  from  that  paper  of  the  date  December  9, 
1854:  — 

It  is  not  in  the  first  few  days  of  regret  for  Mr.  Lock- 
hart's  loss  that  the  extent  of  it  can  be  best  defined. 
Long  will  it  be  before  those  who  knew  him  can  admit 
his  life  and  his  death  into  the  same  thought ;  for,  much 
as  he  had  suffered,  mind  and  body,  and  precarious  as  had 
been  his  state,  there  had  been  no  decline  of  that  which 
constituted  Lockhart  —  the  acuteness,  the  vigour,  the 
marvellous  memory,  the  flashing  wit,  swift  to  sever  trutb 


Xii          BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE   AUTHOR. 

from  falsehood  —  the  stores  of  knowledge,  ever  ready 
and  bright,  never  displayed.  Although  his  reputation 
has  been  confined  to  literature,  and  although,  by  early- 
amassed  knowledge  and  long-sharpened  thought,  he  had 
reared  himself  into  a  pillar  of  literary  strength,  yet  the 
leading  qualities  of  his  mind  would  have  fitted  him  for 
any  post  where  far-sighted  sagacity,  iron  self-control^  and 
rapid  instinctive  judgment  mark  the  born  leader  of  oth 
ers.  Nor  did  he  care  for  literary  triumphs,  or  trials  of 
strength,  but  rather  avoided  them  with  shrinking  reserve. 
Far  from  seeking,  he  could  never  be  induced  to  take  the 
place  which  his  reputation  and  his  talents  assigned  him  ; 
he  entered  society  rather  to  unbend  his  powers  than  to 
exert  them.  Playful  raillery,  inimitable  in  ease  and 
brilliancy,  with  old  friend,  simple  child,  or  with  the  gen 
tlest  or  humblest  present,  was  the  relaxation  he  most 
cared  to  indulge,  and  if  that  were  denied  him,  and  espe 
cially  if  expected  to  stand  forward  and  shine  he  would 
shut  himself  up  altogether. 

Reserve,  indeed  —  too  often  misunderstood  in  it* 
origin,  ascribed  to  coldness  and  pride  when  its  onlj 
source  was  the  rarest  modesty  and  hatred  of  exhibit ior 
—  with  shyness  both  personal  and  national,  was  hi/ 
strong  external  characteristic.  Those  whose  acquaint 
ance  he  was  expressly  invited  to  make  would  find  nc 
access  allowed  them  to  his  mind,  and  go  disappointed 
away,  knowing  only  that  they  had  seen  one  of  the  most 
interesting,  most  mysterious,  but  most  chilling  of  men, 
for  their  very  deference  had  made  him  retire  further 
from  them.  Most  happy  was  Lockhart  when  he  could 
literally  take  the  lowest  place,  and  there  complacently 
listen  to  the  strife  of  conversers,  till  some  dilemma  in 
tfie  chain  of  recollection  or  argument  arose,  and  then  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF   THE   AUTHOR.         X11I 

ready  memory  drew  forth  the  missing  link,  and  the  keen 
sagacity  fitted  it  home  to  its  place,  and  what  all  wanted 
and  no  one  else  could  supply  was  murmured  out  ID 
choice,  precise,  but  most  unstudied  words.  And  there 
were  occasions  also,  when  the  expression  of  the  listener 
was  not  so  complacent  —  when  the  point  at  issue  was  not 
one  of  memory  or  of  fact,  but  of  the  subtle  shades  of 
right  and  wrong ;  and  then  the  scorn  on  the  lip,  and  the 
cloud  on  the  brow  were  but  the  prelude  to  some  strong, 
wiry  sentence,  withering  in  its  sarcasm  and  unanswer 
able  in  its  sense,  which  scattered  all  sophistry  to  the 
winds  before  it. 

Far  remote  was  he  from  the  usual  conditions  of  gen 
ius —  its  simplicity,  its  foibles,  and  its  follies.  Lock- 
hart  had  fought  the  whole  battle  of  life,  both  within  and 
without,  and  borne  more  than  its  share  of  sorrow.  So 
acute,  satirical,  and  unsparing  was  his  intellect,  that,  had 
Lockhart  been  endowed  with  that  alone,  he  would  have 
been  the  most  brilliant,  but  the  most  dangerous  of  men  ; 
but  so  strong,  upright,  and  true  were  his  moral  qualities 
also,  that,  had  he  been  a  dunce  in  attainments,  or  a  fool 
in  wit,  he  must  still  have  been  recognized  as  an  ex 
traordinary  man.  We  will  not  call  it  unfortunate,  for  it 
was  the  necessary  consequence  of  the  very  conditions  of 
his  life  and  nature,  that  while  his  intellect  was  known  to 
all,  his  heart  could  be  known  comparatively  to  few.  All 
knew  how  unsparing  he  was  to  morbid  and  sickly  senti 
ment,  but  few  could  tell  how  tender  he  was  to  genuine 
feeling.  All  could  see  how  he  despised  every  species  of 
vanity,  pretension,  and  cant ;  but  few  had  the  opportu 
nity  of  witnessing  his  unfailing  homage  to  the  humblest 
»r  even  stupidest  worth.  Many  will  believe  what  caus 
tic  he  was  to  a  false  grief ;  few  could  credit  what  bain 


Xiv         BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF   THE   AUTHOR. 

to  a  real  one.  His  indomitable  reserve  never  prevented 
his  intellect  from  having  fair  play,  but  it  greatly  impeded 
the  justice  due  to  his  nobler  part. 

It  was  characteristic  of  Lockhart's  peculiar  individ 
uality,  that,  wherever  he  was  at  all  known,  whether  by 
man  or  woman,  by  poet,  man  of  business,  or  man  of  th 
world,  he  touched  the  hidden  chord  of  romance  in  all 
No  man  less  affected  the  poetical,  the  mysterious,  or  the 
sentimental ;  no  man  less  affected  anything ;  yet,  as  he 
stole  stiffly  away  from  the  knot  which,  if  he  had  not  en 
livened,  he  had  hushed,  there  was  not  one  who  did  not 
confess  that  a  being  had  passed  before  them  who  stirred 
all  the  pulses  of  the  imagination,  and  realized  what  is 
generally  only  ideal  in  the  portrait  of  a  man.  To  this 
impression  there  is  no  doubt  that  his  personal  appearance 
greatly  contributed,  though  too  entirely  the  exponent  of 
his  mind  to  be  considered  as  a  separate  cause.  Endowed 
with  the  very  highest  order  of  manly  beauty,  both  of  feat 
ure  and  expression,  he  retained  the  brilliancy  of  youth 
and  a  stately  strength  of  person ,  comparatively  unim 
paired  in  ripened  life  ;  and  then,  though  sorrow  and  sick 
ness  suddenly  brought  on  a  premature  old  age,  which 
none  could  witness  unmoved,  yet  the  beauty  of  the  head 
and  of  the  bearing  so  far  gained  in  melancholy  loftiness 
of  expression  what  they  lost  in  animation,  that  the  last 
phase,  whether  to  the  eye  of  painter  or  of  anxious 
friend,  seemed  always  the  finest. 

As  in  social  intercourse,  so  in  literature,  Lockhart 
was  guilty  of  injustice  to  his  own  surpassing  powers. 
With  all  his  passion  for  letters,  with  all  the  ambition  for 
literary  fame  which  burnt  in  his  youthful  mind,  there  was 
ntill  his  shyness,  fastidiousness,  reserve.  No  doubt  he 
might  have  taken  a  higher  place  as  a  poet  than  by  the 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR.          XV 

Spanish  Ballads,  as  a  writer  of  fiction  than  by  his  nov 
els.  These  seem  to  have  been  thrown  off  by  a  sudden 
uncontrollable  impulse  to  relieve  the  mind  of  its  fulness, 
rather  than  as  works  of  finished  art  or  mature  study. 
The  Ballads  first  appears  1  in  Blackwood's  Magazine; 
the  novels  without  his  name.  They  were  the  flashes  cf 
&  genius  which  would  not  be  suppressed ;  no  one  es 
teemed  them  more  humbly  than  Lockhart,  or,  having 
once  cast  them  on  the  world,  thought  less  of  their  fame. 
So,  too,  of  his  other  writings  of  that  period.  The  ice 
once  broken,  the  waters  went  dashing  out  with  irresisti 
ble  force ;  his  exuberant  spirits,  his  joyous  humour,  his 
satiric  vigour,  his  vehement  fun,  when  the  curb  was  once 
loosened,  ran  away  with  him,  he  himself  could  hardly 
see  whither.  These  outbursts  over,  he  retired  again 
within  himself.  Except  in  two  short,  but  excellent 
pieces  of  biography,  written  each  for  a  special  purpose, 
and  as  by  command  —  the  Life  of  Burns,  yet  unsur 
passed,  and  that  of  Napoleon  —  no  book  appeared  under 
the  name  of  Lockhart  till  the  Life  of  Scott.  This  was 
a  work  of  duty  as  of  love. 

Lockhart  was  designated  at  once,  for  no  one  else 
could  be,  the  biographer  of  Scott.  His  best  papers  in 
the  Quarterly  Review  were  full  and  rapid  condensations 
of  wide-spun  volumes  on  the  lives  or  works  of  authors  or 
statesmen.  But  while  his  relation  and  singular  qualifi 
cations  gave  him  unrivalled  advantages  for  this  work, 
they  involved  him  in  no  less  serious  and  peculiar  diffi 
culties.  The  history  must  tell  not  only  the  brilliant  joy- 
ras  dawn  and  zenith  of  the  poet's  fame,  but  also  the  dark 
sad  decline  and  close.  It  was  not  only  that  Lockhart,  as 
the  husband  of  his  daughter  —  as  living  in  humble  and 
happy  Chiefswood  with  his  charming  wife  (in  some  re- 


Xvi         BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR. 

Bpects  so  like  her  father),  and  his  promising  children, 
under  the  shade  of  aspiring  Abbotsford  —  enjoyed  the 
closest  intimacy  with  Scott,  saw  him  in  all  his  moods, 
with  veneration  which  could  not  blind  his  intuitive  keen 
observation  of  human  character,  read  his  heart  of  hearts ; 
in  some  respects  there  was  the  most  perfect  congeniality 
between  the  two.  In  outward  manner  no  men  indeed 
could  be  more  different.  Scott  frank,  easy,  accessible, 
the  least  awful  great  man  ever  known,  with  his  arms  and 
his  heart  open  to  every  one  who  had  any  pretension,  to 
many  who  had  no  pretension,  to  be  admitted  within 
them,  as  much  at  ease  with  the  king  as  with  Adam 
Purdie.  Lockhart,  slow  at  first,  retiring,  almost  repell 
ing,  till  the  thaw  of  kindly  or  friendly  feelings  had 
warmed  and  kindled  his  heart,  then,  and  not  till  then, 
the  pleasantest  of  companions.  But  in  tastes,  in  politi 
cal  principles,  in  conviviality,  in  active  life,  in  the  enjoy 
ment  of  Scottish  scenery  and  Scottish  sports,  in  the  love 
of  letters  for  the  sake  of  letters,  with  a  sovereign  con 
tempt  and  aversion  for  the  pedantry  of  authorship,  warm 
attachments,  even  the  love  of  brute  beasts  —  in  admira 
tion  of  the  past,  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  present,  in 
bright  aspirations  for  the  future  —  there  was  the  closest 
sympathy,  the  happiest  fellowship.  So  nothing  can  be 
more  delightful  than  the  life  in  Edinburgh,  the  life  on 
the  border,  the  life  in  London ;  but  stern  truth,  honour, 
faith  with  the  public,  commanded  the  disclosure  of  the 
gloomier  evening  of  this  glorious  day,  the  evening  of 
disappointment,  embarrassment,  noble  powers  generously 
overtaxed,  breaking  down  in  a  death-struggle  with  the 
resolute  determination  to  be  just,  honourable,  free. 

Lockhart's  was  a  singularly  practical  understanding} 
he  had  remarkable  talents  for  business,  and  read  mer 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    CF    THE    AUTHOR.        XVU 

with  a  sharper  and  more  just  appreciation  than  generous 
Scott.  No  one  could  discern  more  clearly  the  baseless 
ness  of  his  father-in-law's  magnificent  schemes,  by  which 
his  own  unrivalled  successes  were  to  be  the  ordinary 
rewards  of  the  book  trade.  With  a  strange  chivalrous 
notion,  Scott  was  to  be  at  once  the  noblest  and  most 
munificent  patron  of  letters,  to  force  good  books  on  an  un 
prepared  and  reluctant  public,  and,  at  the  same  time,  to 
achieve  such  riches  as  had  never  crossed  the  imagination 
of  the  most  fortunate  bibliopole.  All  this  error  Lockhart 
had  long  seen  through ;  and,  we  are  persuaded,  that  if 
Scott  had  thrown  his  affairs  into  Lockhart's  hands,  we 
will  not  say  that  they  might  have  been  retrieved^  but  the 
blow  would  have  been  mitigated ;  something  less  might 
have  been  necessary  than  the  vital,  the  fatal  wrestling 
with  unconquerable  circumstances.  But  in  the  Life 
how  was  this  to  be  told?  Too  much  was  known,  too 
much  was  surmised  for  suppression  or  disguise.  Lock- 
hart  resolved  boldly,  fairly,  to  reveal  the  whole ;  for 
Scott's  fame  we  think  he  judged  wisely,  even  though  the 
book  may  have  been  in  some  degree  weighed  dow»  If 
there  were  those  who  suffered  by  the  exposure,  we  can 
not  but  think  they  deserved  to  suffer.  All  that  was  sor 
did  and  grasping  in  trading  speculation  seemed  to  fall  off 
from  the  majestic  image  of  Scott ;  he  rose  like  a  hero  in 
the  old  Greek  tragedy,  doing  battle  to  the  last  with  des 
tiny,  nobler  in  his  sad  and  tragic  end  than  at  the  height 
of  his  glory.  All  this  must  have  been  in  the  keep  and 
far-sighted  view  of  Lockhart. 

Lockhart  was  called  on  to  fill,  and  filled  for  many 
years,  the  very  difficult  position  of  the  avowed  and  osten 
sible  editor  of  one  of  the  two  accredited  journals  of  lit 
erature.  Here,  too,  he  derived  extraordinary  advantage, 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OP    THE    AUTHOR. 

while  doubtless  he  laboured  under  some  disadvantage 
from  his  peculiar  manners  and  habit  of  mind.  In  the 
midst  of  London  life  it  was  not  amiss  that  one  of  the 
prime  ministers  of  letters  should  be  somewhat  unap 
proachable.  About  the  secrets  of  his  state  there  was 
necessarily  some  mystery,  it  might  be  as  well  some  re- 
pulsiveness,  to  keep  back  the  busy  and  forward  —  those 
who  are  perpetually  seeking  —  if  they  had  dared  to  do 
so,  pertinaciously  soliciting  —  favours  —  places  for  their 
works  —  with  due  amount  of  praise  by  the  Review  — 
places  for  their  own  articles  in  the  Review.  Unhap 
pily,  too,  in  some  respects,  perhaps  happily  in  others, 
the  two  great  literary  journals  at  the  same  time  repre 
senting  the  two  great  political  parties.  It  was  war  to 
the  knife,  a  war  deeper  than  the  gashes  of  the  knife, 
for  the  pen  wounds  more  acutely,  wounds  far  more  noble 
parts.  If  Lockhart  in  this  strife  did  not  always  control 
himself,  far  more  often  did  not  control  others,  put  your 
self,  reader,  in  his  place,  arm  yourself  with  his  wit,  point 
your  lips  with  his  power  of  sarcasm,  give  him  credit  for 
the  honesty  of  his  political  principles  (right  or  wrong), 
for  the  strength  of  his  political  passions.  Adversary,  it 
may  be  !  if  wounded  by  that  hand,  or  through  that  hand, 
be  assured  that,  if  he  did  you  wrong,  you  yourself  have 
not  felt  it  more  deeply  than  did  Lockhart.  Remember 
that  you  were  at  war  —  perhaps  you  struck  first,  you 
or  your  friends.  Whiggism,  Liberalism,  may  be  in  the 
ascendant  —  his  Toryism  in  the  decline  ;  but  do  not  do 
him  or  yourself  the  injustice  to  believe  that  Lockhart  was 
not  an  honest,  conscientious  Tory.  Cast  your  stone,  then, 
not  at  his  fame,  but  upon  his  grave,  like  the  warriors  of 
old,  who,  after  mortal  combat,  on  whichever  side  thej 
were,  conspired  to  do  honour  to  the  illustrious  dead. 


BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCH    OF    THE    AUTHOR.         XIX 

There  was  one  thing  which  set  Lockhart  far  above 
common  critics ;  high  over  every  other  consideration 
predominated  the  general  love  of  letters.  Whatever 
might  be  the  fate  of  those  of  more  doubtful  pretensions 
(even  to  the  humblest,  the  lowest  of  authors,  there  was 
one  kind  of  generosity  in  which  Lockhart  was  never 
wanting  —  if  his  heart  was  closed,  his  hand  was  ever 
open),  yet  if  any  great  work  of  genius  appeared,  Trojan 
or  Tyrian,  it  was  one  to  him  —  his  kindred  spirit  was 
kindled  at  once,  his  admiration  and  sympathy  threw  off 
all  trammel.  We  have  known  where  he  has  resisted 
rebuke,  remonstrance,  to  do  justice  to  the  works  of  polit 
ical  antagonists  —  that  impartial  homage  was  at  once 
freely,  boldly,  lavishly  paid. 

We  sincerely  believe  that  Lockhart  had  no  greater 
delight  or  satisfaction  than  in  conferring  well-merited 
praise,  hailing  the  uprising  of  any  new  star,  and  doing 
just  honour  to  those  whom  after  ages  will  recognize  as 
the  leaders  of  letters  in  our  day.  Suffice  it  to  add,  that 
no  unlovable  man  could  have  left  a  dreary  blank  in  the 
hearts  of  so  many  friends ;  that  he  was  one  whose  friend 
ship  was  more  valued  the  more  intimately  he  was  known ; 
that  English  literature  had  never  a  more  fervent  lover, 
and  that,  whatever  place  may  be  assigned  to  him  by  pos 
terity,  none  would  acquiesce  more  entirely  in  that  verdict 
than  Lockhart  himself. 


[ORIGINAL  DEDICATION.] 

To  JOHN  BACON  SAWREY  MORRITT,  OF  ROKEBY  PARK, 
ESQ.,  THESE  MEMOIRS  OP  HIS  FRIEND  ARE  RESPECTED LL1 
AND  AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


PREFACE. 


LONDON,  December  20, 1886. 

IN  obedience  to  the  instructions  of  SIR  WALTER 
SCOTT'S  last  will,  I  had  made  some  progress  in  a  narra 
tive  of  his  personal  history,  before  there  was  discovered, 
in  an  old  cabinet  at  Abbotsford,  an  autobiographical 
fragment,  composed  by  him  hi  1808  —  shortly  after  the 
publication  of  his  Marmion. 

This  fortunate  accident  rendered  it  necessary  that  I 
should  altogether  remodel  the  work  which  I  had  com 
menced.  The  first  Chapter  of  the  following  Memoirs 
consists  of  the  Ashestiel  fragment ;  which  gives  a  clear 
outline  of  his  early  life  down  to  the  period  of  his  call 
to  the  bar  —  July  1792.  All  the  notes  appended  to 
this  Chapter  are  also  by  himself.  They  are  in  a  hand 
writing  very  different  from  the  text,  and  seem,  from 
rarious  circumstances,  to  have  been  added  in  1826. 

It  appeared  to  me,  however,  that  the  author's  modesty 
had  prevented  him  from  telling  the  story  of  his  youth 
with  that  fulness  of  detatf  which  would  now  satisfy  the 


XXIV  PREFACE. 

public.  1  have  therefore  recast  my  own  collections  aa 
to  the  period  in  question,  and  presented  the  substance  of 
them,  in  five  succeeding  chapters,  as  illustrations  of  hia 
too  brief  autobiography.  This  procedure  has  been  at 
tended  with  many  obvious  disadvantages ;  but  I  greatly 
preferred  it  to  printing  the  precious  fragment  in  an 
Appendix. 

I  foresee  that  some  readers  may  be  apt  to  accuse  me 
of  trenching  upon  delicacy  in  certain  details  of  the  sixth 
and  seventh  chapters  in  this  volume.  Though  the  cir 
cumstances  there  treated  of  had  no  trivial  influence  on 
Sir  Walter  Scott's  history  and  character,  I  should  have 
been  inclined,  for  many  reasons,  to  omit  them ;  but  the 
choice  was,  in  fact,  not  left  to  me,  —  for  they  had  been 
mentioned,  and  misrepresented,  in  various  preceding 
sketches  of  the  Life  which  I  had  undertaken  to  illus 
trate.  Such  being  the  case,  I  considered  it  as  my  duty 
to  tell  the  story  truly  and  intelligibly ;  but  I  trust  I  have 
avoided  unnecessary  disclosures ;  and,  after  all,  there 
was  nothing  to  disclose  that  could  have  attached  blame 
to  any  of  the  parties  concerned. 

For  the  copious  materials  which  the  friends  of  Sir 
Walter  have  placed  at  my  disposal,  I  feel  just  grati 
tude.  Several  of  them  are  named  in  the  course  of  the 
present  volume ;  but  I  must  take  this  opportunity  of  ex 
pressing  my  sense  of  the  deep  obligations  under  which 


PREFACE.  XXV 

I  Lave  been  laid  by  the  frank  communications,  in  par 
ticular,  of  William  Clerk,  Esq.,  of  Eldin, — John  Irving, 
Esq.,  W.  S.,  —  Sir  Adam  Fergusson,  —  James  Skene, 
Esq.,  of  Rubislaw,  —  Patrick  Murray,  Esq.,  of  Sim- 
prim,  —  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  of  Rokeby,  —  William 
Wordsworth,  Esq.,  —  Robert  Southey,  Esq.,  Poet  Lau 
reate,  —  Samuel  Rogers,  Esq.,  —  William  Stewart  Rose, 
Esq.,  —  Sir  Alexander  Wood,  —  the  Right  Hon.  the 
Lord  Chief  Commissioner  Adam,  —  the  Right  Hon.  Sir 
William  Rae,  Bart.,  —  the  late  Right  Hon.  Sir  William 
Knighton,  Bart.,  —  the  Right  Hon.  J.  W.  Croker,  —  Lord 
Jeffrey,  — Sir  Henry  Halford,  Bart.,  G.  C.  H.,  —  the 
late  Major-General  Sir  John  Malcolm,  G.  C.  B.,  —  Sir 
Francis  Chantrey,  R.  A.,  —  Sir  David  Wilkie,  R.  A.,  — 
Thomas  Thomson,  Esq.,  P.  C.  S.,  —  Charles  Kirkpat- 
rick  Sharpe,  Esq.,  —  William  Scott,  of  Raeburn,  Esq., 

—  John   Scott,  of  Gala,  Esq.,  —  Alexander  Pringle,  of 
Whytbank,  Esq.,  M.  P.,  —  John  Swinton,  of  Inverleith- 
Place,  Esq.,  —  John  Richardson,  Esq.,  of  Fludyer  Street, 

—  John  Murray,  Esq.,  of  Albemarle   Street,  —  Robert 
Bruce,  Esq.,   Sheriff  of  Argyle,  —  Robert   Fergusson, 
Esq.,  M.  D..  — G.  P.  R.  James,  Esq.,  —  William  Laid- 
law,  Esq.,  —  Robert  Cadell,  Esq.,  —  John  Elliot  Short- 
reed,   Esq.,  —  Allan   Cunningham,    Esq.,  —  Claud  Rus 
sell,   Esq.,  —  James  Clarkson,  Esq.,  of  Melrose,  —  the 
late  James    Ballantyne,  Esq.,  —  Joseph  Train,  Esq., — 
Adolphus   Ross,   Esq.,  M.  D.,  —  William   Allan,  Esq., 
R.  A.,  —  Charles  Dumergue,  Esq.,  —  Stephen  Nicholson 


XXVI  PREFACE. 

Barber,  Esq.,  —  James  Slade,  Esq.,  —  Mrs.  Joanna  Bail* 
lie,  —  Mrs.  George  Ellis,  —  Mrs.  Thomas  Scott,  —  Mrs. 
Charles  Carpenter,  —  Miss  Russell  of  Ashestiel,  —  Mrs. 
Sarah  Nicholson,  —  Mrs.  Duncan,  Mertoun-Manse,  — 
the  Eight  Hon.  the  Lady  Polwarth,  and  her  sons, 
Henry,  Master  of  Polwarth,  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Wil- 
liam,  and  the  Hon.  Francis  Scott. 

I  beg  leave  to  acknowledge  with  equal  thankfulness 
the  courtesy  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Harwood,  Thomas  White, 
Esq.,  Mrs.  Thomson,  and  the  Rev.  Richard  Garnett,  all 
of  Lichfield,  and  the  Rev.  Thomas  Henry  White,  of 
Glasgow,  in  forwarding  to  me  Sir  Walter  Scott's  early 
letters  to  Miss  Seward:  that  of  the  Lord  Seaford,  in 
intrusting  me  with  those  addressed  to  his  late  cousin, 
Geovge  Ellis,  Esq. :  and  the  kind  readiness  with  which 
whatever  papers  in  their  possession  could  be  service 
able  to  my  undertaking  were  supplied  by  the  Duke  and 
Duchess  of  Buccleuch,  and  the  Lord  Montagu;  —  the 
Duchess-Countess  of  Sutherland,  and  the  Lord  Francis 
Egerton ;  —  the  Lord  Viscount  Sidmouth,  —  the  Lord 
Bishop  of  Llandaff,  —  the  Right  Hon.  Sir  Robert  Peel, 
Bart.,  —  the  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  —  the  Hon.  Mrs.  War- 
render,  and  the  Hon.  Catharine  Arden,  —  Lady  Davy, 
«—  Miss  Edgeworth,  —  Mrs.  Maclean  Clephane,  of  Tor- 
loisk,  —  Mrs.  Hughes,  of  Uffington,  —  Mrs.  Terry,  (now 
Richardson,)  —  Mrs.  Bartley,  —  Sir  George  Mackenzie 
of  Coul,  Bart.,  —  the  late  Sir  Francis  Freeling,  Bart. 


PREFACE.  XXV11 

.—  Captain  Sir  Hugh  Pigott,  R.  N.,  —  the  late  Sir  Wil 
liam  Gell,  —  Sir  Cuthbert  Sharp,  —  the  Very  Rev. 
Principal  Baird,  —  the  Rev.  William  Steven,  of  Rotter 
dam,  —  the  late  Rev.  James  Mitchell,  of  Wooler,  —  Rob 
ert  William  Hay,  Esq.,  lately  Under  Secretary  of  State 
for  the  Colonial  Department,  —  John  Borthwick,  of 
Crookstone,  Esq.,  —  John  Cay,  Esq.,  Sheriff  of  Linlith- 
gow,  —  Captain  Basil  Hall,  R.  N.,  —  Thomas  Crofton 
Croker,  Esq.,  —  Edward  Cheney,  Esq.,  —  Alexander 
Young,  Esq.,  of  Harburn,  —  A.  J.  Valpy,  Esq.,  —  James 
Maidment,  Esq.,  Advocate,  —  the  late  Donald  Gregory, 
Esq.,  —  Robert  Johnston,  Esq.,  of  Edinburgh,*  —  J.  J. 
Masquerier,  Esq.,  of  Brighton,  —  Owen  Rees,  Esq.,  of 
Paternoster  Row,f  —  William  Miller,  Esq.,  formerly  of 
Albemarle  Street,  —  David  Laing,  Esq.,  of  Edinburgh, 
—  and  John  Smith  the  Youngest,  Esq.,  of  Glasgow. 

J.  G.  LOCKHART. 

*  Bailie  Johnston  died  4th  April  1838,  in  his  73d  vear. 
f  Mr.  Rees  retired  from  the  house  of  Longman  &  Co.  at  Midsum 
mer  1837,  and  died  5th  September  following,  hi  his  67th  year. 


CONTENTS 

OP 

VOLUME    FIRST. 

CHAPTER  I. 

MEMOIR  OP  THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT,  WRIT 
TEN  BY  HIMSELF, i 

CHAPTER  II. 

1771-1778. 

Illustrations  of  the  Autobiographical  Fragment — Edinburgh  — 
Sandy-Knowe— Bath  — Prestonpans, 87 

CHAPTER  III. 

1778-1783. 

Illustrations  of  the  Autobiography  continued  —  High  School  of 
Edinburgh  — Residence  at  Kelso, 118 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1783-1786. 

Illustrations    of  the    Autobiography  continued  —  Anecdotes    of 
Scott's  College  Life,  «          149 

CHAPTER  V. 
1786-1790. 

Illustrations  continued  —  Scott's  Apprenticeship  to  his  Father  — 
-     Excursions    to    the    Highlands,  &c.  —  Debating  Societies  — 
Early  Correspondence,  &c.  &c., 162 


XXX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1790-1792. 

Illustrations    continued  —  Studies  for  the  Bar  —  Excursion    to 
Northumberland  —  Letter  on  Flodden  Field  —  Call  to  the  Bar,      197 

CHAPTER  VII. 

1792-1796. 

First  Expedition  into  Liddesdale  —  Study  of  German  —  Political 
Trials,  &c.  —  Specimen  of  Law  Papers  —  Burger's  Lenore  trans-    / 
lated  —  Disappointment  in  Love,         .....  218 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

1796-1797. 

Publication  of  Ballads  after  Biirger  —  Scott  Quarter-Master  of 
the    Edinburgh   Light-horse  —  Excursion     to    Cumberland  —     I 
Gilsland  Wells  — Miss  Carpenter  —  Marriage,  ....  298 


CONTENTS 

OP 

VOLUME    SECOND. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1798-1799.  p.vai 

Early  Married  Life  —  Lasswade  Cottage  —  Monk  Lewis  — -  Trans 
lation  of  Goetz  von  Berlichingen,  published  —  Visit  to  London 

—  House  of  Aspen  —  Death  of  Scott's  Father— First  Original 
Ballads  —  Glenfinlas,  &c.  —  Metrical    Fragments  —  Appoint 
ment  to  the  Sheriffship  of  Selkirkshire,      .  7 

CHAPTER  X. 

1800-1802. 

The  Border  Minstrelsy  in  preparation  —  Richard  Heber  —  John 
LeyAen — William  Laidlaw  —  James  Hogg  —  Correspondence 
with  George  Ellis  —Publication  of  the  Two  First  Volumes  of 
the  border  Minstrelsy, 42 

CHAPTER  XL 

1802-1803. 
Pr epa*»tion  of  Volume  III.  of  the  Minstrelsy  —  and  of  Sir  Tristrem 

—  Correspondence  with  Miss  Seward  and  Mr.  Ellis  —  Ballad  of 
the  Reiver's  Wedding  —  Commencement  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last 
Minstrel — Visit  to  London  and  Oxford  —  Completion  of  the      >'" 
Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border, 71 

CHAPTER  XII. 
1803-1804. 

Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review  —  Progress  of  the  Tris 
trem  -  and  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  —  Visit  of  Words- 
wortb  —  Publication  of  "Sir  Tristrem," 106 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

1804-1805.  PA<M 

Removal  to  Ashestiel  —  Death  of  Captain  Robert  Scott— Mungo 
Park  —  Completion  and  Publication  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Min 
strel,  ...  .  HO 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

1805. 

Partnership  with  James  Ballantyne  —  Literary  projects  —  Edition 
of  the  British  Poets  —  Edition  of  the  Ancient  English  Chroni 
cles,  &c.  &c.  —  Edition  of  Dryden  undertaken  —  Earl  Moira 
Commander  of  the  Forces  in  Scotland  —  Sham  Battles  —  Arti 
cles  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  —  Commencement  of  Waverley  — 
Letter  on  Ossian  —  Mr.  Skene's  Reminiscences  of  Ashestiel  — 
Excursion  to  Cumberland— Alarm  of  Invasion  —  Visit  of  Mr. 
Southey  —  Correspondence  on  Dryden  with  Ellis  and  Words 
worth,  ....  .177 

CHAPTER  XV. 

1806. 

Affair  of  the  Clerkship  of  Session  —  Letters  to  Ellis  and  Lord  Dal- 
keith— Visit  to  London  — Earl  Spencer  and  Mr.  Fox  — Caro 
line,  Princess  of  Wales  —  Joanna  Baillie  —  Appointment  as  Clerk 
of  Session  — Lord  Melville's  Trial  —  Song  on  his  Acquittal,  .  22C 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

1806-1808. 

Dryden  —  Critical  Pieces  —  Edition  of  Slingsby's  Memoirs,  &c.  — 
Marmion  begun  —  Visit  to  London  —  Ellis  —  Rose  —  Canning 
—  Miss  Seward  —  Scott  Secretary  to  the  Commission  on  Scotch 
•Jurisprudence  —  Letters  to  Southey,  &c. — Publication  of  Mar 
mion  — Anecdotes  —  The  Edinburgh  Review  on  Marmion,  .  247 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

1808. 

Edition  of  Dryden  published  —  and  criticised  by  Mr.  Hallam  — 
Weber's  Romances  —  Editions  of  Queenhoo-Hall ;  Captain  Car- 
leton's  Memoirs;  The  Memoirs  of  Robert  Gary,  Earl  of  Mon- 
mouth;  The  Sadler  Papers;  and  the  Somers'  Tracts  —  Edition 
of  Swift  begun  —  Letters  to  Joanna  Baillie  and  George  Ellis  on 
the  affairs  of  the  Peninsula — John  Struthers —  James  Hogg  — 
Visit  of  Mr.  Morritt— Mr.  Morritt's  Reminiscences  of  Ashestiel  — 
Scott's  Domestic  Life,  .  '  .  '  •  294 


CONTENTS 

OP 

VOLUME    THIRD. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1808-1809. 

MM 

Quarrel  with  Messrs.  Constable  and  Hunter  —  John  Ballantyne 
established  as  a  bookseller  in  Edinburgh  —  Scott's  Literary  Proj 
ects —  The  Edinburgh  Annual  Register,  &c. — Meeting  of  James 
Ballantyne  and  John  Murray  —  Murray's  visit  to  Ashestiel  — 
Politics  —  The  Peninsular  War —Project  of  the  Quarterly  Re 
view  —  Correspondence  with  Ellis,  Gifford,  Morritt,  Southey, 
Sharpe,  &c.  .  .  ..."  '..~ '  ~'.  '  ....  7 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
1809-1810. 

Case  of  a  Poetical  Tailor  condemned  to  Death  at  Edinburgh  —  His 
Letters  to  Scott  —  Death  of  Camp  —  Scott  in  London  —  Mr. 
Morritt's  description  of  him  as  "  a  Lion"  in  Town  —  Dinner  at 
Mr.  Sotheby's  —  Coleridge's  Fire,  Famine,  and  Slaughter  —  The 
Quarterly  Review  started  —First  Visit  to  Rokeby  —  The  Lady 
of  the  Lake  begun  —  Excursion  to  the  Trossachs  and  Loch  Lo 
mond  — Letter  on  Byron's  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Review 
ers  — Death  of  Daniel  Scott  —  Correspondence  about  Mr.  Can 
ning's  Duel  with  Lord  Castlereagh  —  Miss  Baillie's  Family 
Legend  acted  at  Edinburgh  —  Theatrical  Anecdotes  —  Kemble 
—  Siddons  —  Terry  —  Letter  on  the  Death  of  Miss  Seward,  .  49 

CHAPTER  XX. 
1810. 

Affair  of  Thomas  Scott's  Extractorship  discussed  in  the  House  of 
Lords  —  Speeches  of  Lord  Lauderdale,  Lord  Melville,  &c.  — 


VI  CONTENTS. 

PAGI 

Lord  Holland  at  the  Friday  Club— Publication  of  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake  —  Correspondence  concerning  Versification  with  Ellis 
and  Canning  —  The  Poem  criticised  by  Jeffrey  and  Mackintosh 

—  Letters  to  Southey  and  Morritt— Anecdotes  from  James  Bal- 
lantyne's  Memoranda,        .        .        .         •         .        .        .        .87 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
1810. 

First  Visit  to  the  Hebrides  —  Staffa  —  Skye  —  Mull  —  lona,  &c.— 
The  Lord  of  the  Isles  projected  —  Letters  to  Joanna  Baillie, 
Southey,  and  Morritt,  .  .  cf»ii«Y  •  •  *  '  *** 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
1810-1811. 

Life  of  Miss  Seward  —  Waverley  resumed  —  Ballantyne's  Critique 
on  the  First  Chapters  of  the  Novel  —  Waverley  again  laid  aside 

—  Unfortunate  Speculations  of  John  Baliantyne  &  Co.;  History 
of  the  Culdees;  Tixall  Poetry;  Beaumont  and  Fletcher;  Ed 
inburgh  Annual  Register,  &c.  —  Scott's  Essay  on  Judicial  Re 
form  —  His  scheme  of  going  to  India  —  Letters  on  the  War  in 
the  Peninsula—  Death  of  Lord  President  Blair  —and  of  Lord 
Melville  —  Publication  of  the  Vision  of  Don  Roderick  —  The 
Inferno  of  Altisidora,  &c.,    .        .  ...  .  135 

CHAPTER  XXHI. 

1811. 

Hew  Arrangement  concerning  the  Clerks  of  Session  —  Scott's 
first  Purchase  of  Land — Abbotsford;  Turn-again,  &c.  —  Joanna 
Baillie's  Orra,  &c.  —  Death  of  James  Grahame  —  and  of  John 
Leyden,  .  .,  .  .  .  ,*_  .161 

CHAPTER  XXIV 
1811-1812. 

the  Poem  of  Rokeby  begun  —  Correspondence  with  Mr  Morritt  — 
Death  of  Henry  Duke  of  Buccleuch  —  George  Ellis  —  John  Wil 
son  —  Apprentices  of  Edinburgh  —  Scott's  "  Nick-Nackatories  " 

—  Letter  to  Miss  Baillie  on  the  Publication  of  Childe  Harold  — 
Correspondence  with  Lord  Byron.        .        .        .  .        .  18ft 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER  XXV 
1812-1813. 

PAQI 

The  "  Flitting  "  to  Abbotsford  —  Plantations  —  George  Thomson 
— Rokeby  and  Triermain  in  progress — Excursion  to  Flodden, 
Bishop-Auckland,  and  Rokeby  Park  —  Correspondence  with 
Crabbe  —  Life  of  Patrick  Carey,  &c.  —  Publication  of  Rokeby 

—  and  of  the  Bridal  of  Triermain,        .        .        .        ,        .        .211 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
1813. 

Affairs  of  John  Ballantyne  &  Co.  —  Causes  of  their  derange 
ment  —  Letters  of  Scott  to  his  Partners  —  Negotiation  for  relief 
with  Messrs.  Constable  —  New  purchase  of  Land  at  Abbotsford 

—  Embarrassments  continued — John  Ballantyne's  Expresses — 
Drumlanrig,  Penrith,  &c.  —  Scott's  meeting  with  the  Marquis 
of  Abercorn  at  Longtown  —  His  application  to  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch  —  Offer  of  the  Poet-Laureateship  —  considered  — and  de 
clined —  Address  of  the  City  of  Edinburgh  to  the  Prince-Regent 

—  its  reception  —  Civic  Honors  conferred  on  Scott  —  Question 
of  Taxation  on  Literary  Income — Letters  to  Mr.  Morritt,  Mr. 
Southey,  Mr.  Richardson,  Mr.  Crabbe,  Miss  Baillie,  and  Lord 
Byron,  .  •       •       •        •  •  9n 


\^ 

MEMOIRS 


OF 


LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  L 

MEMOIR    OP   THE   EARLY   LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT, 
WRITTEN   BY   HIMSELF. 

Ashestiel,  April  26^,  1808. 

THE  present  age  has  discovered  a  desire,  or  rather  a 
rage,  for  literary  anecdote  and  private  history,  that  may 
be  well  permitted  to  alarm  one  who  has  engaged  in  a 
certain  degree  the  attention  of  the  public.  That  I  have 
had  more  than  my  own  share  of  popularity,  my  contem 
poraries  will  be  as  ready  to  admit,  as  I  am  to  confess 
that  its  measure  has  exceeded  not  only  my  hopes,  but  my 
merits,  and  even  wishes.  I  may  be  therefore  permitted, 
without  an  extraordinary  degree  of  vanity,  to  take  the 
precaution  of  recording  a  few  leading  circumstances 
(they  do  not  merit  the  name  of  events)  of  a  very  quiet 
and  uniform  life  —  that,  should  my  literary  reputation 
survive  my  temporal  existence,  the  public  may  know 
from  good  authority  all  that  they  are  entitled  to  know  oi 
an  individual  who  has  contributed  to  their  amusement. 

From  the  lives  of  some  poets  a  most  important  moraJ 


32  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

lesson  may  doubtless  be  derived,  and  few  sermons  can  be 
read  with  so  much  profit  as  the  Memoirs  of  Burns,  of 
Chatterton,  or  of  Savage.  Were  I  conscious  of  any 
thing  peculiar  in  my  own  moral  character  which  could 
render  such  developement  necessary  or  useful,  I  would 
as  readily  consent  to  it  as  I  would  bequeath  my  body  to 
dissection,  if  the  operation  could  tend  to  point  out  the 
nature  and  the  means  of  curing  any  peculiar  malady. 
But  as  my  habits  of  thinking  and  acting,  as  well  as  my 
rank  in  society,  were  fixed  long  before  I  had  attained,  or 
even  pretended  to,  any  poetical  reputation,*  and  as  it 
produced,  when  acquired,  no  remarkable  change  upon 
either,  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  much  informa 
tion  can  be  derived  from  minutely  investigating  frailties, 
follies,  or  vices,  not  very  different  in  number  or  degree 
from  those  of  other  men  in  my  situation.  As  I  have  not 
been  blessed  with  the  talents  of  Burns  or  Chatterton,  I 
have  been  happily  exempted  from  the  influence  of  their 
violent  passions,  exasperated  by  the  struggle  of  feelings 
which  rose  up  against  the  unjust  decrees  of  fortune.  Yet, 
although  I  cannot  tell  of  difficulties  vanquished,  and  dis 
tance  of  rank  annihilated  by  the  strength  of  genius,  those 

*  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  my  success  in  literature  has  not  led  me 
to  mix  familiarly  in  society  much  above  my  birth  and  original  preten- 
eions,  since  I  have  been  readily  received  in  the  first  circles  in  Britain. 
But  there  is  a  certain  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  world,  to  which  most 
well-educated  Scotchmen  are  early  trained,  that  prevents  them  from 
being  much  dazzled  by  this  species  of  elevation.  A  man  who  to  good 
nature  adds  the  general  rudiments  of  good  breeding,  provided  he  rest 
contented  with  a  simple  and  unaffected  manner  of  behaving  and  ex 
pressing  himself,  will  never  be  ridiculous  in  the  best  society,  and  so 
far  as  his  talents  and  information  permit,  may  be  an  agreeable  part 
of  the  company.  I  have  therefore  never  felt  much  elevated,  nor  did 
I  experience  any  violent  change  in  situation,  by  the  passport  which 
aiy  poetical  character  afforded  me  into  higher  company  than  my  birtt 
warranted.  —  [1826.] 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  33 

who  shall  hereafter  read  this  little  Memoir  may  find  in  it 
some  hints  to  be  improved,  for  the  regulation  of  theii 
own  minds,  or  the  training  those  of  others. 

Every  Scottishman  has  a  pedigree.  It  is  a  national 
prerogative  as  unalienable  as  his  pride  and  his  poverty. 
My  birth  was  neither  distinguished  nor  sordid.  Accord 
ing  to  the  prejudices  of  my  country,  it  was  esteemed 
gentle,  as  I  was  connected,  though  remotely,  with  ancient 
families  both  by  my  father's  and  mother's  side.  My 
father's  grandfather  was  Walter  Scott,  well  known  ID 
Teviotdale  by  the  surname  of  Beardie.  He  was  the 
second  son  of  Walter  Scott,  first  Laird  of  Raeburn,  who 
was  third  son  of  Sir  William  Scott,  and  the  grandson  of 
Walter  Scott,  commonly  called  in  tradition  Auld  Watt, 
of  Harden.  I  am  therefore  lineally  descended  from  that 
ancient  chieftain,  whose  name  I  have  made  to  ring  in 
many  a  ditty,  and  from  his  fair  dame,  the  Flower  of 
Yarrow  —  no  bad  genealogy  for  a  Border  minstrel. 
Beardie,  my  great-grandfather  aforesaid,  derived  his  cog 
nomen  from  a  venerable  beard,  which  he  wore  unblem 
ished  by  razor  or  scissors,  in  token  of  his  regret  for  the 
banished  dynasty  of  Stewart.  It  would  have  been  well 
that  his  zeal  had  stopped  there.  But  he  took  arms,  and 
intrigued  in  their  cause,  until  he  lost  all  he  had  in  the 
world,  and,  as  I  have  heard,  run  a  narrow  risk  of  being 
hanged,  had  it  not  been  for  the  interference  of  Anne, 
Duchess  of  Buccleuch  and  Monmouth.  Beardie's  elder 
brother,  William  Scott  of  Raeburn,  my  great-granduncle, 
was  killed  about  the  age  of  twenty-one,  in  a  duel  with 
Pringle  of  Crichton,  grandfather  of  the  present  Mark 
Pringle  of  Clifton.  They  fought  with  swords,  as  was 
the  fashion  of  the  time,  in  a  field  near  Selkirk,  called 
from  the  catastrophe  the  Eaeburn  Meadow-spot.  Pringle 

VOL.   I.  3 


34  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

fled  from  Scotland  to  Spain,  and  was  long  a  captive  and 
slave  in  Barbary.  Beardie  became,  of  course,  Tutor  of 
Raeburn,  as  the  old  Scottish  phrase  called  him  —  that 
is,  guardian  to  his  infant  nephew,  father  of  the  present 
Walter  Scott  of  Raeburn.  He  also  managed  the  estates 
of  Makerstoun,  being  nearly  related  to  that  family  by  his 
mother,  Isobel  MacDougal.  I  suppose  he  had  some 
allowance  for  his  care  in  either  case,  and  subsisted  upon 
that  and  the  fortune  which  he  had  by  his  wife,  a  Miss 
Campbell  of  Siivercraigs,  in  the  west,  through  which 
connexion  my  father  used  to  call  cousin,  as  they  say, 
with  the  Campbells  of  Blythswood.  Beardie  was  a  man 
of  some  learning,  and  a  friend  of  Dr.  JPitcairn,  to  whom 
his  politics  probably  made  him  acceptable.  They  had  a 
Tory  or  Jacobite  club  in  Edinburgh,  in  which  the  con 
versation  is  said  to  have  been  maintained  in  Latin.  Old 
Beardie  died  in  a  house,  still  standing,  at  the  north-east 
entrance  to  the  Churchyard  of  Kelso,  about  .  .  . 
[November  3,  1729.] 

He  left  three  sons.  The  eldest,  Walter,  had  a  family, 
of  which  any  that  now  remain  have  been  long  settled  in 
America  :  —  the  male  heirs  are  long  since  extinct.  The 
third  was  William,  father  of  James  Scott,  well  known  in 
India  as  one  of  the  original  settlers  of  Prince  of  Wales 
island:  —  he  had,  besides,  a  numerous  family  both  of 
sons  and  daughters,  and  died  at  Lasswade,  in  Mid- 
Lothian,  about  .... 

The  second,  Robert  Scott,  was  my  grandfather.  He 
was  originally  bred  to  the  s^a ;  but,  being  shipwrecked 
near  Dundee  in  his  trial  voyage,  he  took  such  a  sincere 
dislike  to  that  element,  that  he  could  not  be  persuaded  to 
ft  second  attempt.  This  occasioned  a  quarrel  betweer, 
him  and  his  father,  who  left  him  to  shift  for  himself 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  35 

Robert  was  one  of  those  active  spirits  to  whom  this  was 
no  misfortune.  He  turned  Whig  upon  the  spot,  and 
fairly  abjured  his  father's  politics,  and  his  learned  pov 
erty.  His  chief  and  relative,  Mr.  Scott  of  Harden,  gave 
him  a  lease  of  the  farm  of  Sandy- Knowe,  comprehending 
he  rocks  in  the  centre  of  which  Smailholm  or  Sandy- 
Knowe  Tower  is  situated.  He  took  for  his  shepherd  ai; 
old  man  called  Hogg,  who  willingly  lent  him,  out  of  re 
spect  to  his  family,  his  whole  savings,  about  £30,  to  stock 
the  new  farm.  With  this  sum,  which  it  seems  was  at  the 
time  sufficient  for  the  purpose,  the  master  and  servant 
set  off  to  purchase  a  stock  of  sheep  at  Whitsun-Tryste,  a 
fair  held  on  a  hill  near  Wooler  in  Northumberland.  The 
old  shepherd  went  carefully  from  drove  to  drove,  till  he 
found  a  hirsel  likely  to  answer  their  purpose,  and  then 
returned  to  tell  his  master  to  come  up  and  conclude  the 
bargain.  But  what  was  his  surprise  to  see  him  galloping 
a  mettled  hunter  about  the  race-course,  and  to  find  he 
had  expended  the  whole  stock  in  this  extraordinary  pur 
chase  !  —  Moses's  bargain  of  green  spectacles  did  not 
strike  more  dismay  into  the  Vicar  of  Wakefield's  family 
than  my  grandfather's  rashness  into  the  poor  old  shep 
herd.  The  thing,  however,  was  irretrievable,  and  they 
returned  without  the  sheep.  In  the  course  of  a  few  days, 
however,  my  grandfather,  who  was  one  of  the  best  horse 
men  of  his  time,  attended  John  Scott  of  Harden's  hounds 
on  this  same  horse,  and  displayed  him  to  such  advantage 
that  he  sold  him  for  double  the  original  price.  The  farm 
was  now  stocked  in  earnest ;  and  the  rest  of  my  grand 
father's  career  was  that  of  successful  industry.  He  was 
one  of  the  first  who  were  active  in  the  cattle  trade,  after 
wards  carried  to  such  extent  between  the  Highlands  of 
Scotland  and  the  leading  counties  in  England,  and  by  his 


36  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

droving  transactions  acquired  a  considerable  sum  of 
money.  He  was  a  man  of  middle  stature,  extremely 
active,  quick,  keen,  and  fiery  in  his  temper,  stubbornly 
honest,  and  so  distinguished  for  his  skill  in  country  mat 
ters,  that  he  was  the  general  referee  in  all  points  of  dis 
pute  which  occurred  in  the  neighbourhood.  His  birth 
being  admitted  as  gentle,  gave  him  access  to  the  best 
society  in  the  county,  and  his  dexterity  in  country 
sports,  particularly  hunting,  made  him  an  acceptable 
companion  in  the  field  as  well  as  at  the  table.* 

Robert  Scott  of  Sandy-Knowe,  married,  in  1728, 
Barbara  Haliburton,  daughter  of  Thomas  Haliburton  of 
Newmains,  an  ancient  and  respectable  family  in  Ber 
wickshire.  Among  other  patrimonial  possessions,  they 
enjoyed  the  part  of  Dryburgh,  now  the  property  of  the 
Earl  of  Buchan,  comprehending  the  ruins  of  the  Abbey. 
My  granduncle,  Robert  Haliburton,  having  no  male  heirs, 
this  estate,  as  well  as  the  representation  of  the  family, 
would  have  devolved  upon  my  father,  and  indeed  Old 
Newmains  had  settled  it  upon  him ;  but  this  was  pre 
vented  by  the  misfortunes  of  my  granduncle,  a  weak 
silly  man,  who  engaged  in  trade,  for  which  he  had  neither 
stock  nor  talents,  and  became  bankrupt.  The  ancient 
patrimony  was  sold  for  a  trifle  (about  £3000),  and  my 
father,  who  might  have  purchased  it  with  ease,  was  dis 
suaded  by  my  grandfather,  who  at  that  time  believed  a 
more  advantageous  purchase  might  have  been  made  of 
some  lands  which  Raeburn  thought  of  selling.  And 
thus  we  have  nothing  left  of  Dryburgh,  although  my 
father's  maternal  inheritance,  but  the  right  of  stretching 

*  The  present  Lord  Haddington,  and  other  gentlemen  conversan4 
with  the  south  country,  remember  my  grandfather  well-  He  was  a  fini 
alert  figure,  and  wore  a  jockey  cap  over  his  grey  hair.  —  [1826.] 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  37 

our  bones  where  mine  may  perhaps  be  laid  ere  any  eye 
but  my  own  glances  over  these  pages. 

Walter  Scott,  my  father,  was  born  in  1729,  and  edu 
cated  to  the  profession  of  a  Writer  to  the  Signet.  He 
was  the  eldest  of  a  large  family,  several  of  whom  I  shall 
have  occasion  to  mention  with  a  tribute  of  sincere  grati 
tude.  My  father  was  a  singular  instance  of  a  man  rising 
to  eminence  in  a  profession  for  which  nature  had  in  some 
degree  unfitted  him.  He  had  indeed  a  turn  for  labour, 
and  a  pleasure  in  analyzing  the  abstruse  feudal  doc 
trines  connected  with  conveyancing,  which  would  prob 
ably  have  rendered  him  unrivalled  in  the  line  of  a 
special  pleader,  had  there  been  such  a  profession  in 
Scotland ;  but  in  the  actual  business  of  the  profession 
which  he  embraced,  in  that  sharp  and  intuitive  percep 
tion  which  is  necessary  in  driving  bargains  for  himself 
and  others,  in  availing  himself  of  the  wants,  necessities, 
caprices,  and  follies  of  some,  and  guarding  against  the 
knavery  and  malice  of  others,  Uncle  Toby  himself  could 
not  have  conducted  himself  with  more  simplicity  than  my 
father.  Most  attorneys  have  been  suspected,  more  or 
less  justly,  of  making  their  own  fortune  at  the  expense  of 
their  clients  —  my  father's  fate  was  to  vindicate  his  call 
ing  from  the  stain  in  one  instance,  for  in  many  cases  his 
clients  contrived  to  ease  him  of  considerable  sums. 
Many  worshipful  and  be-knighted  names  occur  to  my 
memory,  who  did  him  the  honour  to  run  in  his  debt  to 
the  amount  of  thousands,  and  to  pay  him  with  a  lawsuit, 
or  a  commission  of  bankruptcy,  as  the  case  happened. 
But  they  are  gone  to  a  different  accounting,  and  it  would 
be  ungenerous  to  visit  their  disgrace  upon  their  descend 
ants.  My  father  was  wont  also  to  give  openings,  to  those 
who  were  pleased  to  take  them,  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

him.  Ho  had  a  zeal  for  his  clients  which  was  almost 
ludicrous :  far  from  coldly  discharging  the  duties  of  his 
employment  towards  them,  he  thought  for  them,  felt  for 
their  honour  as  for  his  own,  and  rather  risked  disobliging 
them  than  neglecting  anything  to  which  he  conceived 
their  duty  bound  them.  If  there  was  an  old  mother  or 
aunt  to  be  maintained,  he  was,  I  am  afraid,  too  apt  to 
administer  to  their  necessities  from  what  the  young  heir 
had  destined  exclusively  to  his  pleasures.  This  ready 
discharge  of  obligations  which  the  Civilians  tell  us  are 
only  natural  and  not  legal,  did  not,  I  fear,  recommend 
him  to  his  employers.  Yet  his  practice  was,  at  one  pe 
riod  of  his  life,  very  extensive.  He  understood  his  busi 
ness  theoretically,  and  was  early  introduced  to  it  by  a 
partnership  with  George  Chalmers,  Writer  to  the  Signet 
under  whom  he  had  served  his  apprenticeship. 

His  person  and  face  were  uncommonly  handsome,  witfc 
an  expression  of  sweetness  of  temper,  which  was  not  fal 
lacious  ;  his  manners  were  rather  formal,  but  full  of  gen 
uine  kindness,  especially  when  exercising  the  duties  ol 
hospitality.  His  general  habits  were  not  only  temperate, 
but  severely  abstemious;  but  upon  a  festival  occasion, 
there  were  few  whom  a  moderate  glass  of  wine  exhila 
rated  to  such  a  lively  degree.  His  religion,  in  which  he 
was  devoutly  sincere,  was  Calvinism  of  the  strictest  kind, 
and  his  favourite  study  related  to  church  history.  I  sus 
pect  the  good  old  man  was  often  engaged  with  Knox  and 
Spottiswoode's  folios,  when,  immured  in  his  solitary 
room,  he  was  supposed  to  be  immersed  in  professional 
researches.  In  his  political  principles  he  was  a  steady 
friend  to  freedom,  with  a  bias,  however,  to  the  monarchi 
cal  part  of  our  constitution,  which  he  considered  as  pecu 
liarly  exposed  to  danger  during  the  later  years  of  hii 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  39 

life.  He  had  much  of  ancient  Scottish  prejudice  respect 
ing  the  forms  of  marriages,  funerals,  christenings,  and  so 
forth,  and  was  always  vexed  at  any  neglect  of  etiquette 
upon  such  occasions.  As  his  education  had  not  been 
upon  an  enlarged  plan,  it  could  not  be  expected  that  he 
should  be  an  enlightened  scholar,  but  he  had  not  passed 
through  a  busy  life  without  observation  ;  and  his  remarks 
upon  times  and  manners  often  exhibited  strong  traits  of 
practical  though  untaught  philosophy.  Let  me  conclude 
this  sketch,  which  I  am  unconscious  of  having  over 
charged,  with  a  few  lines  written  by  the  late  Mrs.  Cock- 
burn  *  upon  the  subject.  They  made  one  among  a  set 
of  poetical  characters  which  were  given  as  toasts  among  a 
few  friends ;  and  we  must  hold  them  to  contain  a  strik 
ing  likeness,  since  the  original  was  recognised  so  soon  as 
they  were  read  aloud :  — 


"  To  a  thing  that's  uncommon  — 
A  youth  of  discretion, 
Who,  though  vastly  handsome,- 
Despises  flirtation : 
To  the  friend  in  affliction, 
The  heart  of  affection, 
Who  may  hear  the  last  trump 
Without  dread  of  detection." 

In  [April  1758]  my  father  married  Anne  Rutherford, 
eldest  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Rutherford,  professor  of 
medicine  hi  the  University  of  Edinburgh.  He  was  one 
of  those  pupils  of  Boerhaave,  to  whom  the  school  of 
medicine  in  our  northern  metropolis  owes  its  rise,  and  a 
man  distinguished  for  professional  talent,  for  lively  wit, 

*  Mrs.  Cockburn  (born  Miss  Rutherford  of  Fairnalie)  was  the  au 
thoress  of  the  beautiful  song  — 

"  I  have  seen  the  smiling 
Of  fortune  beguiling."  —  [1826.] 


40  LIFE    OP    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  for  literary  acquirements.  Dr.  Rutherford  was 
twice  married.  His  first  wife,  of  whom  my  mother  is 
the  sole  surviving  child,  was  a  daughter  of  Sir  John 
Swinton  of  Swinton,  a  family  which  produced  many  dis 
tinguished  warriors  during  the  middle  ages,  and  which, 
for  antiquity  and  honourable  alliances,  may  rank  with 
any  in  Britain.  My  grandfather's  second  wife  was  Miss 
Mackay,  by  whom  he  had  a  second  family,  of  whom  are 
now  (1808)  alive,  Dr.  Daniel  Rutherford,  professor  of 
botany  in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  Misses  Janet 
and  Christian  Rutherford,  amiable  and  accomplished 
women. 

My  father  and  mother  had  a  very  numerous  family, 
no  fewer,  I  believe,  than  twelve  children,  of  whom  many 
were  highly  promising,  though  only  five  survived  very 
early  youth.  My  eldest  brother  (that  is,  the  eldest  whom 
I  remember  to  have  seen)  was  Robert  Scott,  so  called 
after  my  uncle,  of  whom  I  shall  have  much  to  say  here 
after.  He  was  bred  in  the  King's  service,  under  Admiral, 
then  Captain  William  Dickson,  and  was  in  most  of  Rod 
ney's  battles.  His  temper  was  bold  and  haughty,  and  to 
me  was  often  checkered  with  what  I  felt  to  be  capricious 
tyranny.  In  other  respects  I  loved  him  much,  for  he 
had  a  strong  turn  for  literature,  read  poetry  with  taste 
and  judgment,  and  composed  verses  himself,  which  had 
gained  him  great  applause  among  his  messmates.  Wit 
ness  the  following  elegy  upon  the  supposed  loss  of  the 
vessel,  composed  the  night  before  Rodney's  celebrated 
battle  of  April  the  12th,  1782.  It  alludes  to  the  varioui 
amusements  of  his  mess :  — 

"  No  more  the  geese  shall  cackle  on  the  poop, 

No  more  the  hagpipe  through  the  orlop  sound, 
No  more  the  midshipmen,  a  jovial  group, 

Shall  toast  the  girls,  and  push  the  bottle  round. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  41 

In  death's  dark  road  at  anchor  fast  they  stay, 
Till  Heaven's  loud  signal  shall  in  thunder  roar; 

Then  starting  up,  all  hands  shall  quick  obey, 
Sheet  home  the  topsail,  and  with  speed  unmoor." 

Robert  sung  agreeably  —  (a  virtue  which  was  never  seen 
in  me)  —  understood  the  mechanical  arts,  and  when  in 
good  humour,  could  regale  us  with  many  a  tale  of  bold 
adventure  and  narrow  escapes.  When  in  bad  humour, 
however,  he  gave  us  a  practical  taste  of  what  was  then 
man-of-war's  discipline,  and  kicked  and  cuffed  without 
mercy.  I  have  often  thought  how  he  might  have  dis 
tinguished  himself,  had  he  continued  in  the  navy  until 
the  present  times,  so  glorious  for  nautical  exploit.  But 
the  peace  of  Paris  [Versailles,  1783]  cut  off  all  hopes 
of  promotion  for  those  who  had  not  great  interest ;  and 
some  disgust  which  his  proud  spirit  had  taken  at  harsh 
usage  from  a  superior  officer,  combined  to  throw  poor 
Robert  into  the  East-India  Company's  service,  for  which 
his  habits  were  ill  adapted.  He  made  two  voyages  to 
the  East,  and  died  a  victim  to  the  climate  in 

John  Scott,  my  second  brother,  is  about  three  years 
older  than  me.  He  addicted  himself  to  the  military  ser 
vice,  and  is  now  brevet-major  in  the  73d  regiment.* 

I  had  an  only  sister,  Anne  Scott,  who  seemed  to  be 
from  her  cradle  the  butt  for  mischance  to  shoot  arrows 
at.  Her  childhood  was  marked  by  perilous  escapes  from 
the  most  extraordinary  accidents.  Among  others,  I  re 
member  an  iron-railed  door  leading  into  the  area  in  the 
centre  of  George's  Square  being  closed  by  the  wind, 

*  He  was  this  year  made  major  of  the  second  battalion,  by  the  kind 
intercession  of  Mr.  Canning  at  the  War-Office  — 1809.  He  retired 
from  the  army,  and  kept  house  with  my  mother.  His  health  waa 
totally  broken,  and  he  died,  yet  a  young  .-nan,  on  8th  May,  1816.  — 
[1826.] 


42  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

while  her  fingers  were  betwixt  the  hasp  and  staple, 
Her  hand  was  thus  locked  in,  and  must  have  been 
smashed  to  pieces,  had  not  the  bones  of  her  fingers  been 
remarkably  slight  and  thin.  As  it  was,  the  hand  was 
cruelly  mangled.  On  another  occasion  she  was  nearly 
drowned  in  a  pond,  or  old  quarry-hole,  in  what  was  then 
called  Brown's  Park,  on  the  south  side  of  the  square. 
But  the  most  unfortunate  accident,  and  which,  though  it 
happened  while  she  was  only  six  years  old,  proved  the 
remote  cause  of  her  death,  was  her  cap  accidentally 
taking  fire.  The  child  was  alone  in  the  room,  and  before 
assistance  could  be  obtained,  her  head  was  dreadfully 
scorched.  After  a  lingering  and  dangerous  illness,  she 
recovered  —  but  never  to  enjoy  perfect  health.  The 
slightest  cold  occasioned  swellings  in  her  face,  and  other 
indications  of  a  delicate  constitution.  At  length,  in 
[1801],  poor  Anne  was  taken  ill,  and  died  after  a  very 
short  interval.  Her  temper,  like  that  of  her  brothers, 
was  peculiar,  and  in  her,  perhaps,  it  showed  more  odd, 
from  the  habits  of  indulgence  which  her  nervous  illnesses 
had  formed.  But  she  was  at  heart  an  affectionate  and 
kind  girl,  neither  void  of  talent  nor  of  feeling,  though 
living  in  an  ideal  world  which  she  had  framed  to  herself 
by  the  force  of  imagination.  Anne  was  my  junior  by 
about  a  year. 

A  year  lower  in  the  list  was  my  brother  Thomaa 
Scott,  who  is  still  alive.* 

*  Poor  Tom,  a  man  of  infinite  humour  and  excellent  parts,  pursued 
for  some  time  my  father's  profession,  but  he  was  unfortunate,  from  en 
gaging  in  speculations  respecting  farms  and  matters  out  of  the  line  of 
his  proper  business.  He  afterwards  became  paymaster  of  the  70th  regi« 
ment,  and  died  in  Canada.  Tom  married  Elizabeth,  a  daughter  of 
the  family  of  M'Culloch  of  Ardwell,  an  ancient  Galwegian  stock,  by 
whom  he  left  a  son,  Walter  Scott,  now  second  lieutenant  of  Engineer! 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  43 

Last,  and  most  unfortunate  of  our  family,  was  my 
youngest  brother  Daniel.  With  the  same  aversion  to 
labour,  or  rather,  I  should  say,  the  same  determined  indo 
lence  that  marked  us  all,  he  had  neither  the  vivacity  of 
intellect  which  supplies  the  want  of  diligence,  nor  the 
pride  which  renders  the  most  detested  labour  better  than 
dependence  or  contempt.  His  career  was  as  unfortunate 
as  might  be  augured  from  such  an  unhappy  combination  ; 
and  after  various  unsuccessful  attempts  to  establish  him 
self  in  life,  he  died  on  his  return  from  the  West  Indies, 
in  [July  1806]. 

Having  premised  so  much  of  my  family,  I  return  to 
my  own  story.  I  was  born,  as  I  believe,  on  the  15th 
August  1771,  in  a  house  belonging  to  my  father,  at  the 
head  of  the  College  Wynd.  It  was  pulled  down,  with 
others,  to  make  room  for  the  northern  front  of  the  new 
College.  I  was  an  uncommonly  healthy  child,  but  had 
nearly  died  in  consequence  of  my  first  nurse  being  ill  of 
a  consumption,  a  circumstance  which  she  chose  to  conceal, 
though  to  do  so  was  murder  to  both  herself  and  me. 
She  went  privately  to  consult  Dr.  Black,  the  celebrated 
professor  of  chemistry,  who  put  my  father  on  his  guard. 
The  woman  was  dismissed,  and  I  was  consigned  to  a 
healthy  peasant,  who  is  still  alive  to  boast  of  her  laddie 
being  what  she  calls  a  grand  gentleman.*  I  showed 
every  sign  of  health  and  strength  until  I  was  about  eigh 
teen  months  old.  One  night,  I  have  been  often  told,  I 
showed  great  reluctance  to  be  caught  and  put  to  bed ;  and 
after  being  chased  about  the  room,  was  apprehended  and 

te  the  East  India  Company's  service,  Bombay  —  and  three  daughters  t 

Jessie,  married  to  Lieutenant-Colonel  Huxley;  2.  Anne ;  3.  Eliza  — 

the  two  last  still  unmarried.  — 

*  She  died  in  1810.  —  [1826.] 


44  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

consigned  to  my  dormitory  with  some  difficulty.  It  waa 
the  last  time  I  was  to  show  such  personal  agility.  In  the 
morning,  I  was  discovered  to  be  affected  with  the  fever 
which  often  accompanies  the  cutting  of  large  teeth.  It 
held  me  three  days.  On  the  fourth,  when  they  went  to 
bathe  me  as  usual,  they  discovered  that  I  had  lost  the 
power  of  my  right  leg.  My  grandfather,  an  excellent 
anatomist  as  well  as  physician,  the  late  worthy  Alexan 
der  Wood,  and  many  others  of  the  most  respectable  of 
the  faculty,  were  consulted.  There  appeared  to  be  no 
dislocation  or  sprain  ;  blisters  and  other  topical  remedies 
were  applied  in  vain.  When  the  efforts  of  regular  phy 
sicians  had  been  exhausted,  without  the  slightest  success, 
my  anxious  parents,  during  the  course  of  many  year^ 
eagerly  grasped  at  every  prospect  of  cure  which  was 
held  out  by  the  promise  of  empirics,  or  of  ancient  ladies 
or  gentlemen  who  conceived  themselves  entitled  to  rec 
ommend  various  remedies,  some  of  which  were  of  a  na 
ture  sufficiently  singular.  But  the  advice  of  my  grand 
father,  Dr.  Rutherford,  that  I  should  be  sent  to  reside  in 
the  country,  to  give  the  chance  of  natural  exertion,  ex 
cited  by  free  air  and  liberty,  was  first  resorted  to ;  and 
before  I  have  the  recollection  of  the  slightest  event,  I 
was,  agreeably  to  this  friendly  counsel,  an  inmate  in  the 
farm-house  of  Sandy-Knowe. 

An  odd  incident  is  worth  recording.  It  seems  my 
mother  had  sent  a  maid  to  take  charge  of  me,  that  I 
might  be  no  inconvenience  in  the  family.  But  the  dam- 
gel  sent  on  that  important  mission  had  left  her  heart 
behind  her,  in  the  keeping  of  some  wild  fellow,  it  is 
likely,  who  had  done  and  said  more  to  her  than  he  was 
like  to  make  good.  She  became  extremely  desirous  to 
return  to  Edinburgh,  and  as  my  mother  made  a  point  of 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  45 

her  remaining  where  she  was,  she  contracted  a  sort  ot 
hatred  at  poor  me,  as  the  cause  of  her  being  detained  at 
Sandy-Knowe.  This  rose,  I  suppose,  to  a  sort  of  deliri 
ous  affection,  for  she  confessed  to  old  Alison  Wilson,  the 
housekeeper,  that  she  had  carried  me  up  to  the  Craigs, 
meaning,  under  a  strong  temptation  of  the  Devil,  to  cut 
my  throat  with  her  scissors,  and  bury  me  in  the  moss. 
Alison  instantly  took  possession  of  my  person,  and  took 
care  that  her  confidant  should  not  be  subject  to  any 
farther  temptation,  so  far  as  I  was  concerned.  She  was 
dismissed,  of  course,  and  I  have  heard  became  afterwards 
a  lunatic. 

It  is  here  at  Sandy-Knowe,  in  the  residence  of  my 
paternal  grandfather,  already  mentioned,  that  I  have  the 
first  consciousness  of  existence  ;  and  I  recollect  distinctly 
that  my  situation  and  appearance  were  a  little  whimsical 
Among  the  odd  remedies  recurred  to  to  aid  my  lameness, 
some  one  had  recommended  that  so  often  as  a  sheep  was 
killed  for  the  use  of  the  family,  I  should  be  stripped,  and 
swathed  up  in  the  skin,  warm  as  it  was  flayed  from  the 
carcase  of  the  animal.  In  this  Tartar-like  habiliment  I 
well  remember  lying  upon  the  floor  of  the  little  parlour 
in  the  farm-house,  while  my  grandfather,  a  venerable  old 
tnan  with  white  hair,  used  every  excitement  to  make  me 
try  to  crawl.  I  also  distinctly  remember  the  late  Sir 
George  MacDougal  of  Makerstoun,  father  of  the  present 
Sir  Henry  Hay  MacDougal,  joining  in  this  kindly  at 
tempt.  He  was,  God  knows  how,*  a  relation  of  ours. 

*  He  was  a  second  cousin  of  my  grandfather's.  Isobel  MacDougal, 
wrife  of  Walter,  the  first  Laird  of  Raeburn,  and  mother  of  Walter  Scott, 
called  Beardie,  was  grand  aunt,  I  take  it,  to  the  late  Sir  George  Mao 
Oougal.  There  was  always  great  friendship  between  us  and  the 
Makerstoun  family.  It  singularly  happened,  that  at  the  burial  of  the 
ate  Sir  Henry  MacDougal,  my  cousin  William  Scott  younger  of  Rae 


46  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  I  still  recollect  him  in  his  old-fashioned  military  habit 
(he  had  been  colonel  of  the  Greys),  with  a  small  cocked 
hat,  deeply  laced,  an  embroidered  scarlet  waistcoat,  and  a 
light-coloured  coat,  with  milk-white  locks  tied  in  a  military 
fashion,  kneeling  on  the  ground  before  me,  and  dragging 
his  watch  along  the  carpet  to  induce  me  to  follow  it. 
The  benevolent  old  soldier  and  the  infant  wrapped  in  his 
sheepskin  would  have  afforded  an  odd  group  to  uninter 
ested  spectators.  This  must  have  happened  about  my 
third  year,  for  Sir  George  MacDougal  and  my  grand 
father  both  died  shortly  after  that  period. 

My  grandmother  continued  for  some  years  to  take 
charge  of  the  farm,  assisted  by  my  father's  second  brother, 
Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  who  resided  at  Crailing,  as  factor  or 
land-steward  for  Mr.  Scott  of  Danesfield,  then  proprietor 
of  that  estate.*  This  was  during  the  heat  of  the  Ameri 
can  war,  and  I  remember  being  as  anxious  on  my  uncle's 
weekly  visits  (for  we  heard  news  at  no  other  time)  to 
hear  of  the  defeat  of  Washington,  as  if  I  had  had  some 
deep  and  personal  cause  of  antipathy  to  him.  I  know 
not  how  this  was  combined  with  a  very  strong  prejudice 
in  favour  of  the  Stuart  family,  which  I  had  originally 
imbibed  from  the  songs  and  tales  of  the  Jacobites.  This 
latter  political  propensity  was  deeply  confirmed  by  the 
stories  told  in  my  hearing  of  the  cruelties  exercised  in 

burn,  and  I  myself,  were  the  nearest  blood-relations  present,  although 
our  connexion  was  of  so  old  a  date,  and  ranked  as  pall-bearers  ac 
cordingly.  —  [1826.] 

*  My  uncle  afterwards  resided  at  Elliston,  and  then  took  from  Mr. 
Cornelius  Elliot  the  estate  of  Woollee.  Finally  he  retired  to  Monklaw 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jedburgh,  where  he  died,  1823,  at  the  ad 
vanced  age  of  ninety  years,  and  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties.  It 
was  a  fine  thing  to  hear  him  talk  over  the  change  of  the  country  which 
he  had  witnessed.  —  [1826."1 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  47 

the  executions  at  Carlisle,  and  in  the  Highlands,  after 
the  battle  of  Culloden.  One  or  two  of  our  own  distant 
relations  had  fallen  on  that  occasion,  and  I  remember  of 
detesting  the  name  of  Cumberland  with  more  than  infant 
hatred.  Mr.  Curie,  farmer  at  Yetbyre,  husband  of  one 
of  my  aunts,  had  been  present  at  their  execution  ;  and  It 
was  probably  from  him  that  I  first  heard  these  tragic 
tales  which  made  so  great  an  impression  on  me.  The 
local  information,  which  I  conceive  had  some  share  in 
forming  my  future  taste  and  pursuits,  I  derived  from  the 
old  songs  and  tales  which  then  formed  the  amusement  of 
a  retired  country  family.  My  grandmother,  in  whose 
youth  the  old  Border  depredations  were  matter  of  recent 
tradition,  used  to  tell  me  many  a  tale  of  Watt  of  Harden, 
Wight  Willie  of  Aikwood,  Jamie  Telfer  of  the  fair  Dod- 
head,  and  other  heroes  —  merrymen  all  of  the  persuasion 
and  calling  of  Robin  Hood  and  Little  John.  A  more 
recent  hero,  but  not  of  less  note,  was  the  celebrated  Diel 
of  Littledean,  whom  she  well  remembered,  as  he  had 
married  her  mother's  sister.  Of  this  extraordinary  per 
son  I  learned  many  a  story,  grave  and  gay,  comic  and 
warlike.  Two  or  three  old  books  which  lay  in  the 
window-seat  were  explored  for  my  amusement  in  the 
tedious  winter-days.  Automathes,  and  Ramsay's  Tea- 
table  Miscellany,  were  my  favourites,  although  at  a  later 
period  an  odd  volume  of  Josephus's  Wars  of  the  Jews 
divided  my  partiality. 

My  kind  and  affectionate  aunt,  Miss  Janet  Scott,  whose 
memory  will  ever  be  dear  to  me,  used  to  read  these  works 
to  me  with  admirable  patience,  until  I  could  repeat  long 
passages  by  heart.  The  ballad  of  Hardyknute  I  was 
*arly  master  of,  to  the  great  annoyance  of  almost  our 
only  visiter,  the  worthy  clergyman  of  the  parish,  Dr. 


48  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Duncan,  who  had  not  patience  to  have  a  sober  chat  inter 
rupted  by  my  shouting  forth  this  ditty.  Methinks  I  now 
Bee  his  tall  thin  emaciated  figure,  his  legs  cased  in  clasped 
gambadoes,  and  his  face  of  a  length  that  would  have 
rivalled  the  Knight  of  La  Mancha's,  and  hear  him  ex 
claiming,  "  One  may  as  well  speak  in  the  mouth  of  a 
cannon  as  where  that  child  is."  With  this  little  acidity, 
which  was  natural  to  him,  he  was  a  most  excellent  and 
benevolent  man,  a  gentleman  in  every  feeling,  and  alto 
gether  different  from  those  of  his  order  who  cringe  at  the 
tables  of  the  gentry,  or  domineer  and  riot  at  those  of  the 
yeomanry.  In  his  youth  he  had  been  chaplain  in  the 
family  of  Lord  Marchmont  - —  had  seen  Pope  —  and 
could  talk  familiarly  of  many  characters  who  had  sur 
vived  the  Augustan  age  of  Queen  Anne.  Though  val 
etudinary,  he  lived  to  be  nearly  ninety,  and  to  welcome 
to  Scotland  his  son,  Colonel  William  Duncan,  who,  with 
the  highest  character  for  military  and  civil  merit,  had 
made  a  considerable  fortune  in  India.  In  [1795],  a  few 
days  before  his  death,  I  paid  him  a  visit,  to  inquire  after 
his  health.  I  found  him  emaciated  to  the  last  degree, 
wrapped  in  a  tartan  night-gown,  and  employed  with  all 
the  activity  of  health  and  youth  in  correcting  a  history 
of  the  Revolution,  which  he  intended  should  be  given  to 
the  public  when  he  was  no  more.  He  read  me  several 
passages  with  a  voice  naturally  strong,  and  which  the 
feelings  of  an  author  then  raised  above  the  depression  of 
age  and  declining  health.  I  begged  him  to  spare  this 
fatigue,  which  could  not  but  injure  his  health.  His 
answer  was  remarkable.  "  I  know,"  he  said,  "  that  I 
cannot  survive  a  fortnight  —  and  what  signifies  i;ii  exer 
tion  that  can  at  worst  only  accelerate  my  death  a  few 
days  ? "  I  marvelled  at  the  composure  of  this  reply,  foi 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  49 

his  appearance  sufficiently  vouched  the  truth  of  his 
prophecy,  and  rode  home  to  my  uncle's  (then  my  abode), 
musing  what  there  could  be  in  the  spirit  of  authorship 
that  could  inspire  its  votaries  with  the  courage  of  mar 
tyrs.  He  died  within  less  than  the  period  he  assigned  — 
with  which  event  I  close  my  digression. 

I  was  in  my  fourth  year  when  my  father  was  advised 
that  the  Bath  waters  might  be  of  some  advantage  to  my 
lameness.  My  affectionate  aunt,  although  such  a  journey 
promised  to  a  person  of  her  retired  habits  any  thing  but 
pleasure  or  amusement,  undertook  as  readily  to  accom 
pany  me  to  the  wells  of  Bladud,  as  if  she  had  expected 
all  the  delight  that  ever  the  prospect  of  a  watering-place 
held  out  to  its  most  impatient  visitants.  My  health  was 
by  this  time  a  good  deal  confirmed  by  the  country  air, 
and  the  influence  of  that  imperceptible  and  unfatiguing 
exercise  to  which  the  good  sense  of  my  grandfather  had 
subjected  me ;  for  when  the  day  was  fine,  I  was  usually 
carried  out  and  laid  down  beside  the  old  shepherd,  among 
the  crags  or  rocks  round  which  he  fed  his  sheep.  The 
impatience  of  a  child  soon  inclined  me  to  struggle  with 
my  infirmity,  and  I  began  by  degrees  to  stand,  to  walk, 
and  to  run.  Although  the  limb  affected  was  much  shrunk 
and  contracted,  my  general  health,  which  was  of  more 
importance,  was  much  strengthened  by  being  frequently 
in  the  open  air,  and,  in  a  word,  I  who  in  a  city  had  prob 
ably  been  condemned  to  hopeless  and  helpless  decrepi 
tude,  was  now  a  healthy,  high-spirited,  and,  my  lameness 
fcpart,  a  sturdy  child  —  non  sine  diis  animosus  in/am. 

We  went  to  London  by  sea,  and  it  may  gratify  the  cu 
riosity  of  minute  biographers  to  learn,  that  our  voyage 
was  performed  in  the  Duchess  of  Buccleuch,  Captain 
Beatson,  master.  At  London  we  made  a  short  stay,  and 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

saw  some  of  the  common  shows  exhibited  to  strangeis 
When,  twenty-five  years  afterwards,  I  visited  the  Towei 
of  London  and  Westminster  Abbey,  I  was  astonished  to 
find  how  accurate  my  recollections  of  these  celebrated 
places  of  visitation  proved  to  be,  and  I  have  ever  since 
trusted  more  implicitly  to  my  juvenile  reminiscences, 
At  Bath,  where  I  lived  about  a  year,  I  went  through  all 
the  usual  discipline  of  the  pump-room  and  baths,  but 
I  believe  without  the  least  advantage  to  my  lameness. 
During  my  residence  at  Bath,  I  acquired  the  rt  diments 
of  reading  at  a  day-school,  kept  by  an  old  dame  near  our 
lodgings,  and  I  had  never  a  more  regular  teacher,  al 
though  I  think  I  did  not  attend  her  a  quarter  of  a  year. 
An  occasional  lesson  from  my  aunt  supplied  the  rest. 
Afterwards,  when  grown  a  big  boy,  I  had  a  few  lessons 
from  Mr.  Stalker  of  Edinburgh,  and  finally  from  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Cleeve.  But  I  never  acquired  a  just  pronun 
ciation,  nor  could  I  read  with  much  propriety. 

In  other  respects  my  residence  at  Bath  is  marked  by 
very  pleasing  recollections.  The  venerable  John  Home, 
author  of  Douglas,  was  then  at  the  watering-place,  and 
paid  much  attention  to  my  aunt  and  to  me.  His  wife, 
who  has  survived  him,  was  then  an  invalid,  and  used  to 
take  the  air  in  her  carriage  on  the  Downs,  when  I  was 
often  invited  to  accompany  her.  But  the  most  delightful 
recollections  of  Bath  are  dated  after  the  arrival  of  my 
uncle,  Captain  Robert  Scott,  who  introduced  me  to  all 
the  little  amusements  which  suited  my  age,  and  above 
all,  to  the  theatre.  The  play  was  As  You  Like  It ;  and 
the  witchery  of  the  whole  scene  is  alive  in  my  mind  at 
this  moment.  I  made,  I  believe,  noise  more  than  enough, 
and  remember  being  so  much  scandalized  at  the  quarrel 
Orlando  and  his  brother  in  the  first  scene,  tha, 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  51 

I  screamed  out,  "  A'n't  they  brothers  ?  "  A  few  weeks' 
residence  at  home  convinced  me,  who  had  till  then  been 
an  only  child  in  the  house  of  my  grandfather,  that  a  quar 
rel  between  brothers  was  a  very  natural  event. 

The  other  circumstances  I  recollect  of  my  residence  in 
Bath  are  but  trifling,  yet  I  never  recall  them  without  a 
feeling  of  pleasure.  The  beauties  of  the  parade  (which 
of  them  I  know  not),  with  the  river  Avon  winding 
around  it,  and  the  lowing  of  the  cattle  from  the  opposite 
hills,  are  warm  in  my  recollection,  and  are  only  rivalled 
by  the  splendours  of  a  toy-shop  somewhere  near  the 
Orange  Grove.  I  had  acquired,  I  know  not  by  what 
means,  a  kind  of  superstitious  terror  for  statuary  of  all 
kinds.  No  ancient  Iconoclast  or  modern  Calvinist  could 
have  looked  on  the  outside  of  the  Abbey  church  (if  I 
mistake  not,  the  principal  church  at  Bath  is  so  called) 
with  more  horror  than  the  image  of  Jacob's  Ladder,  with 
all  its  angels,  presented  to  my  infant  eye.  My  uncle 
effectually  combated  my  terrors,  and  formally  introduced 
me  to  a  statue  of  Neptune,  which  perhaps  still  keeps 
guard  at  the  side  of  the  Avon,  where  a  pleasure  boat 
crosses  to  Spring  Gardens. 

After  being  a  year  at  Bath,  I  returned  first  to  Edin 
burgh,  and  afterwards  for  a  season  to  Sandy-Knowe ;  — 
and  thus  the  time  whiled  away  till  about  my  eighth  year, 
when  it  was  thought  sea-bathing  might  be  of  service  to 
aiy  lameness. 

For  this  purpose,  still  under  my  aunt's  protection,  I 
remained  some  weeks  at  Prestonpans,  a  circumstance  not 
worth  mentioning,  excepting  to  record  my  juvenile  inti- 
nacy  with  an  old  military  veteran,  Dalgetty  by  name, 
who  had  pitched  his  tent  in  that  little  village,  after 
all  his  campaigns,  subsisting  upon  an  ensign's  half-pay, 


52  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

though  called  by  courtesy  a  Captain.  As  this  old  gen 
tleman,  who  had  been  in  all  the  German  wars,  found  very 
few  to  listen  to  his  tales  of  military  feats,  he  formed  a 
sort  of  alliance  with  me,  and  I  used  invariably  to  attend 
him  for  the  pleasure  of  hearing  those  communications. 
Sometimes  our  conversation  turned  on  the  American 
war,  which  was  then  raging.  It  was  about  the  time  of 
Burgoyne's  unfortunate  expedition,  to  which  my  Captain 
and  I  augured  different  conclusions.  Somebody  had 
showed  me  a  map  of  North  America,  and,  struck  with  the 
rugged  appearance  of  the  country,  and  the  quantity  of 
lakes,  I  expressed  some  doubts  on  the  subject  of  the  Gen 
eral's  arriving  safely  at  the  end  of  his  journey,  which 
were  very  indignantly  refuted  by  the  Captain.  The 
news  of  the  Saratoga  disaster,  while  it  gave  me  a  little 
triumph,  rather  shook  my  intimacy  with  the  veteran.* 

*  Besides  this  veteran,  I  found  another  ally  at  Prestonpans,  in  the 
person  of  George  Constable,  an  old  friend  of  my  father's,  educated  to 
the  law,  but  retired  upon  his  independent  property,  and  generally  re 
siding  near  Dundee.  He  had  many  of  those  peculiarities  of  temper 
which  long  afterwards  I  tried  to  develope  in  the  character  of  Jonathan 
Oldbuck.  It  is  very  odd,  that  though  I  am  unconscious  of  any  thing  in 
which  I  strictly  copied  the  manners  of  my  old  friend,  the  resemblance 
was  nevertheless  detected  by  George  Chalmers,  Esq.,  solicitor,  London, 
an  old  friend,  both  of  my  father  and  Mr.  Constable,  and  who  affirmed 
to  my  late  friend,  Lord  Kinedder,  that  I  must  needs  be  the  author  of 
The  Antiquary,  since  he  recognized  the  portrait  of  George  Constable. 
But  my  friend  George  was  not  so  decided  an  enemy  to  womankind  as 
his  representative  Monkbarns.  On  the  contrary,  I  rather  suspect  that 
he  had  a  tendresse  for  my  Aunt  Jenny,  who  even  then  was  a  most  beau 
tiful  woman,  though  somewhat  advanced  in  life.  To  the  close  of  her 
\ife,  she  had  the  finest  eyes  and  teeth  I  ever  saw,  and  though  she  could 
be  sufficiently  sharp  when  she  had  a  mind,  her  general  behaviour  was 
genteel  and  ladylike.  However  this  might  be,  I  derived  a  great  deal 
of  curious  information  from  George  Constable,  both  at  this  early  period, 
and  afterwards.  He  was  constantly  philandering  about  my  aunt,  and 
of  course  very  kind  to  me.  He  was  the  first  person  who  told  me  abouf 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  53 

From  Prestonpans  I  was  transported  back  to  my  fa 
ther's  house  in  George's  Square,  which  continued  to  be 
my  most  established  place  of  residence,  until  my  mar 
riage  in  1797.  I  felt  the  change  from  being  a  single 
indulged  brat,  to  becoming  a  member  of  a  large  family, 
very  severely ;  for  under  the  gentle  government  of  my 
kind  grandmother,  who  was  meekness  itself,  and  of  my 
aunt,  who,  though  of  an  higher  temper,  was  exceedingly 

Falstaff  and  Hotspur,  and  other  characters  in  Shakspeare.  What  idea 
I  annexed  to  them  I  know  not;  but  I  must  have  annexed  some,  for  I 
remember  quite  well  being  interested  on  the  subject.  Indeed,  I  rather 
Buspect  that  children  derive  impulses  of  a  powerful  and  important  kind 
in  hearing  things  which  they  cannot  entirely  comprehend ;  and  there 
fore,  that  to  write  down  to  children's  understanding  is  a  mistake:  set 
them  on  the  scent,  and  let  them  puzzle  it  out.  To  return  to  George 
Constable,  I  knew  him  well  at  a  much  later  period.  He  used  always 
to  dine  at  my  father's  house  of  a  Sunday,  and  was  authorized  to  turn 
the  conversation  out  of  the  austere  and  Calvinistic  tone,  which  it  usu 
ally  maintained  on  that  day,  upon  subjects  of  history  or  auld  langsyne. 
He 'remembered  the  forty-five,  and  told  many  excellent  stories,  all  with 
a  strong  dash  of  a  peculiar  caustic  humour. 

George's  sworn  ally  as  a  brother  antiquary  was  John  Davidson,  then 
Keeper  of  the  Signet;  and  I  remember  his  flattering  and  compelling 
me  to  go  to  dine  there.  A  writer's  apprentice  with  the  Keeper  of  the 
Signet,  whose  least  officer  kept  us  in  order !  —  It  was  an  awful  event. 
Thither,  however,  I  went  with  some  secret  expectation  of  a  scantling 
of  good  claret.  Mr.  D.  had  a  son  whose  taste  inclined  him  to  the 
ariuy,  to  which  his  father,  who  had  designed  him  for  the  bar,  gave  a 
most  unwilling  consent.  He  was  at  this  time  a  young  officer,  and  he 
and  I,  leaving  the  two  seniors  to  proceed  in  their  chat  as  they  pleased, 
never  once  opened  our  mouths  either  to  them  or  each  other.  The 
Pragmatic  Sanction  happened  unfortunately  to  become  the  theme  of 
then*  conversation,  when  Constable  said  in  jest,  "Now,  John,  I'll  wad 
you  a  plack  that  neither  of  these  two  lads  ever  heard  of  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction."  —  "Not  heard  of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction!  "  said  John  Da 
vidson;  "I  would  like  to  see  that;"  and  with  a  voice  of  thunder 
he  asked  his  son  the  fatal  question .  As  young  D.  modestly  allowed 
he  knew  nothing  about  it,  his  father  drove  him  from  the  table  in  a 
*age,  and  I  absconded  during  the  confusion ;  nor  could  Constable  ever 
bring  me  back  again  to  his  friend  Davidson's.  —  [1826.] 


54  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

attached  to  me,  I  had  acquired  a  degree  of  licence 
which  could  not  be  permitted  in  a  large  family.  I  had 
sense  enough,  however,  to  bend  my  temper  to  my  new 
circumstances;  but  such  was  the  agony  which  I  inter 
nally  experienced,  that  I  have  guarded  against  nothing 
more  in  the  education  of  my  own  family,  than  against 
their  acquiring  habits  of  self-willed  caprice  and  domina 
tion.  I  found  much  consolation  during  this  period  of 
mortification,  in  the  partiality  of  my  mother.  She  joined 
to  a  light  and  happy  temper  of  mind,  a  strong  turn  to 
study  poetry  and  works  of  imagination.  She  was  sin 
cerely  devout,  but  her  religion  was,  as  became  her  sex, 
of  a  cast  less  austere  than  my  father's.  Still,  the  disci 
pline  of  the  Presbyterian  Sabbath  was  severely  strict, 
and  I  think  injudiciously  so.  Although  Bunyan's  Pil 
grim,  Gesner's  Death  of  Abel,  Howe's  Letters,  and  one 
or  two  other  books,  which,  for  that  reason,  I  still  have  a 
favour  for,  were  admitted  to  relieve  the  gloom  of  one  dull 
sermon  succeeding  to  another  —  there  was  far  too  much 
tedium  annexed  to  the  duties  of  the  day ;  and  in  the  end 
it  did  none  of  us  any  good. 

My  week-day  tasks  were  more  agreeable.  My  lame 
ness  and  my  solitary  habits  had  made  me  a  tolerable 
reader,  and  my  hours  of  leisure  were  usually  spent  in 
reading  aloud  to  my  mother  Pope's  translation  of  Homer5 
which,  excepting  a  few  traditionary  ballads,  and  the  songs 
n  Allan  Ramsay's  Evergreen,  was  the  first  poetry  which 
I  perused.  My  mother  had  good  natural  taste  and  great 
feeling :  she  used  to  make  me  pause  upon  those  passages 
which  expressed  generous  and  worthy  sentiments,  and  if 
she  could  not  divert  me  from  those  which  were  descrip 
tive  of  battle  and  tumult,  she  contrived  at  least  to  divide 
my  attention  between  them.  My  own  enthusiasm,  how 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  5 

erer,  was  chiefly  awakened  by  the  wonderful  and  the 
terrible  —  the  common  taste  of  children,  but  in  which  I 
have  remained  a  child  even  unto  this  day.  I  got  by 
heart,  not  as  a  task,  but  almost  without  intending  it,  the 
passages  with  which  I  was  most  pleased,  and  used  to 
recite  them  aloud,  both  when  alone  and  to  others  —  more 
willingly,  however,  in  my  hours  of  solitude,  for  I  had 
observed  some  auditors  smile,  and  I  dreaded  ridicule  at 
that  time  of  life  more  than  I  have  ever  done  since. 

In  [1778]  I  was  sent  to  the  second  class  of  the  Gram 
mar  School,  or  High  School  of  Edinburgh,  then  taught 
by  Mr.  Luke  Fraser,  a  good  Latin  scholar  and  a  very 
worthy  man.  Though  I  had  received,  with  my  brothers, 
hi  private,  lessons  of  Latin  from  Mr.  James  French,  now 
a  minister  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  I  was  nevertheless 
rather  behind  the  class  in  which  I  was  placed  both  in 
years  and  in  progress.  This  was  a  real  disadvantage, 
and  one  to  which  a  boy  of  lively  temper  and  talents 
ought  to  be  as  little  exposed  as  one  who  might  be  less 
expected  to  make  up  his  lee-way,  as  it  is  called.  The 
situation  has  the  unfortunate  effect  of  reconciling  a  boy 
of  the  former  character  (which  in  a  posthumous  work  I 
may  claim  for  my  own)  to  holding  a  subordinate  station 
among  his  class-fellows  —  to  which  he  would  otherwise 
affix  disgrace.  There  is  also,  from  the  constitution  of 
the  High  School,  a  certain  danger  not  sufficiently  at 
tended  to.  The  boys  take  precedence  in  their  places^ 
AS  they  are  called,  according  to  their  merit,  and  it  re 
quires  a  long  while,  in  general,  before  even  a  clever  boy, 
if  he  falls  behind  the  class,  or  is  put  into  one  for  which 
he  is  not  quite  ready,  can  force  his  way  to  the  situation 
which  his  abilities  really  entitle  him  to  hold.  But,  in  the 
mean  while,  he  is  necessarily  led  to  be  the  associate  and 


56  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

companion  of  those  inferior  spirits  with  whom  he  is 
placed  ;  for  the  system  of  precedence,  though  it  does  not 
limit  the  general  intercourse  among  the  boys,  has  never 
theless  the  effect  of  throwing  them  into  clubs  and  coteries, 
according  to  the  vicinity  of  the  seats  they  hold.  A  boy 
of  good  talents,  therefore,  placed  even  for  a  time  among 
his  inferiors,  especially  if  they  be  also  his  elders,  learns 
to  participate  in  their  pursuits  and  objects  of  ambition, 
which  are  usually  very  distinct  from  the  acquisition  of 
learning ;  and  it  will  be  well  if  he  does  not  also  imitate 
them  in  that  indifference  which  is  contented  with  bus 
tling  over  a  lesson  so  as  to  avoid  punishment,  without 
affecting  superiority  or  aiming  at  reward.  It  was  prob 
ably  owing  to  this  circumstance,  that,  although  at  a  more 
advanced  period  of  life  I  have  enjoyed  considerable  fa 
cility  in  acquiring  languages,  I  did  not  make  any  great 
figure  at  the  High  School  —  or,  at  least,  any  exertions 
which  I  made  were  desultory  and  little  to  be  depended 
on. 

Our  class  contained  some  very  excellent  scholars.  The 
first  Dux  was  James  Buchan,  who  retained  his  honoured 
place,  almost  without  a  day's  interval,  all  the  while  we 
were  at  the  High  School.  He  was  afterwards  at  the 
head  of  the  medical  staff  in  Egypt,  and  in  exposing  him 
self  to  the  plague  infection,  by  attending  the  hospitals 
there,  displayed  the  same  well-regulated  and  gentle,  yet 
determined  perseverance,  which  placed  him  most  worthily 
Et  the  head  of  his  school-fellows,  while  many  lads  of  live 
lier  parts  and  dispositions  held  an  inferior  station.  The 
next  best  scholars  (sed  Iwigo  intervallo)  were  my  friend 
David  Douglas,  the  heir  and  eleve  of  the  celebrated 
Adam  Smith,  and  James  Hope,  now  a  Writer  to  the 
Signet,  both  since  well  known  and  distinguished  in  theii 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  57 

departments  of  the  law.  As  for  myself,  I  glanced  like  a 
meteor  from  one  end  of  the  class  to  the  other,  and  com 
monly  disgusted  my  kind  master  as  much  by  negligence 
and  frivolity,  as  I  occasionally  pleased  him  by  flashes  of 
intellect  and  talent.  Among  my  companions,  my  good 
nature  and  a  flow  of  ready  imagination  rendered  me  very 
popular.  Boys  are  uncommonly  just  in  their  feelings, 
and  at  least  equally  generous.  My  lameness,  and  the 
efforts  which  I  made  to  supply  that  disadvantage,  by 
making  up  in  address  what  I  wanted  in  activity,  engaged 
the  latter  principle  in  my  favour  ;  and  in  the  winter  play 
hours,  when  hard  exercise  was  impossible,  my  tales  used 
to  assemble  an  admiring  audience  round  Lucky  Brown's 
fireside,  and  happy  was  he  that  could  sit  next  to  the  in 
exhaustible  narrator.  I  was  also,  though  often  negligent 
of  my  own  task,  always  ready  to  assist  my  friends,  and 
hence  I  had  a  little  party  of  staunch  partisans  and  ad 
herents,  stout  of  hand  and  heart,  though  somewhat  dull 
of  head  —  the  very  tools  for  raising  a  hero  to  eminence. 
So,  on  the  whole,  I  made  a  brighter  figure  in  the  yards 
than  in  the  class.* 

My  father  did  not  trust  our  education  solely  to  our 
High  School  lessons.  We  had  a  tutor  at  home,  a  young 
man  of  an  excellent  disposition,  and  a  laborious  student. 
He  was  bred  to  the  Kirk,  but  unfortunately  :ook  such  a 

*  I  read  not  long  since,  in  that  authentic  record  called  the  Percy 
Anecdotes,  that  I  had  been  educated  at  Musselburgh  school,  where  I 
had  been  distinguished  as  an  absolute  dunce ;  only  Dr.  Blair,  seeing 
farther  into  the  millstone,  had  pronounced  there  was  fire  in  it.  I  never 
was  at  Musselburgh  school  in  my  life,  and  though  I  have  met  Dr.  Blair 
at  my  father's  and  elsewhere,  I  never  had  the  good  fortune  to  attract 
flis  notice,  to  my  knowledge.  Lastly,  I  was  never  a  dunce,  nor  thought 
'/>  be  so,  but  an  incorrigibly  idle  imp,  who  was  always  longing  to  do 
rOmething  else  than  what  was  enjoined  him.  —  [1826.] 


58  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

very  strong  turn  to  fanaticism,  that  he  afterwards  re 
signed  an  excellent  living  in  a  seaport  town,  merely 
because  he  could  not  persuade  the  mariners  of  the  guilt 
of  setting  sail  of  a  Sabbath,  —  in  which,  by  the  bye,  he 
was  less  likely  to  be  successful,  as,  cceteris  paribus,  sailors, 
from  an  opinion  that  it  is  a  fortunate  omen,  always  choose 
to  weigh  anchor  on  that  day.  The  calibre  of  this  young 
man's  understanding  may  be  judged  of  by  this  anecdote ; 
but  in  other  respects,  he  was  a  faithful  and  active  in 
structor;  and  from  him  chiefly  I  learned  writing  and 
arithmetic.  I  repeated  to  him  my  French  lessons,  and 
studied  with  him  my  themes  in  the  classics,  but  not  classi 
cally.  I  also  acquired,  by  disputing  with  him  (for  this 
he  readily  permitted),  some  knowledge  of  school-divinity 
and  church-history,  and  a  great  acquaintance  in  partic 
ular  with  the  old  books  describing  the  early  history  of 
the  Church  of  Scotland,  the  wars  and  sufferings  of  the 
Covenanters,  and  so  forth.  I,  with  a  head  on  fire  for 
chivalry,  was  a  Cavalier ;  my  friend  was  a  Roundhead : 
I  was  a  Tory,  and  he  was  a  Whig.  I  hated  Presbyteri 
ans,  and  admired  Montrose  with  his  victorious  High 
landers  ;  he  liked  the  Presbyterian  Ulysses,  the  dark  and 
politic  Argyle :  so  that  we  never  wanted  subjects  of  dis 
pute;  but  our  disputes  were  always  amicable.  In  all 
these  tenets  there  was  no  real  conviction  on  my  part, 
arising  out  of  acquaintance  with  the  views  or  principles 
of  either  party ;  nor  had  my  antagonist  address  enough 
to  turn  the  debate  on  such  topics.  I  took  up  my  politics 
at  that  period,  as  King  Charles  II.  did  his  religion,  from 
an  idea  that  the  Cavalier  creed  was  the  more  gentleman 
like  persuasion  of  the  two. 

After  having  been  three  years  under  Mr.  Fraser,  our 
class  was,  in  the  usual  routine  of  the  school,  turned  ovei 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  59 

to  Dr.  Adam,  the  Rector.  It  was  from  this  respectable 
man  that  I  first  learned  the  value  of  the  knowledge  I  had 
hitherto  considered  only  as  a  burdensome  task.  It  was 
the  fashion  to  remain  two  years  at  his  class,  where  we 
read  Caesar,  and  Livy,  and  Sallust,  in  prose;  Virgil, 
Horace,  and  Terence,  in  verse.  I  had  by  this  time 
mastered,  in  some  degree,  the  difficulties  of  the  language, 
and  began  to  be  sensible  of  its  beauties.  This  was  really 
gathering  grapes  from  thistles;  nor  shall  I  soon  forget 
the  swelling  of  my  little  pride  when  the  Rector  pro 
nounced,  that  though  many  of  my  school-fellows  under 
stood  the  Latin  better,  Gualterus  Scott  was  behind  few 
in  following  and  enjoying  the  author's  meaning.  Thus 
encouraged,  I  distinguished  myself  by  some  attempts  at 
poetical  versions  from  Horace  and  Virgil.  Dr.  Adam 
used  to  invite  his  scholars  to  such  essays,  but  never  made 
them  tasks.  I  gained  some  distinction  upon  these  occa 
sions,  and  the  Rector  in  future  took  much  notice  of  me ; 
and  his  judicious  mixture  of  censure  and  praise  went  far 
to  counterbalance  my  habits  of  indolence  and  inattention. 
I  saw  I  was  expected  to  do  well,  and  I  was  piqued  in 
honour  to  vindicate  my  master's  favourable  opinion.  I 
climbed,  therefore,  to  the  first  form ;  and,  though  I  neve** 
made  a  first-rate  Latinist,  my  school-fellows,  and  what 
was  of  more  consequence,  I  myself,  considered  that  I  had 
a  character  for  learning  to  maintain.  Dr.  Adam,  to 
whom  I  owed  so  much,  never  failed  to  remind  me  of  my 
obligations  when  I  had  made  some  figure  in  the  literary 
world.  He  was,  indeed,  deeply  imbued  with  that  fortu- 
nate  vanity  which  alone  could  induce  a  man  who  has 
arms  to  pare  and  burn  a  muir,  to  submit  to  the  yet 
more  toilsome  task  of  cultivating  youth.  As  Catholics 
eonfide  in  the  imputed  righteousness  of  their  saints,  so 


60  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

did  the  good  old  Doctor  plume  himself  upon  the  success 
of  his  scholars  in  life,  all  of  which  he  never  failed  (and 
often  justly)  to  claim  as  the  creation,  or  at  least  the 
fruits,  of  his  early  instructions.  He  remembered  the 
fate  of  every  boy  at  his  school  during  the  fifty  years  he 
had  superintended  it,  and  always  traced  their  success  or 
misfortunes  entirely  to  their  attention  or  negligence  when 
under  his  care.  His  "  noisy  mansion,"  which  to  others 
would  have  been  a  melancholy  bedlam,  was  the  pride  of 
his  heart ;  and  the  only  fatigues  he  felt,  amidst  din  and 
tumult,  and  the  necessity  of  reading  themes,  hearing 
lessons,  and  maintaining  some  degree  of  order  at  the 
same  time,  were  relieved  by  comparing  himself  to  Caesar, 
who  could  dictate  to  three  secretaries  at  once ;  —  so 
ready  is  vanity  to  lighten  the  labours  of  duty. 

It  is  a  pity  that  a  man  so  learned,  so  admirably  adapted 
for  his  station,  so  useful,  so  simple,  so  easily  contented, 
should  have  had  other  subjects  of  mortification.  But  the 
magistrates  of  Edinburgh,  not  knowing  the  treasure  they 
possessed  in  Dr.  Adam,  encouraged  a  savage  fellow, 
called  Nicol,  one  of  the  underniasters,  in  insulting  his 
person  and  authority.  This  man  was  an  excellent  classi 
cal  scholar,  and  an  admirable  convivial  humourist  (which 
latter  quality  recommended  him  to  the  friendship  of 
Burns)  ;  but  worthless,  drunken,  and  inhumanly  cruel  to 
the  boys  under  his  charge.  He  carried  his  feud  against 
the  Rector  within  an  inch  of  assassination,  for  he  way 
laid  and  knocked  him  down  in  the  dark.  The  favour 
which  this  worthless  rival  obtained  in  the  town-council 
led  to  other  consequences,  which  for  some  time  clouded 
poor  Adam's  happiness  and  fair  fame.  When  the  French 
Revolution  broke  out,  and  parties  ran  high  in  approving 
»r  condemning  it,  the  Doctor  incautiously  joined  th« 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  61 

former.  This  was  very  natural,  for  as  all  his  ideas  of 
existing  governments  were  derived  from  his  experience 
of  the  town-council  of  Edinburgh,  it  must  be  admitted 
they  scarce  brooked  comparison  with  the  free  states  of 
Rome  and  Greece,  from  which  he  borrowed  his  opinions 
concerning  republics.  His  want  of  caution  in  speaking 
on  the  political  topics  of  the  day  lost  him  the  respect  of 
the  boys,  most  of  whom  were  accustomed  to  hear  very 
different  opinions  on  those  matters  in  the  bosom  of  their 
families.  This,  however  (which  was  long  after  my  time), 
passed  away  with  other  heats  of  the  period,  and  the 
Doctor  continued  his  labours  till  about  a  year  since, 
when  he  was  struck  with  palsy  while  teaching  his  class. 
He  survived  a  few  days,  but  becoming  delirious  before 
his  dissolution,  conceived  he  was  still  in  school,  and  after 
some  expressions  of  applause  or  censure,  he  said,  "  But 
it  grows  dark  —  the  boys  may  dismiss,"  —  and  instantly 
expired. 

From  Dr.  Adam's  class  I  should,  according  to  the 
usual  routine,  have  proceeded  immediately  to  college. 
But,  fortunately,  I  was  not  yet  to  lose,  by  a  total  dismis 
sion  from  constraint,  the  acquaintance  with  the  Latin 
which  I  had  acquired.  My  health  had  become  rather 
delicate  from  rapid  growth,  and  my  father  was  easily 
persuaded  to  allow  me  to  spend  half-a-year  at  Kelso  with 
my  kind  aunt,  Miss  Janet  Scott,  whose  inmate  I  again 
became.  It  was  hardly  worth  mentioning  that  I  had  fre 
quently  visited  her  during  our  short  vacations. 

At  this  time  she  resided  in  a  small  house,  situated 
very  pleasantly  in  a  large  garde/3,  to  the  eastward  of  the 
churchyard  of  Kelso,  which  extended  down  to  the  Tweed. 
It  was  then  my  father's  property,  from  whom  it  was  af 
terwards  purchased  by  my  uncle.  My  grandmother  was 


62  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

now  dead,  and  my  aunt's  only  companion,  besides  an  old 
maid-servant,  was  my  cousin,  Miss  Barbara  Scott,  now 
Mrs.  Meik.  My  time  was  here  left  entirely  to  my  own 
disposal,  excepting  for  about  four  hours  in  the  day,  when 
I  was  expected  to  attend  the  Grammar-school  of  the 
village.  The  teacher,  at  that  time,  was  Mr.  Lancelot 
Whale,  an  excellent  classical  scholar,  a  humourist,  and  a 
worthy  man.  He  had  a  supreme  antipathy  to  the  puna 
which  his  very  uncommon  name  frequently  gave  rise  to ; 
insomuch,  that  he  made  his  son  spell  the  word  Wale, 
which  only  occasioned  the  young  man  being  nicknamed 
the  Prince  of  Wales  by  the  military  rness  to  which  he 
belonged.  As  for  Whale,  senior,  the  least  allusion  to 
Jonah,  or  the  terming  him  an  odd  fish,  or  any  similar 
quibble,  was  sure  to  put  him  beside  himself.  In  point  of 
knowledge  and  taste,  he  was  far  too  good  for  the  situa 
tion  he  held,  which  only  required  that  he  should  give  his 
scholars  a  rough  foundation  in  the  Latin  language.  My 
time  with  him,  though  short,  was  spent  greatly  to  my  ad 
vantage  and  his  gratification.  He  was  glad  to  escape  to 
Persius  and  Tacitus  from  the  eternal  Rudiments  and 
Cornelius  Nepos ;  and  as  perusing  these  authors  with 
one  who  began  to  understand  them  was  to  him  a  labour 
of  love,  I  made  considerable  progress  under  his  instruc 
tions.  I  suspect,  indeed,  that  some  of  the  time  dedicated 
to  me  was  withdrawn  from  the  instruction  of  his  more 
regular  scholars ;  but  I  was  as  grateful  as  I  could.  I 
acted  as  usher,  and  heard  the  inferior  classes,  and  I 
spouted  the  speech  of  Galgacus  at  the  public  examina 
tion,  which  did  not  make  the  less  impression  on  the  audi- 
snce  that  few  of  them  probably  understood  one  word  of  it. 
In  the  mean  while  my  acquaintance  with  English  liter 
ature  was  gradually  extending  itself.  In  the  intervals 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  63 

of  my  school  hours  I  had  always  perused  with  avidity 
such  books  of  history  or  poetry  or  voyages  and  travels 
as  chance  presented  to  me  —  not  forgetting  the  usual,  or 
rather  ten  times  the  usual,  quantity  of  fairy  tales,  eastern 
stories,  romances.  &c.  These  studies  were  totally  unreg 
ulated  and  undirected.  My  tutor  thought  it  almost  a  sin 
to  open  a  profane  play  or  poem  ;  and  my  mother,  besides 
that  she  might  be  in  some  degree  trammelled  by  the 
religious  scruples  which  he  suggested,  had  no  longer  the 
opportunity  to  hear  me  read  poetry  as  formerly.  I 
found,  however,  in  her  dressing-room  (where  I  slept  at 
one  time)  some  odd  volumes  of  Shakspeare,  nor  can  I 
easily  forget  the  rapture  with  which  I  sate  up  in  my  shirt 
reading  them  by  the  light  of  a  fire  in  her  apartment,  until 
the  bustle  of  the  family  rising  from  supper  warned  me  it 
was  time  to  creep  back  to  my  bed,  where  I  was  supposed 
to  have  been  safely  deposited  since  nine  o'clock.  Chance, 
however,  threw  in  my  way  a  poetical  preceptor.  This 
was  no  other  than  the  excellent  and  benevolent  Dr. 
Blacklock,  well  known  at  that  time  as  a  literary  charac 
ter.  I  know  not  hew  I  attracted  his  attention,  and  that 
of  some  of  the  young  men  who  boarded  in  his  family ; 
but  so  it  was  that  I  became  a  frequent  and  favoured 
guest.  The  kind  old  man  opened  to  me  the  stores  of  his 
library,  and  through  his  recommendation  I  became  inti 
mate  with  Ossian  and  Spenser.  I  was  delighted  with 
both,  yet  I  think  chiefly  with  the  latter  poet.  The  taw 
dry  repetitions  of  the  Ossianic  phraseology  disgusted  me 
rather  sooner  than  might  have  been  expected  from  my 
age.  But  Spenser  I  could  have  read  for  ever.  Too 
young  to  trouble  myself  about  the  allegory,  I  considered 
all  the  knights  and  ladies  and  dragons  and  giants  in  theii 
outward  and  exoteric  sense,  and  God  only  knows 


64  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

delighted  I  was  to  find  myself  in  such  society.  As  I  had 
always  a  wonderful  facility  in  retaining  in  my  memory 
whatever  verses  pleased  me,  the  quantity  of  Spenser  a 
stanzas  which  I  could  repeat  was  really  marvellous. 
But  this  memory  of  mine  was  a  very  fickle  ally,  and  has 
through  my  whole  life  acted  merely  upon  its  own  capri 
cious  motion,  and  might  have  enabled  me  to  adopt  old 
Beattie  of  Meikledale's  answer,  when  complimented  by  a 
certain  reverend  divine  on  the  strength  of  the  same  fac 
ulty  :  —  "  No,  sir,"  answered  the  old  Borderer,  "  I  have  no 
command  of  my  memory.  It  only  retains  what  hits  my 
fancy ;  and  probably,  sir,  if  you  were  to  preach  to  me  for 
two  hours,  I  would  not  be  able  when  you  finished  to 
remember  a  word  you  had  been  saying."  My  memory 
was  precisely  of  the  same  kind :  it  seldom  failed  to  pre 
serve  most  tenaciously  a  favourite  passage  of  poetry, 
playhouse  ditty,  or,  above  all,  a  Border-raid  ballad ;  but 
names,  dates,  and  the  other  technicalities  of  history,  es 
caped  me  in  a  most  melancholy  degree.  The  philosophy 
of  history,  a  much  more  important  subject,  was  also  a 
sealed  book  at  this  period  of  my  life  ;  but  I  gradually 
assembled  much  of  what  was  striking  and  picturesque  in 
historical  narrative ;  and  when,  in  riper  years,  I  attended 
more  to  the  deduction  of  general  principles,  I  was  fur 
nished  with  a  powerful  host  of  examples  in  illustration 
of  them.  I  was,  in  shqrt,  like  an  ignorant  gamester,  who 
kept  up  a  good  hand  until  he  knew  how  to  play  it. 

I  left  the  High  School,  therefore,  with  a  great  quantity 
of  general  information,  ill  arranged,  indeed,  and  collected 
without  system,  yet  deeply  impressed  upon  my  mind ; 
readily  assorted  by  my  power  of  connexion  and  mem 
ory,  and  gilded,  if  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  so,  by  a 
vivid  and  active  imagination.  If  my  studies  were  not 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  65 

under  any  diiection  at  Edinburgh,  in  the  country,  it  may 
be  well  imagined,  they  were  less  so.  A  respectable  sub 
scription  library,  a  circulating  library  of  ancient  standing, 
and  some  private  book-shelves,  were  open  to  my  random 
perusal,  and  I  waded  into  the  stream  like  a  blind  man 
into  a  ford,  without  the  power  of  searching  my  way,  un- 

ess  by  groping  for  it.  My  appetite  for  books  was  as 
ample  and  indiscriminating  as  it  was  indefatigable,  and  I 
since  have  had  too  frequently  reason  to  repent  that  few 
ever  read  so  much,  and  to  so  little  purpose. 

Among  the  valuable  acquisitions  I  made  about  this 
time,  was  an  acquaintance  with  Tasso's  Jerusalem  Deliv 
ered,  through  the  flat  medium  of  Mr.  Hoole's  translation. 
But  above  all,  I  then  first  became  acquainted  with  Bishop 
Percy's  Reliques  of  Ancient  Poetry.  As  I  had  been 
from  infancy  devoted  to  legendary  lore  of  this  nature, 
and  only  reluctantly  withdrew  my  attention,  from  the 
scarcity  of  materials  and  the  rudeness  of  those  which  I 
possessed,  it  may  be  imagined,  but  cannot  be  described, 
with  what  delight  I  saw  pieces  of  the  same  kind  which 
had  amused  my  childhood,  and  still  continued  in  secret 
the  Delilahs  of  my  imagination,  considered  as  the  subject 
of  sober  research,  grave  commentary,  and  apt  illustra 
tion,  by  an  editor  who  showed  his  poetical  genius  was 
capable  of  emulating  the  best  qualities  of  what  his  pious 
»abour  preserved.  I  remember  well  the  spot  where  I 

ead  these  volumes  for  the  first  time.  It  was  beneath 
a  huge  platanus-tree,  in  the  ruins  of  what  had  been  in 
tended  for  an  old-fashioned  arbour  in  the  garden  I  have 
mentioned.  The  summer-day  sped  onward  so  fast,  that 
notwithstanding  the  sharp  appetite  of  thirteen,  I  forgot 
the  hour  of  dinner,  was  sought  for  with  anxiety,  and  was 
still  found  entranced  in  my  intellectual  banquet.  To 

VOL.  I.  5 


66  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

read  and  to  remember  was  in  this  instance  the 
thing,  and  henceforth  I  overwhelmed  my  school-fellows, 
and  all  who  would  hearken  to  me,  with  tragical  recita 
tions  from  the  ballads  of  Bishop  Percy.  The  first  time, 
too,  I  could  scrape  a  few  shillings  together,  which  were 
not  common  occurrences  with  me,  I  bought  unto  myself 
a  copy  of  these  beloved  volumes ;  nor  do  I  believe  I  ever 
read  a  book  half  so  frequently,  or  with  half  the  enthu 
siasm.  About  this  period  also  I  became  acquainted  with 
the  works  of  Richardson,  and  those  of  Mackenzie  — 
(whom  in  later  years  I  became  entitled  to  call  my  friend) 
•*•*  — with  Fielding,  Smollett,  and  some  others  of  our  best 

novelists. 

--  To  this  period  also  I  can  trace  distinctly  the  awaking 
of  that  delightful  feeling  for  the  beauties  of  natural  ob 
jects  which  has  never  since  deserted  me.  The  neigh 
bourhood  of  Kelso,  the  most  beautiful,  if  not  the  most 
romantic  village  in  Scotland,  is  eminently  calculated  to 
awaken  these  ideas.  It  presents  objects,  not  only  grand 
in  themselves,  but  venerable  from  their  association.  The 
meeting  of  two  superb  rivers,  the  Tweed  and  the  Te- 
viot,  both  renowned  in  song  —  the  ruins  of  an  ancient 
Abbey  —  the  more  distant  vestiges  of  Roxburgh  Castle 
—  the  modern  mansion  of  Fleurs,  which  is  so  situated  as 
to  combine  the  ideas  of  ancient  baronial  grandeur  with 
those  of  modern  taste  —  are  in  themselves  objects  of  the 
first  class ;  yet  are  so  mixed,  united,  and  melted  among 
a  thousand  other  beauties  of  a  less  prominent  description, 
that  they  harmonize  into  one  general  picture,  and  please 
rather  by  unison  than  by  concord.  I  believe  I  have 
written  unintelligibly  upon  this  subject,  but  it  is  fitter  for 
the  pencil  than  the  pen.  The  romantic  feeh'ngs  which  I 
have  described  as  predominating  in  my  mind,  naturally 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  67 

rested  upon  and  associated  themselves  with  these  grand 
features  of  the  landscape  around  me :  and  the  historical 
incidents,  or  traditional  legends  connected  with  many  of 
them,  gave  to  my  admiration  a  sort  of  intense  impression 
of  reverence,  which  at  times  made  my  heart  feel  too  big 
for  its  bosom.  From  this  time  the  love  of  natural  beauty, 
more  especially  when  combined  with  ancient  ruins,  or  re 
mains  of  our  fathers'  piety  or  splendour,  became  with  me 
an  insatiable  passion,  which,  if  circumstances  had  per 
mitted,  I  would  willingly  have  gratified  by  travelling 
over  half  the  globe. 

I  was  recalled  to  Edinburgh  about  the  time  when  the 
College  meets,  and  put  at  once  to  the  Humanity  class, 
under  Mr.  Hill,  and  the  first  Greek  class,  taught  by  Mr. 
Dalzell.  The  former  held  the  reins  of  discipline  very 
loosely,  and  though  beloved  by  his  students,  for  he  was 
a  good-natured  man  as  well  as  a  good  scholar,  he  had  not 
the  art  of  exciting  our  attention  as  well  as  liking.  This 
was  a  dangerous  character  with  whom  to  trust  one  who 
relished  labour  as  little  as  I  did,  and  amid  the  riot  of 
his  class  I  speedily  lost  much  of  what  I  had  learned 
under  Adam  and  Whale.  At  the  Greek  class,  I  might 
have  made  a  better  figure,  for  Professor  Dalzell  main 
tained  a  great  deal  of  authority,  and  was  not  only  himself 
an  admirable  scholar,  but  was  always  deeply  interested 
in  the  progress  of  his  students.  But  here  lay  the  vil- 
lany.  Almost  all  my  companions  who  had  left  the  High 
School  at  the  same  time  with  myself,  had  acquired  a 
smattering  of  Greek  before  they  came  to  College.  I, 
alas !  had  none  ;  and  finding  myself  far  inferior  to  all 
my  fellow-students,  I  could  hit  upon  no  better  mode  of 
vindicating  my  equality  than  by  professing  my  contempt 
for  the  language,  and  my  resolution  not  to  learn  it  A 


68  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

youth  who  died  early,  himself  an  excellent  Greek  scholai, 
saw  my  negligence  and  folly  with  pain,  instead  of  con 
tempt.  He  came  to  call  on  me  in  George's  Square,  and 
pointed  out  in  the  strongest  terms  the  silliness  of  the 
conduct  I  had  adopted,  told  me  I  was  distinguished  by 
the  name  of  the  Greek  Blockhead,  and  exhorted  me  to 
redeem  my  reputation  while  it  was  called  to-day.  My 
stubborn  pride  received  this  advice  with  sulky  civility 
the  birth  of  my  Mentor  (whose  name  was  Archibald,  the 
gon  of  an  inn-keeper)  did  not,  as  I  thought  in  my  folly, 
authorize  him  to  intrude  upon  me  his  advice.  The  other 
was  not  sharp-sighted,  or  his  consciousness  of  a  generous 
intention  overcame  his  resentment.  He  offered  me  his 
daily  and  nightly  assistance,  and  pledged  himself  to  bring 
me  forward  with  the  foremost  of  my  class.  I  felt  some 
twinges  of  conscience,  but  they  were  unable  to  prevail 
over  my  pride  and  self-conceit.  The  poor  lad  left  me 
more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger,  nor  did  we  ever  meet 
again.  All  hopes  of  my  progress  in  the  Greek  were 
now  over ;  insomuch  that  when  we  were  required  to 
write  essays  on  the  authors  we  had  studied,  I  had  the 
audacity  to  produce  a  composition  in  which  I  weighed 
Homer  against  Ariosto,  and  pronounced  him  wanting  in 
the  balance.  I  supported  this  heresy  by  a  profusion  of 
bad  reading  and  flimsy  argument.  The  wrath  of  the 
Professor  was  extreme,  while  at  the  same  time  he  could 
,\ot  suppress  his  surprise  at  the  quantity  of  out-of-the- 
way  knowledge  which  I  displayed.  He  pronounced  upon 
me  the  severe  sentence  —  that  dunce  I  was,  and  dunce 
was  to  remain  —  which,  however,  my  excellent  and 
learned  friend  lived  to  revoke  over  a  bottle  of  Burgundy 
*at  our  literary  Club  at  Fortune's,  of  which  he  was  a  dis* 
tinguished  member. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 

Meanwhile,  as  if  to  eradicate  my  slightest  f 
Greek,  I  fell  ill  during  the  middle  of  Mr.  Dalzeh . 
ond  class,  and  migrated  a  second  time  to  Kelso  —  wheA 
I  again  continued  a  long  time  reading  what  and  how  I 
pleased,  and  of  course  reading  nothing  but  what  afforded 
me  immediate  entertainment.  The  only  thing  which 
saved  my  mind  from  utter  dissipation,  was  that  turn  for 
historical  pursuit,  which  never  abandoned  me  even  at  the 
idlest  period.  I  had  forsworn  the  Latin  classics  for  no 
reason  I  know  of,  unless  because  they  were  akin  to  the 
Greek  ;  but  the  occasional  perusal  of  Buchanan's  history, 
that  of  Mathew  Paris,  and  other  monkish  chronicles,  kept 
up  a  kind  of  familiarity  with  the  language  even  in  its 
rudest  state.  But  I  forgot  the  very  letters  of  the  Greek 
alphabet ;  a  loss  never  to  be  repaired,  considering  what 
that  language  is,  and  who  they  were  who  employed  it  in 
their  compositions. 

About  this  period  —  or  soon  afterwards  —  my  father 
judged  it  proper  I  should  study  mathematics,  a  study 
upon  which  I  entered  with  all  the  ardour  of  novelty. 
My  tutor  was  an  aged  person,  Dr.  MacFait,  who  had  in 
his  time  been  distinguished  as  a  teacher  of  this  science. 
Age,  however,  and  some  domestic  inconveniences,  had 
diminished  his  pupils,  and  lessened  his  authority  amongst 
the  few  who  remained.  I  think,  that  had  I  been  more 
fortunately  placed  for  instruction,  or  had  I  had  the 
gpur  of  emulation,  I  might  have  made  some  progress  in 
this  science,  of  which,  under  the  circumstances  I  have 
mentioned,  I  only  acquired  a  very  superficial  smatter- 
ing.  Y- 

In  other  studies  I  was  rather  more  fortunate.  I  made 
some  progress  in  Ethics  under  Professor  John  Bruce, 
and  was  selected  as  one  of  his  students  whose  progress 


i,IFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ne  approved,  to  read  an  essay  before  Principal  Robert 
son.  I  was  farther  instructed  in  Moral  Philosophy  at 
the  class  of  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart,  whose  striking  and  im 
pressive  eloquence  riveted  the  attention  even  of  the  most 
volatile  student.  To  sum  up  my  academical  studies,  I 
attended  the  class  of  History,  then  taught  by  the  present 
Lord  Woodhouselee,  and,  as  far  as  I  remember,  no  others, 
excepting  those  of  the  Civil  and  Municipal  Law.  So 
that,  if  my  learning  be  flimsy  a 


must  have  some"compassibn  even  for  an  idle  workman, 
who  had  so  narrow  a  foundation  to  build  upon.  If,  how 
ever,  it  should  ever  fall  to  the  lot  of  youth  to  peruse 
these  pages  —  let  such  a  reader  remember,  that  it  is  with 
the  deepest  regret  that  I  recollect  in  my  manhood  the 
opportunities  of  learning  which  I  neglected  in  my  youth  ; 
that  through  every  part  of  my  literary  career  I  have  felt 
pinched  and  hampered  by  my  own  ignorance  ;  and  that  I 
would  at  this  moment  give  half  the  reputation  I  have 
had  the  good  fortune  to  acquire,  if  by  doing  so  I  could 
rest  the  remaining  part  upon  a  sound  foundation  of 
learning  and  science. 

I  imagine  my  father's  reason  for  sending  me  to  so  few 
classes  in  the  College,  was  a  desire  that  I  should  apply 
myself  particularly  to  my  legal  studies.  He  had  not 
determined  whether  I  should  fill  the  situation  of  an  Ad 
vocate  or  a  Writer  ;  but  judiciously  considering  the  tech 
nical  knowledge  of  the  latter  to  be  useful  at  least,  if  not 
essential,  to  a  barrister,  he  resolved  I  should  serve  the 
ordinary  apprenticeship  of  five  years  to  his  own  profes 
sion.  I  accordingly  entered  into  indentures  with  my 
father  about  1785-6,  and  entered  upon  the  dry  and 
barren  wilderness  of  forms  and  conveyances. 

I  cannot  reproach  myself  with  being  entirely  an  idle 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  71 

apprentice  —  far  less,  as  the  reader  might  reasonably 
have  expected, 

"  A  clerk  foredooic'd  my  father's  soul  to  cross/' 

The  drudgery,  indeed,  of  the  office  I  disliked,  and  the 
sonfmement  I  altogether  detested ;  but  I  loved  my  father 
and  I  felt  the  rational  pride  and  pleasure  of  rendering 
myself  useful  to  him.  I  was  ambitious  also  ;  and  among 
my  companions  in  labour,  the  only  way  to  gratify  ambi 
tion  was  to  labour  hard  and  well.  Other  circumstances 
reconciled  me  in  some  measure  to  the  confinement.  The 
allowance  for  copy-money  furnished  a  little  fund  for  the 
menus  plaisirs  of  the  circulating  library  and  the  Thea 
tre  ;  and  this  was  no  trifling  incentive  to  labour.  When 
actually  at  the  oar,  no  man  could  pull  it  harder  than  I, 
and  I  remember  writing  upwards  of  120  folio  pages  with 
no  interval  either  for  food  or  rest.  Again,  the  hours  of 
attendance  on  the  office  were  lightened  by  the  power  of 
choosing  my  own  books,  and  reading  them  in  my  own 
fray,  which  often  consisted  in  beginning  at  the  middle  or 
the  end  of  a  volume.  A  deceased  friend,  who  was  a 
fellow-apprentice  with  me,  used  often  to  express  his  sur 
prise  that,  after  such  a  hop-step-and-jump  perusal,  I  knew 
us  much  of  the  book  as  he  had  been  able  to  acquire  from 
reading  it  in  the  usual  manner.  My  desk  usually  con 
tained  a  store  of  most  miscellaneous  volumes,  especially 
works  of,  fiction  of  every  kind,  which  were  my  supremo 
delight.  I  Inight  except  novels,  unless  those  of  the  bet 
ter  and  higher  class  ;  for  though  I  read  many  of  them, 
yet  it  was  with  more  selection  than  might  have  been  ex 
pected.  The  whole  Jemmy  and  Jenny  Jessamy  tribe  I 
abhorred,  and  it  required  tne  art  of  Burney,  or  the  feel- 
Ing  of  Mackenzie,  to  fix  my  attention  upon  a  domestic 


72  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tale.     But  all  that  was  adventurous  and  romantic  I  de 
voured  without  much  discrimination,  and  I  really  believe 
/ 1  have  read  as  much  nonsense  of  this  class  as  any  man 
/  now  living.     Everything   which  touched   on  knight-er- 
)  rantry  was  particularly  acceptable  to  me,  and   I  soon 

/  attempted  to  imitate  what  I  so  greatly  admired.  My 
efforts,  however,  were  in  the  manner  of  the  tale-teller 
not  of  the  bard. 

My  greatest  intimate,  from  the  days  of  my  school-tide 
was  Mr.  John  Irving,  now  a  Writer  to  the  Signet.  Wt 
lived  near  each  other,  and  by  joint  agreement  were  wont, 
each  of  us,  to  compose  a  romance  for  the  other's  amuse 
ment.  These  legends,  in  which  the  martial  and  the 
miraculous  always  predominated,  we  rehearsed  to  each 
other  during  our  walks,  which  were  usually  directed  to 
the  most  solitary  spots  about  Arthur's  Seat  and  Salisbury 
Crags.  We  naturally  sought  seclusion,  for  we  were  con 
scious  no  small  degree  of  ridicule  would  have  attended 
our  amusement,  if  the  nature  of  it  had  become  known- 

/""Whole  holidays  were  spent  in  this  singular  pastime, 
which  continued  for  two  or  three  years,  and  had,  I  be 
lieve,  no  small  effect  in  directing  the  turn  of  my  imag 
ination  to  the  chivalrous  and  romantic  in  poetry  and 

V  prose. 

Meanwhile,  the  translations  of  Mr.  Hoole  having  made 
me  acquainted  with  Tasso  and  Ariosto,  I  learned  from 
his  notes  on  the  latter,  that  the  Italian  language  con 
tained  a  fund  of  romantic  lore.  A  part  of  my  earning^ 
was  dedicated  to  an  Italian  class  which  I  attended  twice 
i»-week,  and  rapidly  acquired  some  proficiency.  I  had 
previously  renewed  and  extended  my  knowledge  of  the 
FKejnch  language,  from  th~e~~same~  "principle  of  romantic 
research.  Tressan's  romances,  the  Bibliotheque  Bleue 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  73 

and  Bibliotheque  de  Romans,  were  already  familiar  to 
me,  and  I  now  acquired  similar  intimacy  with  the  works 
of  Dante,  Boiardo,  Pulci,  and  other  eminent  Italian  au 
thors.  I  fastened  also,  like  a  tiger,  upon  every  collection 
of  old  songs  or  romances  which  chance  threw  in  my  way, 
or  which  my  scrutiny  was  able  to  discover  on  the  dusty 
shelves  of  James  Sibbald's  circulating  library  in  the  Par 
liament  Square.  This  collection,  now  dismantled  and 
dispersed,  contained  at  that  time  many  rare  and  curious 
works,  seldom  found  in  such  a  collection.  Mr.  Sibbald 
himself,  a  man  of  rough  manners  but  of  some  taste  and 
judgment,  cultivated  music  and  poetry,  and  in  his  shop  I 
had  a  distant  view  of  some  literary  characters,  besides 
the  privilege  of  ransacking  the  stores  of  old  French  and 
Italian  books,  which  were  in  little  demand  among  the 
bulk  of  his  subscribers.  Here  I  saw  the  unfortunate 
Andrew  Macdonald,  author  of  Vimonda ;  and  here,  too, 
I  saw  at  a  distance  the  boast  of  Scotland,  Robert  Burns. 
Of  the  latter  I  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  speak 
more  fully. 

I  am  inadvertently  led  to  confound-  dates  while  I  talk 
of  this  remote  period,  for,  as  I  have  no  notes,  it  is  impos 
sible  for  me  to  remember  with  accuracy  the  progress  of 
studies,  if  they  deserve  the  name,  so  irregular  and  mis 
cellaneous.  But  about  the  second  year  of  my  appren 
ticeship,  my  health,  which  from  rapid  growth  and  other 
causes,  had  been  hitherto  rather  uncertain  and  delicate, 
was  affected  by  the  breaking  of  a  blood-vessel.  The  regi 
men  I  had  to  undergo  on  this  occasion  was  far  from  agree 
able.  It  was  Spring,  and  the  weather  raw  and  cold,  yet  I 
was  confined  to  bed  with  a  single  blanket,  and  bled  and 
blistered  till  I  scarcely  had  a  pulse  left.  I  had  all  the 
appetite  of  a  growing  boy,  but  was  prohibited  any  sus- 


74  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tenance  beyond  what  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
support  of  nature,  and  that  in  vegetables  alone.  Above 
all,  with  a  considerable  disposition  to  talk,  I  was  not  per 
mitted  to  open  my  lips  without  one  or  two  old  ladies  who 
watched  my  couch  being  ready  at  once  to  souse  upon  me, 
"  imposing  silence  with  a  stilly  sound."  *  My  only  refuge 
was  reading  and  playing  at  chess.  To  the  romances  a  ad 
poetry,  which  I  chiefly  delighted  in,  I  had  always  added 
the  study  of  history,  especially  as  connected  with  military 
events.  I  was  encouraged  in  this  latter  study  by  a  toler 
able  acquaintance  with  geography,  and  by  the  opportuni 
ties  I  had  enjoyed  while  with  Mr.  MacFait  to  learn  the 
meaning  of  the  more  ordinary  terms  of  fortification. 
While,  therefore,  I  lay  in  this  dreary  and  silent  soli 
tude,  I  fell  upon  the  resource  of  illustrating  the  battles  I 
read  of  by  the  childish  expedient  of  arranging  shells,  and 
seeds,  and  pebbles,  so  as  to  represent  encountering  armies. 
Diminutive  cross-bows  were  contrived  to  mimic  artillery, 
and  with  the  assistance  of  a  friendly  carpenter,  I  con 
trived  to  model  a  fortress,  which,  like  that  of  Uncle  Toby, 
represented  whatever  place  happened  to  be  uppermost  in 
my  imagination.  I  fought  my  way  thus  through  Vertot's 
Knights  of  Malta  —  a  book  which,  as  it  hovered  between 
history  and  romance,  was  exceedingly  dear  to  me ;  and 
Orme's  interesting  and  beautiful  History  of  Indostan, 
whose  copious  plans,  aided  by  the  clear  and  luminous  ex 
planations  of  the  author,  rendered  my  imitative  amuse 
ment  peculiarly  easy.  Other  moments  of  these  weary 
weeks  were  spent  in  looking  at  the  Meadow  Walks,  by 
assistance  of  a  combination  of  mirrors  so  arranged  that, 
while  lying  in  bed,  I  could  see  the  troops  march  out  to 
exercise,  or  any  other  incident  which  occurred  on  that 

promenade. 

*  HOME'S  Tragedy  of  Douglas. 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  75 

After  one  or  two  relapses,  my  constitution  recovered 
the  injury  it  had  sustained,  though  for  several  months 
afterwards  I  was  restricted  to  a  severe  vegetable  diet. 
And  I  must  say,  in  passing,  that  though  I  gained  health 
under  this  necessary  restriction,  yet  it  was  far  from  being 
agreeable  to  me,  and  I  was  affected  whilst  under  its 
influence  with  a  nervousness  which  I  never  felt  before 
or  since.  A  disposition  to  start  upon  slight  alarms  —  a 
want  of  decision  in  feeling  and  acting,  which  has  not 
usually  been  my  failing  —  an  acute  sensibility  to  trifling 
inconveniences  —  and  an  unnecessary  apprehension  of 
contingent  misfortunes,  rise  to  my  memory  as  connected 
with  my  vegetable  diet,  although  they  may  very  possibly 
have  been  entirely  the  result  of  the  disorder,  and  not  of 
the  cure.  Be  this  as  it  may,  with  this  illness  I  bade  fare 
well  both  to  disease  and  medicine  ;  for  since  that  time,  till 
the  hour  I  am  now  writing,  I  have  enjoyed  a  state  of  the 
most  robust  health,  having  only  had  to  complain  of  occa 
sional  headaches  or  stomachic  affections  when  I  have 
been  long  without  taking  exercise,  or  have  lived  too  con- 
vivially  —  the  latter  having  been  occasionally  though  not 
habitually  the  error  of  my  youth,  as  the  former  has  been 
of  my  advanced  life. 

My  frame  gradually  became  hardened  with  my  con 
stitution,  and  being  both  tall  and  muscular,  I  was  rather 
disfigured  than  disabled  by  my  lameness.  This  personal 
disadvantage  did  not  prevent  me  from  taking  much  exer 
cise  on  horseback,  and  making  long  journeys  on  foot,  in 
the  course  of  which  I  often  walked  from  twenty  to  thirty 
miles  a  day.  A  distinct  instance  occurs  to  me.  I  remem 
ber  walking  with  poor  James  Ramsay,  my  fellow-appren 
tice,  now  no  more,  and  two  other  friends,  to  breakfast  at 
Prestonpans.  We  spent  the  forenoon  in  visiting  the  ruins 


7b  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

at  Seton,  and  rlie  field  of  battle  at  Preston  —  dined  at 
Prestonpans  on  tiled  haddocks  very  sumptuously  —  drank 
half  a  bottle  of  port  each,  and  returned  in  the  evening. 
This  could  not  be  less  than  thirty  miles,  nor  do  I  remem 
ber  being  at  all  fatigued  upon  the  occasion. 

These  excursions  on  foot  or  horseback  formed  by  far 
my  most  favourite  amusement.  I  have  all  my  life  de 
lighted  in  travelling,  though  I  have  never  enjoyed  that 
pleasure  upon  a  large  scale.  It  was  a  propensity  which 
I  sometimes  indulged  so  unduly  as  to  alarm  and  vex  my 
parents.  Wood,  water,  wilderness  itself,  had  an  inexpres 
sible  charm  for  me,  and  I  had  a  dreamy  way  of  going 
much  farther  than  I  intended,  so  that  unconsciously  my 
return  was  protracted,  and  my  parents  had  sometimes 
serious  cause  of  uneasiness.  For  example,  I  once  set 
out  with  Mr.  George  Abercromby  *  (the  son  of  the  im 
mortal  General),  Mr.  William  Clerk,  and  some  others,  to 
fish  in  the  lake  above  Howgate,  and  the  stream  which 
descends  from  it  into  the  Esk.  We  breakfasted  at  How- 
gate,  and  fished  the  whole  day ;  and  while  we  were  on 
our  return  next  morning,  I  was  easily  seduced  by  William 
Clerk,  then  a  great  intimate,  to  visit  Pennycuik  House, 
the  seat  of  his  family.  Here  he  and  John  Irving,  and  I 
for  their  sake,  were  overwhelmed  with  kindness  by  the 
late  Sir  John  Clerk  and  his  lady,  the  present  Dowager 
Lady  Clerk.  The  pleasure  of  looking  at  fine  pictures, 
the  beauty  of  the  place,  and  the  flattering  hospitality  of 
the  owners,  drowned  all  recollection  of  home  for  a  day  or 
two.  Meanwhile  our  companions,  who  had  walked  OR 
without  being  aware  of  our  digression,  returned  to  Edin 
burgh  without  us,  and  excited  no  small  alarm  in  my 
father's  household.  At  length,  however,  they  became 
*  Now  Lord  Abercromby.  —  [1826.] 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  77 

accustomed  to  my  escapades.  My  father  used  to  protest 
to  me  on  such  occasions  that  he  thought  I  was  born  to 
be  a  strolling  pedlar ;  and  though  the  prediction  was  in 
tended  to  mortify  my  conceit,  I  am  not  sure  that  I  alto 
gether  disliked  it.  I  was  now  familiar  with  Shakspeare, 
and  thought  of  Autolycus's  song  — 

"  Jog  on,  jog  on,  the  foot-path  way, 

And  merrily  hent  the  stile-a: 
A  merry  heart  goes  all  the  day, 
Your  sad  tires  in  a  mile-a." 

My  principal  object  in  these  excursions  was  the  pleas 
ure  of  seeing  romantic  scenery,  or  what  afforded  me  at 
least  equal  pleasure,  the  places  which  had  been  distin 
guished  by  remarkable  historical  events.  The  delight 
with  which  I  regarded  the  former,  of  course  had  general 
approbation,  but  I  often  found  it  difficult  to  procure  sym 
pathy  with  the  interest  I  felt  in  the  latter.  Yet  to  me, 
the  wandering  over  the  field  of  Bannockburn  was  the 
source  of  more  exquisite  pleasure  than  gazing  upon  the 
celebrated  landscape  from  the  battlements  of  Stirling 
castle.  I  do  not  by  any  means  infer  that  I  was  dead  to 
the  feeling  of  picturesque  scenery ;  on  the  contrary,  few 
delighted  more  in  its  general  effect.  But  I  was  unable 
with  the  eye  of  a  painter  to  dissect  the  various  parts  of 
the  scene,  to  comprehend  how  the  one  bore  upon  the 
other,  to  estimate  the  effect  which  various  features  of  the 
view  had  in  producing  its  leading  and  general  effect.  I 
have  never,  indeed,  been  capable  of  doing  this  with  pre 
cision  or  nicety,  though  my  latter  studies  have  led  me  to 
amend  and  arrange  my  original  ideas  upon  the  subject. 
Even  the  humble  ambition,  which  I  long  cherished,  of 
making  sketches  of  those  places  which  interested  me, 
from  a  defect  of  eye  or  of  hand  was  totally  ineffectual 


78  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

After  long  study  and  many  efforts,  I  was  unable  to  apply 
the  elements  of  perspective  or  of  shade  to  the  scene  be 
fore  me,  and  was  obliged  to  relinquish  in  despair  an  art 
which  I  was  most  anxious  to  practise.     But  show  me  an 
old  castle  or  a  field  of  battle,  and  I  was  at  home  at  once, 
filled  it  with  its  combatants  in  their  proper  costume,  and 
overwhelmed  my  hearers  by  the  enthusiasm  of  my  de 
scription.     In  crossing  Magus  Moor,  near  St.  Andrews, 
the  spirit  moved  me  to  give  a  picture  of  the  assassination 
of  the  Archbishop  of  St.  Andrews  to  some  fellow-travel 
lers  with  whom  I  was  accidentally  associated,  and  one  of 
them,  though  well  acquainted  with  the   story,  protested 
my  narrative  had  frightened  away  his  night's  sleep.     I 
mention  this  to  show  the  distinction  between  a  sense  of 
the  picturesque  in  action  and  in  scenery.     If  I  have  since 
been  able  in  poetry  to  trace  with  some  success  the  princi 
ples  of  the  latter,  it  has  always  been  with  reference  to  its 
general  and  leading  features,  or  under  some  alliance  with 
moral  feeling;   and  even  this   proficiency  has    cost  me 
study.  —  Meanwhile  I  endeavoured  to  make  amends  for 
my  ignorance  of  drawing,  by  adopting  a  sort  of  technical 
memory  respecting  the  scenes  I  visited.     Wherever  I 
went,  I  cut  a  piece  of  a  branch  from  a  tree  —  these  con 
stituted  what  I  called  my  log-book ;  and  I  intended  to 
have  a  set  of  chessmen  out  of  them,  each  having  refer 
ence  to  the  place  where  it  was  cut  —  as  the  kings  from 
Falkland  and  Holy-Rood ;  the  queens  from  Queen  Mary's 
yew-tree  at  Crookston ;  the  bishops  from  abbeys  or  epis 
copal  palaces ;  the  knights  from  baronial  residences ;  the 
rooks  from  royal  fortresses  ;    and  the  pawns   generally 
from  places  worthy  of  historical  note.     But  this  whimsi 
cal  design  I  never  carried  into  execution. 

With  music  it  was  even  worse   than  with  painting 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  79 

My  mother  was  anxious  we  should  at  leas>t  learn  Psal 
mody  ;  but  the  incurable  defects  of  my  voice  and  ear  soon 
drove  my  teacher  to  despair.*  It  is  only  by  long  practice 
that  I  have  acquired  the  power  of  selecting  or  distinguish 
ing  melodies;  and  although  now  few  things  delight  or 
affect  me  more  than  a  simple  tune  sung  with  feeling,  yet 
I  am  sensible  that  even  this  pitch  of  musical  taste  has 
only  been  gained  by  attention  and  habit,  and,  as  it  were, 
by  my  feeling  of  the  words  being  associated  with  the 
tune.  I  have,  therefore,  been  usually  unsuccessful  in 
composing  words  to  a  tune,  although  my  friend,  Dr. 
Clarke,  and  other  musical  composers,  have  sometimes 
been  able  to  make  a  happy  union  between  their  music 
and  my  poetry. 

In  other  points,  however,  I  began  to  make  some 
amends  for  the  irregularity  of  my  education.  It  is  well 
known  that  in  Edinburgh  one  great  spur  to  emulation 
among  youthful  students  is  in  those  associations  called 
literary  societies,  formed  not  only  for  the  purpose  of 

*  The  late  Alexander  Campbell,  a  warm-hearted  man,  a»d  an  en 
thusiast  in  Scottish  music,  which  he  sang  most  beautifully,  had  this 
ungrateful  task  imposed  on  him.  He  was  a  man  of  many  accomplish 
ments,  but  dashed  with  a  bizarrerie  of  temper  which  made  them  useless 
to  their  proprietor.  He  wrote  several  books  —  as  a  Tour  in  Scotland, 
&c. ;  —  and  he  made  an  advantageous  marriage,  but  fell  nevertheless 
into  distressed  circumstances,  which  I  had  the  pleasure  of  relieving,  if 
I  could  not  remove.  His  sense  of  gratitude  was  very  strong,  and  showed 
itself  oddly  in  one  respect.  He  would  never  allow  that  I  had  a  bad  ear ; 
but  contended,  that  if  I  did  not  understand  music,  it  was  because  I  did 
not  choose  to  learn  it.  But  when  he  attende'd  us  in  George's  Square, 
our  neighbour,  Lady  Gumming,  sent  to  beg  the  boys  might  not  be  all 
flogged  precisely  at  the  same  hour,  as,  though  she  had  no  doubt  the 
punishment  was  deserved,  the  noise  of  the  concord  was  really  dreadful. 
Robert  was  the  only  one  of  our  family  who  could  sing,  though  my 
father  was  musical,  and  a  performer  on  the  violoncello  at  the  gentle* 
men's  concerts.  —  [1826.] 


80  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

debate,  but  of  composition.  These  undoubtedly  have 
borne  disadvantages,  where  a  bold,  petulant,  and  dispu 
tatious  temper  happens  to  be  combined  with  considerable 
information  and  talent.  Still,  however,  in  order  to  such 
a  person  being  actually  spoiled  by  his  mixing  in  such 
debates,  his  talents  must  be  of  a  very  rare  nature,  or  his 
effrontery  must  be  proof  to  every  species  of  assault ;  for 
there  is  generally,  in  a  well-selected  society  of  this  nature, 
talent  sufficient  to  meet  the  forwardest,  and  satire  enough 
to  penetrate  the  most  undaunted.  I  am  particularly 
obliged  to  this  sort  of  club  for  introducing  me  about  my 
seventeenth  year  into  the  society  which  at  one  time  I 
had  entirely  dropped  ;  for,  from  the  time  of  my  illness  at 
college,  I  had  had  little  or  no  intercourse  with  any  of  my 
class-companions,  one  or  two  only  excepted.  Now,  how 
ever,  about  1788,  I  began  to  feel  and  take  my  ground  in 
society.  A  ready  wit,  a  good  deal  of  enthusiasm,  and  a 
perception  that  soon  ripened  into  tact  and  observation  of 
character,  rendered  me  an  acceptable  companion  to  many 
young  men  whose  acquisitions  in  philosophy  and  science 
were  infinitely  superior  to  any  thing  I  could  boast. 

In  the  business  of  these  societies  —  for  I  was  a  mem 
ber  of  more  than  one  successively  —  I  cannot  boast  of 
having  made  any  great  figure.      I  never  was    a   good 
speaker  unless  upon  some    subject  which   strongly  ani 
mated  my  feelings ;  and,  as  I  was  totally  unaccustomed  \ 
to  composition,  as  well  as  to  the  art  of  generalizing  my   j) 
ideas  upon  any  subject,  my  literary  essays  were  but  verv^/ 
poor  work.     I  never  attempted  them  unless  when  com 
pelled  to  do  so  by  the  regulations  of  the  society,  and  then 
I  was  like  the  Lord  of  Castle  Rackrent,  who  was  obliged 
to  cut  down  a  tree  to  get  a  few  faggots  to  boil  the  kettle 
for  the  quantity  of  ponderous  and  miscellaneous  knowl- 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  81 

edge,  which  I  really  possessed  on  many  subjects,  was  not 
easily  condensed,  or  brought  to  bear  upon  the  object  I 
wished  particularly  to  become  master  of.  Yet  there 
occurred  opportunities  when  this  odd  lumber  of  my  brain, 
especially  that  which  was  connected  with  the  recondite 
parts  of  history,  did  me,  as  Hamlet  says,  "  yeoman's  ser 
vice."  My  memory  of  events  was  like  one  of  the  large, 
old-fashioned  stone-cannons  of  the  Turks  —  very  difficult 
to  load  well  and  discharge,  but  making  a  powerful  effect 
when  by  good  chance  any  object  did  come  within  range 
of  its  shot.  Such  fortunate  opportunities  of  exploding 
with  effect  maintained  my  literary  character  among  my 
companions,  with  whom  I  soon  met  with  great  indulgence 
and  regard.  The  persons  with  whom  I  chiefly  lived  at 
this  period  of  my  youth  were  William  Clerk,  already 
mentioned ;  James  Edmonstoune,  of  Newton ;  George 
Abercromby;  Adam  Fergusson,  son  of  the  celebrated 
Professor  Fergusson,  and  who  combined  the  lightest  and 
most  airy  temper  with  the  best  and  kindest  disposition  ; 
John  Irving,  already  mentioned  ;  the  Honourable  Thomas 
Douglas,  now  Earl  of  Selkirk  ;  David  Boyle,*  —  and  two 
or  three  others,  who  sometimes  plunged  deeply  into  poli 
tics  and  metaphysics,  and  not  unfrequently  "  doffed  the 
world  aside,  and  bid  it  pass." 

Looking  back  on  these  times,  I  cannot  applaud  in  all 
respects  the  way  in  which  our  days  were  spent.  There 
was  too  much  idleness,  and  sometimes  too  much  conviv 
iality  :  but  our  hearts  were  warm,  our  minds  honourably 
bent  on  knowledge  and  literary  distinction  ;  and  if  I,  cer 
tainly  the  least  informed  of  the  party,  may  be  permitted 
to  bear  witness,  we  were  not  without  the  fair  and  cred 
itable  means  of  attaining  the  distinction  to  which  we 
*  Now  Lord  Justice-Clerk.  —  [1826.] 


82  LIFE    01     SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

aspired.  In  this  society  I  was  naturally  led  to  correct 
my  former  useless  course  of  reading ;  for  —  feeling  my 
self  greatly  inferior  to  my  companions  in  metaphysical 
philosophy  and  other  branches  of  regular  study  —  I 
laboured,  not  without  some  success,  to  acquire  at  least 
such  a  portion  of  knowledge  as  might  enable  rne  to  main 
tain  my  rank  in  conversation.  In  this  I  succeeded  pretty 
well ;  but  unfortunately  then,  as  often  since  through  my 
life,  I  incurred  the  deserved  ridicule  of  my  friends  from 
the  superficial  nature  of  my  acquisitions,  which  being, 
hi  the  mercantile  phrase,  got  up  for  society,  very  often 
proved  flimsy  in  the  texture ;  and  thus  the  gifts  of  an 
uncommonly  retentive  memory  and  acute  powers  of  per 
ception  were  sometimes  detrimental  to  their  possessor,  by 
encouraging  him  to  a  presumptuous  reliance  upon  them. 
Amidst  these  studies,  and  in  this  society,  the  time  of 
my  apprenticeship  elapsed ;  and  in  1790,  or  thereabouts, 
it  became  necessary  that  I  should  seriously  consider  to 
which  department  of  the  law  I  was  to  attach  myself. 
My  father  behaved  with  the  most  parental  kindness. 
He  offered,  if  I  preferred  his  own  profession,  immedi 
ately  to  take  me  into  partnership  with  him,  which,  though 
his  business  was  much  diminished,  still  afforded  me  an 
immediate  prospect  of  a  handsome  independence.  But 
he  did  not  disguise  his  wish  that  I  should  relinquish  this 
situation  to  my  younger  brother,  and  embrace  the  more 
ambitious  profession  of  the  bar.  I  had  little  hesitation 
hi  making  my  choice  —  for  I  was  never  very  fond  of 
money ;  and  in  no  other  particular  do  the  professions 
admit  of  a  comparison.  Besides,  I  knew  and  felt  the 
inconveniences  attached  to  that  of  a  writer  ;  and  I 
»hought  (like  a  young  man)  many  of  them  were  "  in- 
genio  non  subeunda  meo."  The  appearance  of  persona] 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  83 

dependence  which  that  profession  requires  was  disagree 
able  to  me ;  the  sort  of  connexion  between  the  client  and 
the  attorney  seemed  to  render  the  latter  more  subservient 
than  was  quite  agreeable  to  my  nature ;  and,  besides,  I 
had  seen  many  sad  examples,  while  overlooking  my 
father's  business,  that  the  utmost  exertions,  and  the  best 
meant  services,  do  not  secure  the  man  of  business,  as  he 
is  called,  from  great  loss,  and  most  ungracious  treatment 
on  the  part  of  his  employers.  The  bar,  though  I  was 
conscious  of  my  deficiencies  as  a  public  speaker,  was  the 
line  of  ambition  and  liberty ;  it  was  that  also  for  which 
most  of  my  contemporary  friends  were  destined.  And, 
lastly,  although  I  would  willingly  have  relieved  my  father 
of  the  labours  of  his  business,  yet  I  saw  plainly  we  could 
not  have  agreed  on  some  particulars  if  we  had  attempted 
to  conduct  it  together,  and  that  I  should  disappoint  his 
expectations  if  I  did  not  turn  to  the  bar.  So  to  that 
object  my  studies  were  directed  with  great  ardour  and 
perseverance  during  the  years  1789,  1790,  1791,  1792. 

In  the  usual  course  of  study,  the  Roman  or  Civil  Law 
was  the  first  object  of  my  attention  —  the  second,  the 
Municipal  Law  of  Scotland.  In  the  course  of  reading 
on  both  subjects,  I  had  the  advantage  of  studying  in  con 
junction  with  my  friend  William  Clerk,  a  man  of  the 
most  acute  intellects  and  powerful  apprehension,  and 
who,  should  he  ever  shake  loose  the  fetters  of  indolence 
by  which  he  has  been  hitherto  trammelled,  cannot  fail  to 
be  distinguished  in  the  highest  degree.  We  attended 
the  regular  classes  of  both  laws  in  the  University  of  Ed 
inburgh.  The  Civil  Law  chair,  now  worthily  filled  by 
Mr.  Alexander  Irving,  might  at  that  time  be  considered 
as  in  abeyance,  since  the  person  by  whom  it  was  occupied 
aad  never  been  fit  for  the  situation,  and  was  then  almost 


84  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

in  a  state  of  dotage.  But  the  Scotch  Law  lectures  were 
those  of  Mr.  David  Hume,  who  still  continues  to  occupy 
that  situation  with  as  much  honour  to  himself  as  advan 
tage  to  his  country.  I  copied  over  his  lectures  twice 
with  my  own  hand,  from  notes  taken  in  the  class  ;  and 
when  I  have  had  occasion  to  consult  them,  I  can  never 
sufficiently  admire  the  penetration  and  clearness  of  con 
ception  which  were  necessary  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
fabric  of  law,  formed  originally  under  the  strictest  influ 
ence  of  feudal  principles,  and  innovated,  altered,  and 
broken  in  upon  by  the  change  of  times,  of  habits,  and  of 
manners,  until  it  resembles  some  ancient  castle,  partly 
entire,  partly  ruinous,  partly  dilapidated,  patched  and 
altered  during  the  succession  of  ages  by  a  thousand 
additions  and  combinations,  yet  still  exhibiting,  with 
the  marks  of  its  antiquity,  symptoms  of  the  skill  and 
wisdom  of  its  founders,  and  capable  of  being  analyzed 
and  made  the  subject  of  a  methodical  plan  by  an 
architect  who  can  understand  the  various  styles  of 
the  different  ages  in  which  it  was  subjected  to  alter 
ation.  Such  an  architect  has  Mr.  Hume  been  to  the 
law  of  Scotland,  neither  wandering  into  fanciful  and  ab 
struse  disquisitions,  which  are  the  more  proper  subject 
of  the  antiquary,  rior  satisfied  with  presenting  to  his 
pupils  a  dry  and  undigested  detail  of  the  laws  in  their 
present  state,  but  combining  the  past  state  of  our  legal 
enactments  with  the  present,  and  tracing  clearly  and 
judiciously  the  changes  which  took  place,  and  the  causes 
which  led  to  them. 

Under  these  auspices,  I  commenced  my  legal  studies. 
A  little  parlour  was  assigned  me  in  my  father's  house, 
which  was  spacious  and  convenient,  and  I  took  the  ex 
elusive  possession  of  my  new  realms  with  all  the  feelings 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY.  85 

.^W-LJLl,       ^V^VIJ,     CVXXVl       l**X^    ,    X^VXX^      XXXV^^XJ.  ^XXV,      X^XV^      WX        XXX  J 

friend  Clerk  and  myself  was,  that  we  should  mutually 
qualify  ourselves  for  undergoing  an  examination  upon 
certain  points  of  law  every  morning  in  the  week,  Sun 
days  excepted.  This  was  at  first  to  have  taken  place 
alternately  at  each  other's  houses,  but  we  soon  discovered 
that  my  friend's  resolution  was  inadequate  to  severing 
him  from  his  couch  at  the  early  hour  fixed  for  this  exer- 
citation.  Accordingly,  I  agreed  to  go  every  morning  to 
his  house,  which,  being  at  the  extremity  of  Prince's 
Street,  New  Town,  was  a  walk  of  two  miles.  With 
great  punctuality,  however,  I  beat  him  up  to  his  task 
every  morning  before  seven  o'clock,  and  in  the  course  of 
two  summers,  we  went,  by  way  of  question  and  answer, 
through  the  whole  of  Heineccius's  Analysis  of  the  Insti 
tutes  and  Pandects,  as  well  as  through  the  smaller  copy 
of  Erskine's  Institutes  of  the  Law  of  Scotland.  This 
course  of  study  enabled  us  to  pass  with  credit  the  usual 
trials,  which,  by  the  regulations  of  the  Faculty  of  Advo 
cates,  must  be  undergone  by  every  candidate  for  admis 
sion  into  their  body.  My  friend  William  Clerk  and  I 
passed  these  ordeals  on  the  same  days  —  namely,  the 
Civil  Law  trial  on  the  [30th  June  1791],  and  the  Scots 
Law  trial  on  the  [6th  July  1792].  On  the  [llth  July 
1792],  we  both  assumed  the  gown  with  all  its  duties  and 
honours. 

My  progress  in  life  during*  these  two  or  three  years 
had  been  gradually  enlarging  my  acquaintance,  and  facil 
itating  my  entrance  into  good  company.  My  father  and 
mother,  already  advanced  in  life,  saw  little  society  at 
home,  excepting  that  of  near  relations,  or  upon  particular 


86  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

occasions,  so  that  I  was  left  to  form  connexions  in  a 
great  measure  for  myself.  It  is  not  difficult  for  a  youth 
with  a  real  desire  to  please  and  be  pleased,  to  make  his 
way  into  good  society  in  Edinburgh  —  or  indeed  any 
where  ;  and  my  family  connexions,  if  they  did  not 
greatly  further,  had  nothing  to  embarrass  my  progress. 
I  was  a  gentleman,  and  so  welcome  any  where,  if  so  be 
I  could  behave  myself,  as  Tony  Lumpkin  says,  "  in  a 
concatenation  accordingly." 


PEDIGREE.  87 


CHAPTER  H. 

illustrations  of  the  Autobiographical  Fragment  —  Edinburgh— 
Sandy-Knowe  —  Bath  —  Prestonpans. 

1771-1778. 

SIR  WALTER  SCOTT  opens  his  brief  account  of  his 
ancestry  with  a  playful  allusion  to  a  trait  of  national 
character,  which  has,  time  out  of  mind,  furnished  merri 
ment  to  the  neighbours  of  the  Scotch ;  but  the  zeal  of 
pedigree  was  deeply  rooted  in  himself,  and  he  would 
have  been  the  last  to  treat  it  with  serious  disparagement. 
It  has  often  been  exhibited  under  circumstances  suffi 
ciently  grotesque  ;  but  it  has  lent  strength  to  many  a 
good  impulse,  sustained  hope  and  self-respect  under 
many  a  difficulty  and  distress,  armed  heart  and  nerve 
to  many  a  bold  and  resolute  struggle  for  independence ; 
and  prompted  also  many  a  generous  act  of  assistance, 
which  under  its  influence  alone  could  have  been  accepted 
without  any  feeling  of  degradation. 

He  speaks  modestly  of  his  own  descent ;  for,  while 
none  of  his  predecessors  had  ever  sunk  below  the  situa 
tion  and  character  of  a  gentleman,  he  had  but  to  go  three 
or  four  generations  back,  and  thence,  as  far  as  they  could 
be  followed,  either  on  the  paternal  or  maternal  side,  they 
were  to  be  found  moving  in  the  highest  ranks  of  our 
baronage.  When  he  fitted  up,  in  his  later  years,  the  beau- 


88  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tifu.1  hall  of  Abbotsford,  he  was  careful  to  have  the  armo 
rial  bearings  of  his  forefathers  blazoned  in  due  order  on 
the  compartments  of  its  roof;  and  there  are  few  in  Scot 
land,  under  the  titled  nobility,  who  could  trace  their  blood 
to  so  many  stocks  of  historical  distinction. 

In  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border,  and  Notes 
to  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  the  reader  will  find 
sundry  notices  of  the  "  Bauld  Rutherfords  that  were  sae 
stout,"  and  the  Swintons  of  Swinton  in  Berwickshire,  the 
two  nearest  houses  on  the  maternal  side.  An  illustrious 
old  warrior  of  the  latter  family,  Sir  John  Swinton,  ex 
tolled  by  Froissart,  is  the  hero  of  the  dramatic  sketch, 
Halidon  Hill ;  and  it  is  not  to  be  omitted,  that  through 
the  Swintons  Sir  Walter  Scott  could  trace  himself  to 
William  Alexander,  Earl  of  Stirling,  the  poet  and  dram 
atist.*  His  respect  for  the  worthy  barons  of  Newmains 
and  Dryburgh,  of  whom,  in  right  of  his  father's  mother 
he  was  the  representative,  and  in  whose  venerable  sepul 
chre  his  remains  now  rest,  was  testified  by  his  "  Memo 
rials  of  the  Haliburtons,"  a  small  volume  printed  (fo> 
private  circulation  only)  in  the  year  1820.  His  OWD 
male  ancestors  of  the  family  of  Harden,  whose  lineage 
is  traced  by  Douglas  in  his  Baronage  of  Scotland  back 

*  On  Sir  Walter's  copy  of  "  Recreations  with  the  Muses,  by  Wil 
liam  Earl  of  Stirling,  1637,"  there  is  the  following  MS.  note:  —  "  Sir 
William  Alexander,  sixth  Baron  of  Menstrie,  and  first  Earl  of  Stirling, 
the  friend  of  Drummond  of  Hawthornden  and  Ben  Jonson,  died  in 
1640.  His  eldest  son,  William  Viscount  Canada,  died  before  his  father 
leaving  one  son  and  three  daughters  by  his  wife,  Lady  Margaret  Doug 
las,  eldest  daughter  of  William,  first  Marquis  of  Douglas.  Margaret, 
the  second  of  these  daughters,  married  Sir  Robert  Sinclair  of  Longfor- 
macus  in  the  Merse,  to  whom  she  bore  two  daughters,  Anne  and  Jean, 
Jean  Sinclair,  the  younger  daughter,  married  Sir  John  Swinton  of 
Swinton;  and  Jean  Swinton,  her  eldest  daughter,  was  the  grandmothei 
of  the  proprietor  of  this  volume." 


PEDIGREE.  —  SATCHELLS.  89 

to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  when  they 
branched  off  from  the  great  blood  of  Buccleuch,  have 
been  so  largely  celebrated  in  his  various  writings,  that  I 
might  perhaps  content  myself  with  a  general  reference 
to  those  pages,  their  only  imperishable  monument.  The 
antique  splendour  of  the  ducal  house  itself  has  been  dig 
nified  to  all  Europe  by  the  pen  of  its  remote  descendant ; 
but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  his  genius  could  have 
been  adequately  developed,  had  he  not  attracted,  at  an 
early  and  critical  period,  the  kindly  recognition  and  sup 
port  of  the  Buccleuchs. 

The  race  had  been  celebrated,  however,  long  before 
his  day,  by  a  minstrel  of  its  own  ;  nor  did  he  conceal  his 
belief  that  he  owed  much  to  the  influence  exerted  over 
his  juvenile  mind  by  the  rude  but  enthusiastic  clan- 
poetry  of  old  Satchells,  who  describes  himself  on  his  title- 
page  as 

"  Captain  Walter  Scot,  an  old  Souldier  and  no  Scholler, 
And  one  that  can  write  nane, 
But  just  the  Letters  of  his  Name." 

His  "True  History  of  several  honourable  Families  of 
the  Right  Honourable  Name  of  Scot,  in  the  Shires  of 
Roxburgh  and  Selkirk,  and  others  adjacent,  gathered  out 
of  Ancient  Chronicles,  Histories,  and  Traditions  of  our 
Fathers,"  includes,  among  other  things,  a  string  of  com 
plimentary  rhymes  addressed  to  the  first  Laird  of  Rae- 
burn  ;  and  the  copy  which  had  belonged  to  that  gentleman 
was  in  all  likelihood  about  the  first  book  of  verses  that 
fell  into  the  poet's  hand.*  How  continually  its  wild  and 

*  His  family  well  remember  the  delight  which  he  expressed  on  re 
ceiving,  in  1818,  a  copy  of  this  first  edition,  a  small  dark  quarto  of  1688, 
from  his  friend  Constable.  He  was  breakfasting  when  the  present  was 
delivered,  and  said,  "  This  is  indeed  the  resurrection  of  an  old  ally  — 


DO  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

uncouth  doggrel  was  on  his  lips  to  his  latest  day,  all  his 
familiars  can  testify ;  and  the  passages  which  he  quoted 
with  the  greatest  zest  were  those  commemorative  of 
two  ancient  worthies,  both  of  whom  had  had  to  contend 
against  physical  misfortune  similar  to  his  own.  The 
former  of  these,  according  to  Satchells,  was  the  imme 
diate  founder  of  the  branch  originally  designed  of  Sinton, 
afterwards  of  Harden :  — 

"  It  is  four  hundred  winters  past  in  order 
Since  that  Buccleuch  was  Warden  in  the  Border; 
A  son  he  had  at  that  same  tide, 
Which  was  so  lame  could  neither  run  nor  ride. 

I  mind  spelling  these  lines."  He  read  aloud  the  jingling  epistle  to  his 
own  great-great-grandfather,  which,  like  the  rest,  concludes  with  a 
broad  hint,  that,  as  the  author  had  neither  lands  nor  flocks  —  "  no  es 
tate  left  except  his  designation  "  — the  more  fortunate  kinsman  who 
enjoyed,  like  Jason  of  old,  a  fair  share  of  fleeces,  might  do  worse  than 
bestow  on  him  some  of  King  James's  broad  pieces.  On  rising  from 
table,  Sir  Walter  immediately  wrote  as  follows  on  the  blank  leaf  oppo 
site  to  poor  Satchell' s  honest  title-page  — 

"  I,  Walter  Scott  of  Abbotsford,  a  poor  scholar,  no  soldier,  but  a  soldier's 

lover, 

In  the  style  of  my  namesake  and  kinsman  do  hereby  discover, 
That  I  have  written  the   twenty-four  letters  twenty-four  million  timel 

over; 

And  to  every  true-born  Scott  I  do  wish  as  many  golden  pieces 
As  ever  were  hairs  in  Jason's  and  Medea's  golden  fleeces." 

The  rarity  of  the  original  edition  of  Satchells  is  such,  that  the  copy 
DOW  at  Abbotsford  was  the  only  one  Mr.  Constable  had  ever  seen  — • 
and  no  wonder,  for  the  author's  envoy  is  in  these  words:  — 

"  Begone,  my  book,  stretch  forth  thy  wings  and  fly 
Amongst  the  nobles  and  gentility  ; 
Thou'rt  not  to  sell  to  scavengers  and  clowns, 
But  given  to  worthy  persons  of  renown. 
The  number's  few  I've  printed,  in  regard 
My  charges  have  been  great,  and  I  hope  reward ; 
I  caus'd  not  print  many  above  twelve  score, 
And  the  printers  are  engaged  that  they  shall  print  no  more." 


PEDIGREE. SATCHELLS.  91 

John,  this  lame  son,  if  my  author  speaks  true, 

He  sent  him  to  St.  Mungo's  in  Glasgu, 

Where  he  remained  a  scholar's  time, 

Then  married  a  wife  according  to  his  mind.    .    .    • 

And  betwixt  them  twa  was  procreat 

Headshaw,  Askirk,  SINTON,  and  Glack." 

But,  if  the  scholarship  of  John  the  Lamiter  furnished  his 
descendant  with  many  a  mirthful  allusion,  a  far  greater 
favourite  was  the  memory  of  William  the  Boltfoot,  who 
Allowed  him  in  the  sixth  generation. 

"  The  Laird  and  Lady  of  Harden 
Betwixt  them  procreat  was  a  son 
Called  William  Boltfoot  of  Harden  "  — 

The  emphasis  with  which  this  next  line  was  quoted  I  can 
never  forget  — 

"  He  did  survive  to  be  A.  MAN." 

He  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  "prowest  knights"  of  the 
whole  genealogy — a  fearless  horseman  and  expert  spear 
man,  renowned  and  dreaded ;  and  I  suppose  I  have  heard 
Sir  Walter  repeat  a  dozen  times,  as  he  was  dashing  into 
the  Tweed  or  Ettrick,  "  rolling  red  from  brae  to  brae,"  a 
stanza  from  what  he  called  an  old  ballad,  though  it  was 
most  likely  one  of  his  own  early  imitations  :  — 

"  To  tak  the  foord  he  aye  was  first, 

Unless  the  English  loons  were  near; 
Plunge  vassal  than,  plunge  horse  and  man, 
Auld  Boltfoot  rides  into  the  rear." 

"  From  childhood's  earliest  hour,"  says  the  poet  in  one 
of  his  last  Journals,  "  I  have  rebelled  against  external 
circumstances."  How  largely  the  traditional  famousness 
of  the  stalwart  Boltfoot  may  have  helped  to  develope  this 
element  of  his  character,  I  do  not  pretend  to  say ;  but  I 
cannot  avoid  regretting  that  Lord  Byron  had  not  dis- 


i)2  LIP  3J    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

covered  such  another  "  Deformed  Transformed  '  among 
his  own  chivalrous  progenitors. 

So  long  as  Sir  Walter  retained  his  vigorous  habits,  he 
used  to  make  an  autumnal  excursion,  with  whatever 
friend  happened  to  be  his  guest  at  the  time,  to  the  tower 
of  Harden,  the  incunabula  of  his  race.  A  more  pictu 
resque  scene  for  the  fastness  of  a  lineage  of  Border 
marauders  could  not  be  conceived ;  and  so  much  did  he 
delight  in  it,  remote  and  inaccessible  as  its  situation  is, 
that,  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  life,  he  had  nearly  availed 
himself  of  his  kinsman's  permission  to  fit  up  the  dilapi 
dated  peel  for  his  summer  residence.  Harden  (the  ravine 
of  hares)  is  a  deep,  dark,  and  narrow  glen,  along  which  a 
little  mountain  brook  flows  to  join  the  river  Borthwick, 
itself  a  tributary  of  the  Teviot.  The  castle  is  perched  on 
the  brink  of  the  precipitous  bank,  and  from  the  ruinous 
windows  you  look  down  into  the  crows'  nests  on  the  sum 
mits  of  the  old  mouldering  elms,  that  have  their  roots  on 
the  margin  of  the  stream  far  below :  — 

f<  Where  Bortha  hoarse,  that  loads  the  meads  with  sand, 
Rolls  her  red  tide  to  Teviot's  western  strand, 
Through  slaty  hills,  whose  sides  are  shagged  with  thorn, 
Where  springs  in  scattered  tufts  the  dark-green  corn, 
Towers  wood-girt  Harden  far  above  the  vale, 
And  clouds  of  ravens  o'er  the  turrets  sail. 
A  hardy  race  who  never  shrunk  from  war, 
The  Scott,  to  rival  realms  a  mighty  bar, 
Here  fixed  his  mountain  home ;  —  a  wide  domain, 
And  rich  the  soil,  had  purple  heath  been  grain ; 
But  what  the  niggard  ground  of  wealth  denied, 
From  fields  more  bless'd  his  fearless  arm  supplied."  * 

*  Leyden,  the  author  of  these  beautiful  lines,  has  borrowed,  as  tho 
Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  did  also,  from  one  of  Satchells'  primitive 
couplets  — 

"  If  heather-tops  had  been  corn  of  the  best, 
Then  Buccleugh  mill  had  gotten  a  noble  grist." 


PEDIGREE. HARDEN.  93 

It  was  to  this  wild  retreat  that  the  Harden  of  the  Lay 
»f  the  Last  Minstrel,  the  Auld  Wat  of  a  hundred  Border 
ditties,  brought  home,  in  1567,  his  beautiful  bride,  Mary 
Scott,  "  the  Flower  of  Yarrow,"  whose  grace  and  gentle 
ness  have  lived  in  song  along  with  the  stern  virtues  of 
her  lord.  She  is  said  to  have  chiefly  owed  her  celebrity 
to  the  gratitude  of  an  English  captive,  a  beautiful  child, 
whom  she  rescued  from  the  tender  mercies  of  Wat's 
moss-troopers,  on  their  return  from  a  foray  into  Cumber 
land.  The  youth  grew  up  under  her  protection,  and  is 
believed  to  have  been  the  composer  both  of  the  words 
and  the  music  of  many  of  the  best  old  songs  of  the 
Border.  As  Leyden  says, 

"  His  are  the  strains  whose  wandering  echoes  thrill 
The  shepherd  lingering  on  the  twilight  hill, 
When  evening  brings  the  merry  folding  hours, 
And  sun-eyed  daisies  close  their  winking  flowers. 
He  lived  o'er  Yarrow's  Flower  to  shed  the  tear, 
To  strew  the  holly  leaves  o'er  Harden's  bier; 
But  none  was  found  above  the  minstrel's  tomb, 
Emblem  of  peace,  to  bid  the  daisy  bloom. 
He,  nameless  as  the  race  from  which  he  sprung, 
Saved  other  names,  and  left  his  own  unsung." 

We  are  told,  that  when  the  last  bullock  which  Auld 
Wat  had  provided  from  the  English  pastures  was  con- 
flumed,  the  Flower  of  Yarrow  placed  on  her  table  a  dish 
containing  a  pair  of  clean  spurs  ;  a  hint  to  the  company 
that  they  must  bestir  themselves  for  their  next  dinner. 
Sir  Walter  adds,  in  a  note  to  the  Minstrelsy,  "  Upon  one 
occasion  when  the  village  herd  was  driving  out  the  cattle 
to  pasture,  the  old  laird  heard  him  call  loudly  to  drive 
out  Harden's  cow.  '  Harden's  cow! '  echoed  the  affronted 
shief ;  4  is  it  come  to  that  pass  ?  By  my  faith  they  shall 
soon  say  Harden's  kye '  (cows.)  Accordingly,  he  sounded 


94  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

his  bugle,  set  out  with  his  followers,  and  next  day  re 
turned  with  a  bow  of  kye,  and  a  bassen'd  (brindled)  bull. 
On  his  return  with  this  gallant  prey,  he  passed  a  very 
large  haystack.  It  occurred  to  the  provident  laird  that 
this  would  be  extremely  convenient  to  fodder  his  new 
stock  of  cattle ;  but  as  no  means  of  transporting  it  were 
obvious,  he  was  fain  to  take  leave  of  it  with  the  apos 
trophe,  now  become  proverbial  — '  By  my  saul,  had  ye 
but  four  feet,  ye  should  not  stand  Ian ff  there.'  In  short, 
as  Froissart  says  of  a  similar  class  of  feudal  robbers, 
nothing  came  amiss  to  them  that  was  not  too  heavy  or 
too  hot." 

Another  striking  chapter  in  the  genealogical  history 
belongs  to  the  marriage  of  Auld  Wat's  son  and  heir, 
afterwards  Sir  William  Scott  of  Harden,  distinguished  by 
the  early  favour  of  James  VI.,  and  severely  fined  for  his 
loyalty  under  the  usurpation  of  Cromwell.  The  period 
of  this  gentleman's  youth  was  a  very  wild  one  in  that 
district.  The  Border  clans  still  made  war  on  each  other 
occasionally,  much  in  the  fashion  of  their  forefathers  ; 
and  the  young  and  handsome  heir  of  Harden,  engaging 
in  a  foray  upon  the  lands  of  Sir  Gideon  Murray  of  Eli- 
bank,  treasurer-depute  of  Scotland,  was  overpowered  by 
that  baron's  retainers,  and  carried  in  shackles  to  his 
castle,  now  a  heap  of  ruins,  on  the  banks  of  the  Tweed. 
Elibank's  "  doomtree  "  extended  its  broad  arms  close  to 
the  gates  of  his  fortress,  and  the  indignant  laird  was  on 
the  point  of  desiring  his  prisoner  to  say  a  last  prayer 
when  his  more  considerate  dame  interposed  milder  coun 
sels,  suggesting  that  the  culprit  was  born  to  a  good  estate, 
and  that  they  had  three  unmarried  daughters.  Young 
Harden,  not,  it  is  said,  without  hesitation,  agreed  to  save 
his  life  by  taking  the  plainest  of  the  three  off  their  hands 


PEDIGREE.  95 

and  the  contract  of  marriage,  executed  instantly  on  the 
parchment  of  a  drum,  is  still  in  the  charter-chest  of  his 
noble  representative. 

Walter  Scott,  the  third  son  of  this  couple,  was  the 
first  Laird  of  Raeburn,  already  alluded  to  as  one  of  the 
patrons  of  Satchells.  He  married  Isabel  Macdougal, 
daughter  of  Macdougal  of  Mackerstoun  —  a  family  of 
great  antiquity  and  distinction  in  Roxburghshire,  of 
whose  blood,  through  various  alliances,  the  poet  had  a 
large  share  in  his  veins.  Raeburn,  though  the  son  and 
brother  of  two  steady  cavaliers,  and  married  into  a  family 
of  the  same  political  creed,  became  a  Whig,  and  at  last  a 
Quaker ;  and  the  reader  will  find,  in  one  of  the  notes  to 
The  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian,  a  singular  account  of  the  per 
secution  to  which  this  backsliding  exposed  him  at  the 
hands  of  both  his  own  and  his  wife's  relations.  He  was 
incarcerated  (A.  D.  1665),  first  at  Edinburgh  and  then  at 
Jedburgh,  by  order  of  the  Privy  Council  —  his  children 
were  forcibly  taken  from  him,  and  a  heavy  sum  was 
levied  on  his  estate  yearly,  for  the  purposes  of  their  edu 
cation  beyond  the  reach  of  his  perilous  influence.  "  It 
appears,"  says  Sir  Walter,  in  a  MS.  memorandum  now 
before  me,  "  that  the  Laird  of  Makerstoun,  his  brother- 
in-law,  joined  with  Raeburn's  own  elder  brother,  Harden, 
in  this  singular  persecution,  as  it  will  now  be  termed  by 
Christians  of  all  persuasions.  It  was  observed  by  the 
people  that  the  male  line  of  the  second  Sir  William  of 
Harden  became  extinct  in  1710,  and  that  the  representa 
tion  of  Makerstoun  soon  passed  into  the  female  line. 
They  assigned  as  a  cause,  that  when  the  wife  of  Raeburn 
found  herself  deprived  of  her  husband,  and  refused  per 
mission  even  to  see  her  children,  she  pronounced  a  male- 
iiction  on  her  husband's  brother  as  well  as  on  her  own, 


06  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  prayed  that  a  male  of  their  body  might  not  inherit 
their  property." 

The  MS.  adds,  "  of  the  first  Raeburn's  two  sons  k  may 
be  observed,  that,  thanks  to  the  discipline  of  the  Privy 
Council,  they  were  both  good  scholars."  Of  these  sons, 
Walter,  the  second,  was  the  poet's  great-grandfather,  the 
enthusiastic  Jacobite  of  the  autobiographical  fragment,  — 
who  is  introduced, 

"  With  amber  beard  and  flaxen  hair, 
And  reverend  apostolic  air," 

in  the  epistle  prefixed  to  the  sixth  canto  of  Marmion. 
A  good  portrait  of  Bearded  Wat,  painted  for  his  friend 
Pitcairn,  was  presented  by  the  Doctor's  grandson,  the 
Earl  of  Kellie,  to  the  father  of  Sir  Walter.  It  is  now  at 
Abbotsford ;  and  shows  a  considerable  resemblance  to 
the  poet.  Some  verses  addressed  to  the  original  by  his 
kinsman  Walter  Scott  of  Harden,  are  given  in  one  of  the 
Notes  to  Marmion.  The  old  gentleman  himself  is  said 
to  have  written  verses  occasionally,  both  English  and 
Latin ;  but  I  never  heard  more  than  the  burden  of  a 
drinking-song  — 

"  Barba  crescat,  barba  crescat, 
Donee  carduus  revirescat."  * 

*  Since  this  book  was  first  published,  I  have  seen  in  print  "  A  Poem 
on  the  Death  of  Master  Walter  Scott,  who  died  at  Kelso,  November  3 
1729,"  written,  it  is  said,  by  Sir  William  Scott  of  Thirlestane,  BarU 
the  male  ancestor  of  Lord  Napier.    It  has  these  lines :  — 
"  His  converse  breathed  the  Christian.    On  his  tongue 
The  praises  of  religion  ever  hung ; 
Whence  it  appeared  he  did  on  solid  ground 
Commend  the  pleasures  which  himself  had  found.  .  . 
His  venerable  mien  and  goodly  air 
Fix  on  our  hearts  impressions  strong  and  fair. 
Full  seventy  years  had  shed  their  silvery  glow 
Around  his  locks,  and  made  his  beard  to  grow ; 
That  decent  beard,  which  in  becoming  grace 
Did  spread  a  reverend  honour  on  his  face,"  &c.  — [1888.] 


PARENTAGE.  97 

Scantily  as  the  worthy  Jacobite  seems  to  have  been 
provided  with  this  world's  goods,  he  married  the  daughter 
of  a  gentleman  of  good  condition,  "  through  whom,"  says 
the  MS.  memorandum  already  quoted,  "  his  descend 
ants  have  inherited  a  connexion  with  some  honourable 
branches  of  the  Slioch  nan  Diarmid,  or  Clan  of  Camp 
bell,"  To  this  connexion  Sir  Walter  owed,  as  we  shall 
see  hereafter,  many  of  those  early  opportunities  for 
studying  the  manners  of  the  Highlanders,  to  which  the 
world  are  indebted  for  Waverley,  Rob  Roy,  and  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake. 

Robert  Scott,  the  son  of  Beardie,  formed  also  an  hon 
ourable  alliance.  His  father-in-law,  Thomas  Halibur- 
ton,*  the  last  but  one  of  the  "  good  lairds  of  Newmains," 
entered  his  marriage  as  follows  in  the  domestic  record, 
which  Sir  Walter's  pious  respect  induced  him  to  have 
printed  nearly  a  century  afterwards  :  — "  My  second 

* "  From  the  genealogical  deduction  in  the  Memorials,  it  appears 
that  the  Haliburtons  of  Newmains  were  descended  from  and  repre 
sented  the  ancient  and  once  powerful  family  of  Haliburton  of  Mertoun, 
which  became  extinct  in  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The 
first  of  this  latter  family  possessed  the  lands  and  barony  of  Mertoun  by 
a  charter  granted  by  Archibald  Earl  of  Douglas  and  Lord  of  Galloway 
(one  of  those  tremendous  lords  whose  coronets  counterpoised  the 
Scottish  crown)  to  Henry  de  Haliburton,  whom  he  designates  as  his 
standard-bearer,  on  account  of  his  service  to  the  earl  in  England.  On 
this  account  the  Haliburtons  of  Mertoun  and  those  of  Newmains,  in 
addition  to  the  arms  borne  by  the  Haliburtons  of  Dirleton  (the  ancient 
chiefs  of  that  once  great  and  powerful,  but  now  almost  extinguished 
lame)  —  viz.  or,  on  a  bend  azure,  three  mascles  of  the  first  —  gave  the 
distinctive  bearing  of  a  buckle  of  the  second  in  the  sinister  canton. 
These  arms  still  appear  on  various  jld  tombs  in  the  abbeys  of  MeLrose 
and  Dryburgh,  as  well  as  on  their  house  at  Dryburgh,  which  was  built 
in  1572."  —  MS.  Memorandum,  1820.  Sir  Walter  was  served  heir  to 
these  Haliburtons  soon  after  the  date  of  this  Memorandum,  and  thence 
forth  quartered  the  arms  above  described  with  those  of  his  paternal 
family. 


98  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

daughter  Barbara  is  married  to  Robert  Scott,  son  to 
Walter  Seott,  uncle  to  Raeburn,  upon  this  sixteen  day 
of  July  1728,  at  my  house  of  Dryburgh,  by  Mr.  James 
Innes,  minister  of  Mertoun,  their  mothers  being  cousings  ; 
may  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  rest  upon  them,  and  make 
them  comforts  to  each  other  and  to  all  their  relations ; " 
to  which  the  editor  of  the  Memorials  adds  this  note  — • • 
"  May  God  grant  that  the  prayers  of  the  excellent  per 
sons  who  have  passed  away,  may  avail  for  the  benefit  of 
those  who  succeed  them  !  —  Abbotsford,  Nov.  1824." 

I  need  scarcely  remind  the  reader  of  the  exquisite 
description  of  the  poet's  grandfather,  in  the  Introduction 
to  the  third  canto  of  Marmion  — 

"  the  thatched  mansion's  grey-hair' d  sire, 

Wise  without  learning,  plain  and  good, 
And  sprung  of  Scotland's  gentler  blood; 
Whose  eye,  in  age  quick,  clear,  and  keen, 
Showed  what  in  youth  its  glance  had  been ; 
Whose  doom  discording  neighbours  sought, 
Content  with  equity  unbought." 

In  the  Preface  to  Guy  Mannering,  we  have  an  anecdote 
of  Robert  Scott  in  his  earlier  days :  "  My  grandfather, 
while  riding  over  Charterhouse  Moor,  then  a  very  ex 
tensive  common,  fell  suddenly  among  a  large  band  of 
gipsies,  who  were  carousing  in  a  hollow  surrounded  by 
bushes.  They  instantly  seized  on  his  bridle  with  shouts 
of  welcome,  exclaiming  that  they  had  often  dined  at  his 
expense,  and  he  must  now  stay  and  share  their  cheer 
My  ancestor  was  a  little  alarmed,  for  he  had  more  money 
about  his  person  than  he  cared  to  risk  in  such  society. 
However,  being  naturally  a  bold  lively-spirited  man,  he 
entered  into  the  humour  of  the  thing,  and  sat  down  to  the 
feast,  which  consisted  of  all  the  varieties  of  game,  poultry 


PARENTAGE.  99 

pigs,  and  so  forth,  that  could  be  collected  by  a  wide  and 
indiscriminate  system  of  plunder.  The  dinner  was  a 
very  merry  one,  but  my  relative  got  a  hint  from  some  of 
the  older  gipsies,  just  when  '  the  mirth  and  fun  grew  fast 
and  furious,'  and  mounting  his  horse  accordingly,  he  took 
a  French  leave  of  his  entertainers."  His  grandson  might 
have  reported  more  than  one  scene  of  the  like  sort  in 
which  he  was  himself  engaged,  while  hunting  the  same 
district,  not  in  quest  of  foxes  or  of  cattle  sales,  like  the 
goodman  of  Sandy- Knowe,  but  of  ballads  for  the  Min 
strelsy.  Gipsy  stories,  as  we  are  told  in  the  same  Pref 
ace,  were  frequently  in  the  mouth  of  the  old  man  when 
his  face  "  brightened  at  the  evening  fire,"  in  the  days  of 
the  poet's  childhood.  And  he  adds,  that  "  as  Dr.  John 
son  had  a  shadowy  recollection  of  Queen  Anne  as  a 
stately  lady  in  black,  adorned  with  diamonds,"  so  his  own 
memory  was  haunted  with  "  a  solemn  remembrance  of 
a  woman  of  more  than  female  height,  dressed  in  a  long 
red  cloak,  who  once  made  her  appearance  beneath  the 
thatched  roof  of  Sandy-Knowe,  commenced  acquaintance 
by  giving  him  an  apple,  and  whom  he  looked  on,  never 
theless,  with  as  much  awe  as  the  future  doctor,  High 
Church  and  Tory  as  he  was  doomed  to  be,  could  look 
upon  the  Queen."  This  was  Madge  Gordon,  grand 
daughter  of  Jean  Gordon,  the  prototype  of  Meg  Mer- 
rilees. 

Of  Robert  of  Sandy-Knowe,  also,  there  is  a  very  tol 
erable  portrait  at  Abbotsford,  and  the  likeness  of  the  poet 
to  his  grandfather  must  have  forcibly  struck  every  one 
who  has  seen  it.  Indeed,  but  for  its  wanting  some  inches 
in  elevation  of  forehead  —  (a  considerable  want,  it  must 
be  allowed)  —  the  picture  might  be  mistaken  for  one  of 
Sir  Walter  Scott.  The  keen  shrewd  expression  of  the 


100  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

eye,  and  the  remarkable  length  and  compression  of  the 
upper  lip,  bring  him  exactly  before  me  as  he  appeared 
when  entering  with  all  the  zeal  of  a  professional  agricul 
turist  into  the  merits  of  a  pit  of  marie  discovered  at 
Abbotsford.  Had  the  old  man  been  represented  with 
his  cap  on  his  head,  the  resemblance  to  one  particular 
phasis  of  the  most  changeful  of  countenances  would  have 
been  perfect. 

Robert  Scott  had  a  numerous  progeny,  and  Sir  Walter 
has  intimated  his  intention  of  recording  several  of  them 
u  with  a  sincere  tribute  of  gratitude  "  in  the  contemplated 
prosecution  of  his  autobiography.  Two  of  the  younger 
sons  were  bred  to  the  naval  service  of  the  East  India 
Company ;  one  of  whom  died  early  and  unmarried  ;  the 
other  was  the  excellent  Captain  Robert  Scott,  of  whose 
kindness  to  his  nephew  some  particulars  are  given  in 
the  Ashestiel  Fragment,  and  more  will  occur  hereafter. 
Another  son,  Thomas,  followed  the  profession  of  his 
father  with  ability,  and  retired  in  old  age  upon  a  hand 
some  independence,  acquired  by  his  industrious  exertions. 
He  was  twice  married,  —  first  to  his  near  relation,  a 
daughter  of  Raeburn  ;  and  secondly  to  Miss  Rutherford 
of  Know-South,  the  estate  of  which  respectable  family 
is  now  possessed  by  his  son  Charles  Scott,  an  amiable 
and  high-spirited  gentleman,  who  was  always  a  -pecial 
favourite  with  his  eminent  kinsman.  The  death  of 
Thomas  Scott  is  thus  recorded  in  one  of  the  MS.  notes 
on  his  nephew's  own  copy  of  the  Haliburton  Memorials 
—  "  The  said  Thomas  Scott  died  at  Monklaw,  near  Jed- 
burgh,  at  two  of  the  clock,  27th  January  1823,  in  the 
90th  year  of  his  life,  and  fully  possessed  of  all  his  facul 
ties.  He  read  till  nearly  the  year  before  his  death  ;  and 
being  a  great  musician  on  the  Scotch  pipes,  had,  when 


PARENTAGE.  101 

on  his  deathbed,  a  favourite  tune  played  over  to  him  bj 
his  son  James,  that  he  might  be  sure  he  left  him  in  full 
possession  of  it.  After  hearing  it,  he  hummed  it  over 
himself,  and  corrected  it  in  several  of  the  notes.  The 
air  was  that  called  Sour  Plums  in  Galashiels.  When 
barks  and  other  tonics  were  given  him  during  his  last 
illness,  he  privately  spat  them  into  his  handkerchief,  say 
ing,  as  he  had  lived  all  his  life  without  taking  doctor's 
drugs,  he  wished  to  die  without  doing  so." 

I  visited  this  old  man,  two  years  before  his  death,  in 
company  with  Sir  Walter,  and  thought  him  about  the 
most  venerable  figure  I  had  ever  set  my  eyes  on  —  tall 
and  erect,  with  long  flowing  tresses  of  the  most  silvery- 
whiteness,  and  stockings  rolled  up  over  his  knees,  after 
the  fashion  of  three  generations  back.  He  sat  reading 
his  Bible  without  spectacles,  and  did  not,  for  a  moment, 
perceive  that  any  one  had  entered  his  room,  but  on  recog 
nizing  his  nephew  he  rose,  with  cordial  alacrity,  kissing 
him  on  both  cheeks,  and  exclaiming,  "  God  bless  thee, 
Walter,  my  man !  thou  hast  risen  to  be  great,  but  thou 
wast  always  good."  His  remarks  were  lively  and  saga 
cious,  and  delivered  with  a  touch  of  that  humour  which 
seems  to  have  been  shared  by  most  of  the  family.  He 
had  the  air  and  manner  of  an  ancient  gentleman,  and 
must  in  his  day  have  been  eminently  handsome.  I  saw 
more  than  once,  about  the  same  period,  this  respectable 
man's  sister,  who  had  married  her  cousin  Walter,  Laird 
of  Raeburn  —  thus  adding  a  new  link  to  the  closeness  of 
the  family  connexion.  She  also  must  have  been,  in  her 
youth,  remarkable  for  personal  attractions ;  as  it  was,  she 
dwells  on  my  memory  as  the  perfect  picture  of  an  old 
Scotch  lady,  with  a  great  deal  of  simple  dignity  in  her 
bearing,  but  with  the  softest  eye,  and  the  sweetest  voice, 


102  LIF^    OF    SIP,    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  a  charm  of  meekness  and  gentleness  about  every 
look  and  expression  ;  all  which  contrasted  strikingly 
enough  with  the  stern  dry  aspect  and  manners  of  her 
husband,  a  right  descendant  of  the  moss-troopers  of  Har 
den,  who  never  seemed  at  his  ease  but  on  horseback,  and 
continued  to  be  the  boldest  fox-hunter  of  the  district, 
even  to  the  verge  of  eighty.  The  poet's  aunt  spoke  her 
native  language  pure  and  undiluted,  but  without  the 
slightest  tincture  of  that  vulgarity  which  now  seems  al 
most  unavoidable  in  the  oral  use  of  a  dialect  so  long  ban 
ished  from  courts,  and  which  has  not  been  avoided  by 
any  modern  writer  who  has  ventured  to  introduce  it,  with 
the  exception  of  Scott,  and  I  may  add,  speaking  gener 
ally,  of  Burns.  Lady  Raeburri,  as  she  was  universally 
styled,  may  be  numbered  with  those  friends  of  early 
days  whom  her  nephew  has  alluded  to  in  one  of  his  pref 
aces,  as  preserving  what  we  may  fancy  to  have  been  the 
old  Scotch  of  Holyrood. 

The  particulars  which  I  have  been  setting  down  may 
help  English  readers  to  form  some  notion  of  the  struct 
ure  of  society  in  those  southern  districts  of  Scotland. 
When  Satchells  wrote,  he  boasted  that  Buccleuch  could 
summon  to  his  banner  one  hundred  lairds,  all  of  his  own 
name,  with  ten  thousand  more  —  landless  men,  but  stil] 
of  the  same  blood.  The  younger  sons  of  these  various 
lairds  were,  through  many  successive  generations,  por 
tioned  off  with  fragments  of  the  inheritance,  until  such 
subdivision  could  be  carried  no  farther,  and  then  the 
cadet,  of  necessity,  either  adopted  the  profession  of  arms, 
in  some  foreign  service  very  frequently,  or  became  a 
cultivator  on  the  estate  of  his  own  elder  brother,  of  the 
chieftain  of  his  branch,  or  of  the  great  chief  and  patri 
archal  protector  of  the  whole  clan.  Until  the  commerce 


PARENTAGE.  103 

of  England,  and  above  all,  the  military  and  civil  services 
of  the  English  colonies,  were  thrown  open  to  the  enter 
prise  of  the  Scotch,  this  system  of  things  continued  en 
tire.  It  still  remained  in  force  to  a  considerable  extent 
at  the  time  when  the  Goodman  of  Sandy-Knowe  was 
establishing  his  children  in  the  world  —  and  I  am  happy 
to  say,  that  it  is  far  from  being  abolished  even  at  the 
present  day.  It  was  a  system  which  bound  together  the 
various  classes  of  the  rural  population  in  bonds  of  mu 
tual  love  and  confidence  :  the  original  community  of  lin 
eage  was  equally  remembered  on  all  sides  ;  the  landlord 
could  count  for  more  than  his  rent  on  the  tenant,  who 
regarded  him  rather  as  a  father  or  an  elder  brother,  than 
as  one  who  owed  his  superiority  to  mere  wealth  ;  and  the 
farmer  who,  on  fit  occasions,  partook  on  equal  terms  of 
the  chase  and  the  hospitality  of  his  landlord,  went  back 
with  content  and  satisfaction  to  the  daily  labours  of  a 
vocation  which  he  found  no  one  disposed  to  consider  as 
derogating  from  his  gentle  blood.  Such  delusions,  if  de 
lusions  they  were,  held  the  natural  arrogance  of  riches  in 
check,  taught  the  poor  man  to  believe  that  in  virtuous 
poverty  he  had  nothing  to  blush  for,  and  spread  over  the 
whole  being  of  the  community  the  gracious  spirit  of  a 
primitive  humanity. 

Walter  Scott,  the  eldest  son  of  Robert  of  Sandy- 
Knowe,  appears  to  have  been  the  first  of  the  family 
that  ever  adopted  a  town  life,  or  any  thing  claiming  to  be 
classed  among  the  learned  professions.  His  branch  of 
the  law,  however,  could  not  in  those  days  be  advanta 
geously  prosecuted  without  extensive  connexions  in  the 
Country  ;  his  own  were  too  respectable  not  to  be  of  much 
service  to  him  in  his  calling,  and  they  were  cultivated 
accordingly.  His  professional  visits  to  Roxburghshire 


104  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  Ettrick  Forest  were,  in  his  vigorous  life,  very  fre 
quent  ;  and  though  he  was  never  supposed  to  have  any 
tincture  either  of  romance  or  poetry  in  his  composition, 
he  retained  to  the  last  a  warm  affection  for  his  native  dis 
trict,  with  a  certain  reluctant  flavour  of  the  old  feelings 
and  prejudices  of  the  Borderer.  I  have  little  to  add  to 
Sir  Walter's  short  and  respectful  notice  of  his  father, 
except  that  I  have  heard  it  confirmed  by  the  testimony 
of  many  less  partial  observers.  According  to  every  ac 
count,  he  was  a  most  just,  honourable,  conscientious  man ; 
only  too  high  of  spirit  for  some  parts  of  his  business. 
"  He  passed  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave,"  says  a  sur 
viving  relation,  "  without  making  an  enemy  or  losing  a 
friend.  He  was  a  most  affectionate  parent,  and  if  he 
discouraged,  rather  than  otherwise,  his  son's  early  devo 
tion  to  the  pursuits  which  led  him  to  the  height  of  liter 
ary  eminence,  it  was  only  because  he  did  not  understand 
what  such  things  meant,  and  considered  it  his  duty  to 
keep  his  young  man  to  that  path  in  which  good  sense 
and  industry  might,  humanly  speaking,  be  thought  sure 
of  success." 

Sir  Walter's  mother  was  short  of  stature,  and  by  no 
means  comely,  at  least  after  the  days  of  her  early  youth. 
She  had  received,  as  became  the  daughter  of  an  emi 
nently  learned  physician,  the  best  sort  of  education  then 
bestowed  on  young  gentlewomen  in  Scotland.  The  poet, 
speaking  of  Mrs.  Euphemia  Sinclair,  the  mistress  of  the 
school  at  which  his  mother  was  reared,  to  the  ingenious 
local  antiquary,  Mr.  Robert  Chambers,  said  that  "she 
must  have  been  possessed  of  uncommon  talents  for  edu 
cation,  as  all  her  young  ladies  were,  in  after  life,  fond 
»f  reading,  wrote  and  spelled  admirably,  were  well  ac 
quainted  with  history  and  the  belles  lettres,  without  neg 


PARENTAGE.  105 

lecting  the  more  homely  duties  of  the  needle  and  accompt 
book ;  and  perfectly  well-bred  in  society."  Mr.  Cham 
bers  adds,  "  Sir  W.  further  communicated  that  his 
mother,  and  many  others  of  Mrs.  Sinclair's  pupils,  were 
sent  afterwards  to  be  finished  off  by  the  Honourable 
Mrs.  OgiLvie,  a  lady  who  trained  her  young  friends  to 
a  style  of  manners  which  would  now  be  consideied  in 
tolerably  stiff.  Such  was  the  effect  of  this  early  training 
upon  the  mind  of  Mrs.  Scott,  that  even  when  she  ap 
proached  her  eightieth  year,  she  took  as  much  care  to 
avoid  touching  her  chair  with  her  back,  as  if  she  had 
still  been  under  the  stern  eye  of  Mrs.  Ogilvie."  *  The 
physiognomy  of  the  poet  bore,  if  their  portraits  may  be 
trusted,  no  resemblance  to  either  of  his  parents.f 

Mr.  Scott  was  nearly  thirty  years  of  age  when  he 
married,  and  six  children,  born  to  him  between  1759  and 
1766,  all  perished  in  infancy.!  A  suspicion  that  the 
close  situation  of  the  College  Wynd  had  been  unfavour- 

*  See  Chambers's  Traditions  of  Edinburgh,  vol.  ii.  pp.  127-131. 
The  functions  here  ascribed  to  Mrs.  Ogilvie  may  appear  to  modern 
readers  little  consistent  with  her  rank.  Such  things,  however,  were 
not  uncommon  in  those  days  in  poor  old  Scotland.  Ladies  with  whom 
I  have  conversed  in  my  youth  well  remembered  an  Honourable,  Mrs. 
Maitland  who  practised  the  obstetric  art  in  the  Cowgate. 

f  Portraits  pf  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott  are  engraved  for  subsequent  vol 
umes  of  this  work. 

J  In  Sir  Walter  Scott's  desk,  after  his  death,  there  was  fcrrd  a  little 
packet  containing  six  locks  of  hair,  with  this  inscription  in  the  hand 
writing  of  his  mother :  — 

"  1.  Anne  Scott,  born  March  10, 1759. 

2.  Robert  Scott,  born  August  22, 1760. 

3.  John  Scott,  born  November  28, 1761. 

4.  Robert  Scott,  born  June  7, 1763. 

5.  Jean  Scott,  born  March  27, 1765. 

6.  Walter  Scott,  born  August  30, 1766- 

A.11  these  are  dead,  and  none  of  my  present  family  was  born  till  somft 
time  afterwards." 


106  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

able  to  the  health  of  his  family,  was  the  motive  that  in« 
duced  him  to  remove  to  the  house  which  he  ever  after 
wards  occupied  in  George's  Square.  This  removal  took 
place  shortly  after  the  poet's  birth ;  and  the  children  born 
subsequently  were  in  general  healthy.  Of  a  family  of 
twelve,  of  whom  six  lived  to  maturity,  not  one  now  sur 
vives  ;  nor  have  any  of  them  left  descendants,  except 
Sir  Walter  himself,  and  his  next  and  dearest  brother 
Thomas  Scott. 

He  says  that  his  consciousness  of  existence  dated  from 
Sandy-Knowe  ;  and  how  deep  and  indelible  was  the  im 
pression  which  its  romantic  localities  had  left  on  his  imag 
ination,  I  need  not  remind  the  readers  of  Marmion  and 
the  Eve  of  St.  John.  On  the  summit  of  the  Crags  which 
overhang  the  farm-house  stands  the  ruined  tower  of 
Smailholme,  the  scene  of  that  fine  ballad  ;  and  the  view 
from  thence  takes  in  a  wide  expanse  of  the  district  in 
which,  as  has  been  truly  said,  every  field  has  its  battle, 
and  every  rivulet  its  song  :  — 

"  The  lady  looked  in  mournful  mood, 

Looked  over  hill  and  vale, 
O'er  Mertoun's  wood,  and  Tweed's  fair  flood, 
And  all  down  Teviotdale."  — 

Mertoun,  the  principal  seat  of  the  Harden  family,  with 
its  noble  groves  ;  nearly  in  front  of  it,  across  the  Tweed, 
Lessudden,  the  comparatively  small  but  still  venerable 
and  stately  abode  of  the  Lairds  of  Raeburn  ;  and  the 
hoary  Abbey  of  Dryburgh,  surrounded  with  yew-trees  as 
ancient  as  itself,  seem  to  lie  almost  below  the  feet  of  the 
spectator.  Opposite  him  rise  the  purple  peaks  of  Eildon, 
ihe  traditional  scene  of  Thomas  the  Rymer's  interview 
with  the  Queen  of  Faerie ;  behind  are  the  blasted  peel 
vhich  the  seer  of  Erceldoun  himself  inhabited,  <  the 


SANDY-KNOWE.  107 

Broom  of  the  Cowdenknowes/  the  pastoral  valley  of  the 
Leader,  and  the  bleak  wilderness  of  Lammermoor.  To 
the  eastward,  the  desolate  grandeur  of  Hume  Castle 
breaks  the  horizon,  as  the  eye  travels  towards  the  range 
of  the  Cheviot.  A  few  miles  westward,  Melrose,  "  like 
some  tall  rock  with  lichens  grey,"  appears  clasped 
amidst  the  windings  of  the  Tweed  ;  and  the  distance 
presents  the  serrated  mountains  of  the  Gala,  the  Ettrick, 
and  the  Yarrow,  all  famous  in  song.  Such  were  the 
objects  that  had  painted  the  earliest  images  on  the  eye 
of  the  last  and  greatest  of  the  Border  Minstrels. 

As  his  memory  reached  to  an  earlier  period  of  child 
hood  than  that  of  almost  any  other  person,  so  assuredly 
no  poet  has  given  to  the  world  a  picture  of  the  dawning 
feelings  of  life  and  genius,  at  once  so  simple,  so  beautiful, 
and  so  complete,  as  that  of  his  epistle  to  William  Erskine, 
the  chief  literary  confidant  and  counsellor  of  his  prime 
of  manhood. 

"  Whether  an  impulse  that  has  birth, 
Soon  as  the  infant  wakes  on  earth, 
One  with  our  feelings  and  our  powers, 
And  rather  part  of  us  than  ours ; 
Or  whether  fitlier  terni'd  the  sway 
Of  habit,  formed  in  early  day, 
Howe'er  derived,  its  force  confest 
Rules  with  despotic  sway  the  breast. 
And  drags  us  on  by  viewless  chain, 
While  taste  and  reason  plead  in  vain.  .  .  . 
Thus,  while  I  ape  the  measure  wild 
Of  tales  that  charm'd  me  yet  a  child, 
Rude  though  they  be,  still  with  the  chime 
Return  the  thoughts  of  early  time, 
And  feelings  rous'd  in  life's  first  day, 
Glow  in  the  line  and  prompt  the  lay. 
Then  rise  those  crags,  that  mountain  tower 
Which  charm'd  my  fancy's  wakening  hoar. 
It  was  a  barren  scene  and  wild 


108         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

Where  naked  cliffs  were  rudely  piled; 

But  ever  and  anon  between 

Lay  velvet  tufts  of  loveliest  green; 

And  well  the  lonely  infant  knew 

Recesses  where  the  wall-flower  grew, 

And  honey-suckle  loved  to  crawl 

Up  the  low  crag  and  ruin'd  wall. 

I  deem'd  such  nooks  the  sweetest  shade 

The  sun  in  all  its  round  surveyed ; 

And  still  I  thought  that  shattered  tower 

The  mightiest  work  of  human  power, 

And  marvelled  as  the  aged  hind, 

With  some  strange  tale  bewitch'd  my  mind, 

Of  forayers  who,  with  headlong  force, 

Down  from  that  strength  had  spurr'd  their  hers*. 

Their  southern  rapine  to  renew, 

Far  in  the  distant  Cheviots  blue, 

And  home  returning,  fill'd  the  hall 

With  revel,  wassel-rout,  and  brawl. 

Methought  that  still  with  trump  and  clang 

The  gateway's  broken  arches  rang; 

Methought  grim  features,  seam'd  with  scare, 

Glared  through  the  windows'  rusty  bars ; 

And  ever,  by  the  winter  hearth, 

Old  tales  I  heard  of  wo  or  mirth, 

Of  lovers'  slights,  of  ladies'  charms, 

Of  witches'  spells,  of  warriors'  arms  — 

Of  patriot  battles  won  of  old 

By  Wallace  Wight  and  Bruce  the  Bold  — 

Of  later  fields  of  feud  and  fight, 

When,  pouring  from  their  Highland  height, 

The  Scottish  clans,  in  headlong  sway, 

Had  swept  the  scarlet  ranks  away. 

While  stretched  at  length  upon  the  floor, 

Again  I  fought  each  combat  o'er, 

Pebbles  and  shells,  in  order  laid, 

The  mimic  ranks  of  war  displayed, 

And  ocward  still  the  Scottish  Lion  bore, 

And  still  the  scattered  Southron  fled  before." 

There  are  still  living  in  that  neighbourhood  two  old 
women,  who  were   in   the  domestic  service  of  Sandy 


SANDY-KNOWE.  109 

Knowe,  when  the  lame  child  was  brought  thither  in  the 
third  year  of  his  age.  One  of  them,  Tibby  Hunter, 
remembers  his  coming  well ;  and  that  "  he  was  a  sweet- 
tempered  bairn,  a  darling  with  all  about  the  house."  The 
young  ewemilkers  delighted,  she  says,  to  carry  him  about 
on  their  backs  among  the  crags  ;  and  he  was  "  very  gleg 
(quick)  at  the  uptake,  and  soon  kenned  every  sheep  and 
lamb  by  head-mark  as  well  as  any  of  them."  His  great 
pleasure,  however,  was  in  the  society  of  the  "  aged  hind," 
recorded  in  the  epistle  to  Erskine.  "  Auld  Sandy  Ormis- 
toun,"  called,  from  the  most  dignified  part  of  his  function, 
"  the  Cow-bailie,"  had  the  chief  superintendence  of  the 
flocks  that  browsed  upon  "  the  velvet  tufts  of  loveliest 
green."  If  the  child  saw  him  in  the  morning,  he  could 
not  be  satisfied  unless  the  old  man  would  set  him  astride 
on  his  shoulder,  and  take  him  to  keep  him  company  as 
he  lay  watching  his  charge. 

"  Here  was  poetic  impulse  given 
By  the  green  hill  and  clear  blue  heaven." 

The  Cow-bailie  blew  a  particular  note  on  his  whistle, 
which  signified  to  the  maid-servants  in  the  house  below 
when  the  little  boy  wished  to  be  carried  home  again.  He 
told  his  friend,  Mr.  Skene  of  Rubislaw,  when  spending 
a  summer  day  in  his  old  age  among  these  well-remem 
bered  crags,  that  he  delighted  to  roll  about  on  the  grass 
all  day  long  in  the  midst  of  the  flock,  and  that  "  the  sort 
of  fellowship  he  thus  formed  with  the  sheep  and  lambs 
had  impressed  his  mind  with  a  degree  of  affectionate  feel 
ing  towards  them  which  had  lasted  throughout  life." 
There  is  a  story  of  his  having  been  forgotten  one  day 
among  the  knolls  when  a  thunder-storm  came  on;  and 
his  aunt,  suddenly  recollecting  his  situation,  and  running 


110  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

out  to  bring  him  home,  is  said  to  have  found  him  lying 
on  his  back,  clapping  his  hands  at  the  lightning,  and  cVy- 
ing  out,  "  Bonny !  bonny  !  "  at  every  flash. 

I  find  the  following  marginal  note  on  his  copy  of  Allan 
Ramsay's  Tea-Table  Miscellany  (edition  1724)  :  "  This 
book  belonged  to  my  grandfather,  Robert  Scott,  and  out 
of  it  I  was  taught  Hardiknute  by  heart  before  I  could 
read  the  ballad  myself.  It  was  the  first  poem  I  ever 
learnt  —  the  last  I  shall  ever  forget."  According  to 
Tibby  Hunter,  he  was  not  particularly  fond  of  his  book, 
embracing  every  pretext  for  joining  his  friend  the  Cow- 
bailie  out  of  doors ;  but  "  Miss  Jenny  was  a  grand  hand 
at  keeping  him  to  the  bit,  and  by  degrees  he  came  to 
read  brawly."  *  An  early  acquaintance  of  a  higher  class, 
Mrs.  Duncan,  the  wife  of  the  present  excellent  minister 
of  Mertoun,  informs  me,  that  though  she  was  younger 
than  Sir  Walter,  she  has  a  dim  remembrance  of  the 
interior  of  Sandy-Knowe  —  "  Old  Mrs.  Scott  sitting,  with 
her  spinning-wheel,  at  one  side  of  the  fire,  in  a  clean 
clean  parlour  ;  the  grandfather,  a  good  deal  failed,  in  his 
elbow-chair  opposite ;  and  the  little  boy  lying  on  the 
carpet,  at  the  old  man's  feet,  listening  to  the  Bible,  or 
whatever  good  book  Miss  Jenny  was  reading  to  them." 

Robert  Scott  died  before  his  grandson  was  four  years 
of  age ;  and  I  heard  him  mention  when  he  was  an  old 
man  that  he  distinctly  remembered  the  writing  and  seal 
ing  of  the  funeral  letters,  and  all  the  ceremonial  of  the 
melancholy  procession  as  it  left  Sandy-Knowe.  I  shall 
conclude  my  notices  of  the  residence  at  Sandy-Knowe 

*  This  old  woman  still  possesses  '  the  banes"  (bones)  — that  is  to 
say,  the  hoards  —  of  a  Psalm-book,  which  Master  Walter  gave  her  at 
Sandy-Knowe.  "  He  chose  it,"  she  says,  "  of  a  very  large  print,  that 
I  might  be  able  to  read  it  when  I  was  very  auld — forty  ybar  avM;  bu'; 
the  bairns  pulled  the  leaves  out  langsyne." 


BATH.  1  1 

with  observing,  that  in  Sir  Walter's  account  of  the 
friendly  clergyman  who  so  often  sat  at  his  grandfather's 
fireside,  we  cannot  fail  to  trace  many  features  of  the 
secluded  divine  in  the  novel  of  Saint  Ronan's  Well. 

I  have  nothing  to  add  to  what  he  has  told  us  of  that 
excursion  to  England  which  interrupted  his  residence  at 
Sandy-Knowe  for  about  a  twelvemonth,  except  that  I 
had  often  been  astonished,  long  before  I  read  his  auto 
biographic  fragment,  with  the  minute  recollection  he 
seemed  to  possess  of  all  the  striking  features  of  the  city 
of  Bath,  which  he  had  never  seen  again  since  he  quitted 
it  before  he  was  six  years  of  age.*  He  has  himseli 
alluded,  in  his-  Memoir,  to  the  lively  recollection  he  re 
tained  of  his  first  visit  to  the  theatre,  to  which  his  uncle 
Robert  carried  him  to  witness  a  representation  of  As  Yon 
Like  It.  In  his  Reviewal  of  the  Life  of  John  Kemblr, 
written  in  1826,  he  has  recorded  that  impression  more 
fully,  and  in  terms  so  striking,  that  I  must  copy  them  in 
this  place  :  — 

"  There  are  few  things  which  those  gifted  with  any  degrcu 
of  imagination  recollect  with  a  sense  of  more  anxious  anil 
mysterious  delight  than  the  first  dramatic  representation  which 
they  have  witnessed.  The  unusual  form  of  the  house,  filled 
with  such  groups  of  crowded  spectators,  themselves  forming  an 
extraordinary  spectacle  to  the  eye  which  lias  never  witnessed 
it  before,  yet  all  intent  upon  that  wide  and  mystic  curtain, 
whose  dusky  undulations  permit  us  now  and  then  to  discern 
the  momentary  glitter  of  some  gaudy  form,  or  the  spangles  of 
gome  sandalled  foot,  which  trips  lightly  within  :  Then  the 
light,  brilliant  as  that  of  day  ;  then  the  music,  which,  in  itself 
a  treat  sufficient  in  every  other  situation,  our  inexperience 
takes  for  the  very  play  we  came  to  witness;  then  the 


*  The  Miniature  engraved  on  the  title-page  of  this  volume  was  painted 
It  Bath. 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

rise  of  the  shadowy  curtain,  disclosing,  as  if  by  actual  magic,  a 
new  land,  with  woods,  and  mountains,  and  lakes,  lighted,  it 
seems  to  us,  by  another  sun,  and  inhabited  by  a  race  of  beinga 
different  from  ourselves,  whose  language  is  poetry,  —  whose 
dress,  demeanour,  and  sentiments  seem  something  supernat 
ural,  —  and  whose  whole  actions  and  discourse  are  calculated 
not  for  the  ordinary  tone  of  every-day  life,  but  to  excite  the 
stronger  and  more  powerful  faculties  —  to  melt  with  sorrow, 
overpower  with  terror,  astonish  with  the  marvellous,  or  con 
vulse  with  irresistible  laughter :  —  all  these  wonders  stamp  in 
delible  impressions  on  the  memory.  Those  mixed  feelings,  also, 
which  perplex  us  between  a  sense  that  the  scene  is  but  a  play 
thing,  and  an  interest  which  ever  and  anon  surprises  us  into  a 
transient  belief  that  that  which  so  strongly  affects  us  cannot 
be  fictitious ;  those  mixed  and  puzzling  feelings,  also,  are  ex 
citing  in  the  highest  degree.  Then  there  are  the  bursts  of 
applause,  like  distant  thunder,  and  the  permission  afforded  to 
clap  our  little  hands,  and  add  our  own  scream  of  delight  to  a 
sound  so  commanding.  All  this,  and  much,  much  more,  is 
fresh  in  our  memory,  although,  when  we  felt  these  sensations, 
we  looked  on  the  stage  which  Garrick  had  not  yet  left.  It  is 
now  a  long  while  since ;  yet  we  have  not  passed  many  hours 
of  such  unmixed  delight,  and  we  still  remember  the  sinking 
lights,  the  dispersing  crowd,  with  the  vain  longings  which  we 
felt  that  the  music  would  again  sound,  the  magic  curtain  once 
more  arise,  and  the  enchanting  dream  recommence ;  and  the 
astonishment  with  which  we  looked  upon  the  apathy  of  the 
elder  part  of  our  company,  who,  having  the  means,  did  not 
spend  every  evening  in  the  theatre."  * 

Probably  it  was  this  performance  that  first  tempted 
liim  to  open  the  page  of  Shakspeare.  Before  he  re 
turned  to  Sandy-Knowe,  assuredly,  notwithstanding  the 
modest  language  of  his  autobiography,  the  progress  which 
tad  been  made  in  his  intellectual  education  was  extraor 

*  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  vol.  xx. 


EDINBURGH  —  1777.  113 

dinaiy;  and  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  his  hitherto 
almost  sole  tutoress,  Miss  Jenny  Scott,  must  have  been  a 
woman  of  tastes  and  acquirements  very  far  above  what 
could  have  been  often  found  among  Scotch  ladies,  of  any 
but  the  highest  class  at  least,  in  that  day.  In  the  winter 
of  1777,  she  and  her  charge  spent  some  few  weeks  —  not 
happy  weeks,  the  "  Memoir  "  hints  them  to  have  been  — 
in  George's  Square,  Edinburgh ;  and  it  so  happened,  that 
during  this  little  interval,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott  received  in 
their  domestic  circle  a  guest  capable  of  appreciating,  and, 
fortunately  for  us,  of  recording  in  a  very  striking  manner 
the  remarkable  development  of  young  Walter's  faculties. 
Mrs.  Cockburn,  mentioned  by  him  in  his  Memoir  as  the 
authoress  of  the  modern  "  Flowers  of  the  Forest,"  born 
a  Rutherford,  of  Fairnalie,  in  Selkirkshire,  was  distantly 
related  to  the  poet's  mother,  with  whom  she  had  through 
life  been  in  habits  of  intimate  friendship.  This  accom 
plished  woman  was  staying  at  Ravelstone,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Edinburgh,  a  seat  of  the  Keiths  of  Dunnotar,  nearly 
related  to  Mrs.  Scott,  and  to  herself.  With  some  of  that 
family  she  spent  an  evening  in  George's  Square.  She 
chanced  to  be  writing  next  day  to  Dr.  Douglas,  the  well- 
known  and  much  respected  minister  of  her  native  parish, 
Galashiels ;  and  her  letter,  of  which  the  Doctor's  son  has 
kindly  given  me  a  copy,  contains  the  following  pas- 


14  Edinburgh,  Saturday  night,  15th  of  '  the  gloomy  month  when  the 
people  of  England  hang  and  drown  themselves.' 

****"!  last  night  supped  in  Mr.  Walter 
Scott's.  He  has  the  most  extraordinary  genius  of  a  boy 
I  ever  saw.  He  was  reading  a  poem  to  his  mother  when 
I  went  in.  I  made  him  read  on  ;  it  was  the  description 

VOL.  I. 


114  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  a  shipwreck.  His  passion  rose  with  the  storm.  He 
lifted  his  eyes  and  hands.  '  There's  the  mast  gone/  saya 
he  ;  *  crash  it  goes  !  —  they  will  all  perish ! '  After  his 
agitation,  he  turns  to  me.  t  That  is  too  melancholy,'  says 
he ;  '  I  had  better  read  you  something  more  amusing.'  I 
preferred  a  little  chat,  and  asked  his  opinion  of  Milton 
and  other  books  he  was  reading,  which  he  gave  me 
wonderfully.  One  of  his  observations  was,  *  How  itrange 
it  is  that  Adam,  just  new  come  into  the  world,  should 
know  every  thing  —  that  must  be  the  poet's  fancy/  says 
he.  But  when  he  was  told  he  was  created  perfect  by 
God,  he  instantly  yielded.  When  taken  to  bed  last 
night,  he  told  his  aunt  he  liked  that  lady.  <  What  lady  ? ' 
says  she.  *  Why,  Mrs.  Cockburn ;  for  I  think  she  is  a 
virtuoso  like  myself.'  *  Dear  Walter/  says  aunt  Jenny, 
'  what  is  a  virtuoso  ? '  <  Don't  ye  know  ?  Why,  it's  one 
who  wishes  and  will  know  every  thing.'  *  —  Now,  sir, 
you  will  think  this  a  very  silly  story.  Pray,  what  age 
do  you  suppose  this  boy  to  be  ?  Name  it  now,  before  I 
tell  you.  Why,  twelve  or  fourteen.  No  such  thing ;  he 
is  not  quite  six  years  old.f  He  has  a  lame  leg,  for  which 
he  was  a  year  at  Bath,  and  has  acquired  the  perfect 

*  It  may  amuse  my  reader  to  recall,  by  the  side  of  Scott's  early  defi 
nition  of  "a  Virtuoso,"  the  lines  in  which  Akenside  has  painted  that 
character  —  lines  which  might  have  been  written  for  a  description  of  the 
Author  of  Waverley :  — 

"  He  knew  the  various  modes  of  ancient  times, 

Their  arts  and  fashions  of  each  various  guise  ; 

Their  weddings,  funerals,  punishments  of  crimes; 

Their  strength,  thei?  learning  eke,  and  rarities. 

Of  old  habiliment,  each  sort  and  size, 

Male,  female,  high  and  low,  to  him  were  known ; 

Each  gladiator's  dress,  and  stage  disguise, 

With  learned  clerkly  phrase  he  could  have  shown." 

t  He  was,  in  fact,  six  years  and  three  months  old  before  this  letter 
was  written. 


RAVELSTONE — 1777.  115 

English  accent,  which  he  has  not  lost  since  he  came,  and 
he  reads  like  a  Garrick.  You  will  allow  this  an  uncom 
mon  exotic." 

Some  particulars  in  Mrs.  Cockburn's  account  appear 
considerably  at  variance  with  what  Sir  "Walter  has  told 
us  respecting  his  own  boyish  proficiency  —  especially  in 
the  article  of  pronunciation.  On  that  last  head,  how 
ever,  Mrs.  Cockburn  was  not,  probably,  a  very  accurate 
judge ;  all  that  can  be  said  is,  that  if  at  this  early  period 
he  had  acquired  anything  which  could  be  justly  described 
as  an  English  accent,  he  soon  lost,  and  never  again  re 
covered,  what  he  had  thus  gained  from  his  short  resi 
dence  at  Bath.  In  after  life  his  pronunciation  of  words, 
considered  separately,  was  seldom  much  different  from 
that  of  a  well-educated  Englishman  of  his  time ;  but  he 
used  many  words  in  a  sense  which  belonged  to  Scotland, 
not  to  England,  and  the  tone  and  accent  remained 
broadly  Scotch,  though,  unless  in  the  burr,  which  no 
doubt  smacked  of  the  country  bordering  on  Northumber 
land,  there  was  no  provincial  peculiarity  about  his  utter 
ance.  He  had  strong  powers  of  mimicry  —  could  talk 
with  a  peasant  quite  in  his  own  style,  and  frequently 
in  general  society  introduced  rustic  patois,  northern, 
southern,  or  midland,  with  great  truth  and  effect ;  but 
these  things  were  inlaid  dramatically,  or  playfully,  upon 
his  narrative.  His  exquisite  taste  in  this  matter  was  no 
loss  remarkable  in  his  conversation  than  in  the  prose  of 
his  Scotch  novels. 

Another  lady,  nearly  connected  with  the  Keiths  of 
Bavelstone,  has  a  lively  recollection  of  young  Walter, 
when  paying  a  visit  much  about  the  same  period  to  his 
kind  relation,*  the  mistress  of  that  picturesque  old  man- 

*  Mrs.  Keith  of  Ravelstone  was  born  a  Swinton  of  Swinton,  and 
sister  to  Sir  Walter's  maternal  grandmother. 


116  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Bion,  which  furnished  him  in  after  days  with  many  of  the 
features  of  his  Tully-Veolan,  and  whose  venerable  gar 
dens,  with  their  massive  hedges  of  yew  ard  holly,  he 
always  considered  as  the  ideal  of  the  art.  The  lady, 
whose  letter  I  have  now  before  me,  says  she  distinctly 
remembers  the  sickly  boy  sitting  at  the  gate  of  the  house 
with  his  attendant,  when  a  poor  mendicant  approached, 
old  and  woe-begone,  to  claim  the  charity  which  none 
asked  for  in  vain  at  Ravelstone.  When  the  man  was 
retiring,  the  servant  remarked  to  Walter  that  he  ought 
to  be  thankful  to  Providence  for  having  placed  him 
above  the  want  and  misery  he  had  been  contemplating. 
The  child  looked  up  with  a  half  wistful,  half  incredulous 
expression,  and  said,  "  Homer  was  a  beggar  !  "  "  How 
do  you  know  that  ?  "  said  the  other.  "  Why,  don't  you 
remember,"  answered  the  little  Virtuoso,  "  that 

'  Seven  Roman  cities  strove  for  Homer  dead, 
Through  which  the  living  Homer  begged  his  bread?  '  " 

The  lady  smiled  at  the  "Roman  cities," — but  already 

"  Each  blank  in  faithless  memory  void 
The  poet's  glowing  thought  supplied." 

It  was  in  this  same  year,  1777,  that  he  spent  some 
time  at  Prestonpans ;  made  his  first  acquaintance  with 
George  Constable,  the  original  of  his  Monkbarns  ;  ex 
plored  the  field  where  Colonel  Gardiner  received  his 
death-wound,  under  the  learned  guidance  of  Dalgetty ; 
and  marked  the  spot  "  where  the  grass  grew  long  and 
green,  distinguishing  it  from  the  rest  of  the  field,"* 
above  the  grave  of  poor  Balmawhapple. 

His  uncle  Thomas,  whom  I  have  described  as  I  saw 
him  in  extreme  old  age  at  Monklaw,  had  the  manage* 

*  Waverley,  vol.  ii. 


SANDY-KNOWE   —  1777.  117 

toent  of  the  farm  affairs  at  Sandy-Knowe,  when  Walter 
returned  thither  from  Prestonpans ;  he  was  a  kindhearted 
man,  and  very  fond  of  the  child.  Appearing  on  his  re 
turn  somewhat  strengthened,  his  uncle  promoted  him 
from  the  Cow-bailie's  shoulder  to  a  dwarf  of  the  Shet 
land  race,  not  so  large  as  many  a  Newfoundland  dog. 
This  creature  walked  freely  into  the  house,  and  was 
regularly  fed  from  the  boy's  hand.  He  soon  learned  to 
sit  her  well,  and  often  alarmed  aunt  Jenny,  by  cantering 
over  the  rough  places  about  the  tower.  In  the  evening 
of  his  life,  when  he  had  a  grandchild  afflicted  with  an 
infirmity  akin  to  his  own,  he  provided  him  with  a  little 
mare  of  the  same  breed,  and  gave  her  the  name  of 
Marion,  in  memory  of  this  early  favourite. 


118  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  III. 

Illustrations  of  the  Autobiography  continued — High  School  of 
Edinburgh  —  Residence  at  Kelso. 

1778-1783. 

THE  report  of  Walter's  progress  in  horsemanship 
probably  reminded  his  father  that  it  was  time  he  should 
be  learning  other  things  beyond  the  department  either 
of  aunt  Jenny  or  uncle  Thomas,  and  after  a  few  months 
he  was  recalled  to  Edinburgh.  But  extraordinary  as 
was  the  progress  he  had  by  this  time  made  in  that  self- 
education  which  alone  is  of  primary  consequence  to 
spirits  of  his  order,  he  was  found  too  deficient  in  lesser 
matters  to  be  at  once  entered  in  the  High  School.  Prob 
ably  his  mother  dreaded,  and  deferred  as  long  as  she 
could,  the  day  when  he  should  be  exposed  to  the  rude 
collision  of  a  crowd  of  boys.  At  all  events  he  was 
placed  first  in  a  little  private  school  kept  by  one  Leech- 
man  in  Bristo-Port ;  and  then,  that  experiment  not  an 
swering  expectation,  under  the  domestic  tutorage  of  Mr. 
James  French,  afterwards  minister  of  East  Kilbride  in 
Lanarkshire.  This  respectable  man  considered  him  fit 
to  join  Luke  Eraser's  class  in  October  1778. 

His  own  account  of  his  progress  at  this  excellent 
eeminary  is,  on  the  whole,  very  similar  to  what  I  have 
received  from  some  of  his  surviving  school-fellows.  Hi» 


EDINBURGH. HIGH    SCHOOL.  119 

quick  apprehension  and  powerful  memory  enabled  him, 
at  little  cost  of  labour,  to  perform  the  usual  routine  of 
tasks,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  keep  him  generally  "  in  a 
decent  place "  (so  he  once  expressed  it  to  Mr.  Skene) 
"  about  the  middle  of  the  class ;  with  which,"  he  contin 
ued,  "  I  was  the  better  contented,  that  it  chanced  to  be 
near  the  fire."  *     Mr.  Fraser  was,  I  believe,  more  zeal 
ous  in  enforcing  attention  to  the  technicalities  of  gram 
mar,  than  to  excite  curiosity  about  historical  facts,  or 
imagination  to  strain  after  the  flights  of  a  poet.     There 
is  no  evidence  that  Scott,  though  he  speaks  of  him  as  his 
"kind  master,"  in  remembrance  probably  of  sympathy 
for  his  physical  infirmities,  ever  attracted  his  special  no 
tice  with  reference  to  scholarship ;  but  Adam,  the  Rector, 
into  whose  class  he  passed  in  October  1782,  was,  as  his 
situation  demanded,  a  teacher  of  a  more  liberal  caste  ; 
and  though  never,  even  under  his  guidance,  did  Walter 
fix  and  concentrate  his  ambition  so  as  to  maintain  an 
eminent  place,  still  the  vivacity  of  his  talents  was  ob 
served,  and  the  readiness  of  his  memory  in  particular 
was  so  often  displayed,  that  (as  Mr.  Irving,  his  chosen 
friend  of  that  day,  informs  me)  the  Doctor  "  would  con 
stantly  refer  to  him  for  dates,  the  particulars  of  battles, 
and  other  remarkable  events  alluded  to  in  Horace,  or 
whatever  author  the  boys  were  reading,  and  used  to  call 
Him  the  historian  of  the  class."     No  one  who  has  read,  as 
few  have  not,  Dr.  Adam's  interesting  work  on  Roman 
Antiquities,  will  doubt  the  author's  capacity  for  stimulat 
ing  such  a  mind  as  young  Scott's. 

*  According  to  Mr.  Irvmg's  recollections,  Scott's  place,  after  the 
first  winter,  was  usually  between  the  7th  and  the  15th  from  the  top  of 
the  class.  He  adds,  "Dr.  James  Buchan  was  always  the  dux;  David 
Douglas  (Lord  Reston)  second;  and  the  present  Lord  Melville  third 


120  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

He  speaks  of  himself  as  occasionally  "glancing  like 
a  meteor  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  of  the  form."  His 
school-fellow,  Mr.  Claud  Russell,  remembers  that  he  once 
made  a  great  leap  in  consequence  of  the  stupidity  of 
some  laggard  on  what  is  called  the  dulfs  (dolt's)  bench, 
who  being  asked,  on  boggling  at  cum,  "  what  part  of 
speech  is  with  ?  "  answered,  "  a  substantive."  The  Rec 
tor,  after  a  moment's  pause,  thought  it  worth  while  to  ask 
his  dux  — "  Is  with  ever  a  substantive  ?  "  but  all  were 
silent  until  the  query  reached  Scott,  then  near  the  bot 
tom  of  the  class,  who  instantly  responded  by  quoting  a 
verse  of  the  book  of  Judges  :  —  "  And  Samson  said  unto 
Delilah,  If  they  bind  me  with  seven  green  withs  that 
were  never  dried,  then  shall  I  be  weak,  and  as  another 
man."  *  Another  upward  movement,  accomplished  in  a 
less  laudable  manner,  but  still  one  strikingly  illustrative 
of  his  ingenious  resources,  I  am  enabled  to  preserve 
through  the  kindness  of  a  brother  poet,  and  esteemed 
friend,  to  whom  Sir  Walter  himself  communicated  it  in 
the  melancholy  twilight  of  his  bright  day. 

Mr.  Rogers  says  — "  Sitting  one  day  alone  with  him 
in  your  house,  in  the  Regent's  Park  —  (it  was  the  day 
but  one  before  he  left  it  to  embark  at  Portsmouth  for 
Malta)  —  I  led  him,  among  other  things,  to  tell  me  once 
again  a  story  of  himself,  which  he  had  formerly  told  me, 
and  which  I  had  often  wished  to  recover.  When  I  re 
turned  home,  I  wrote  it  down,  as  nearly  as  I  could,  in 
his  own  words ;  and  here  they  are.  The  subject  is  an 
achievement  worthy  of  Ulysses  himself,  and  such  as 
many  of  his  school-fellows  could,  no  doubt,  have  related 
of  him ;  but  I  fear  I  have  done  it  no  justice,  though  the 
Btory  is  so  very  characteristic  that  it  should  not  be  lost. 
*  Chap.  xvi.  verse  7. 


EDINBURGH. HIGH    SCHOOL.  121 

The  inimitable  manner  in  which  he  told  it  —  the  glance 
of  the  eye,  the  turn  of  the  head,  and  the  light  that  played 
over  his  faded  features,  as,  one  by  one,  the  circumstances 
came  back  to  him,  accompanied  by  a  thousand  boyish 
feelings,  that  had  slept  perhaps  for  years  —  there  is  no 
language,  not  even  his  own,  could  convey  to  you;  but 
you  can  supply  them.  Would  that  others  could  do  so, 
who  had  not  the  good  fortune  to  know  him  !  —  The  mem 
orandum  (Friday,  October  21,  1831)  is  as  follows:  — 

"  There  was  a  boy  in  my  class  at  school,  who  stood 
always  at  the  top,*  nor  could  I  with  all  my  efforts  sup 
plant  him.  Day  came  after  day,  and  still  he  kept  his 
place,  do  what  I  would ;  till  at  length  I  observed  that, 
when  a  question  was  asked  him,  he  always  fumbled  with 
his  fingers  at  a  particular  button  in  the  lower  part  of  his 
waistcoat.  To  remove  it,  therefore,  became  expedient  in 
my  eyes ;  and  in  an  evil  moment  it  was  removed  with  a 
knife.  Great  was  my  anxiety  to  know  the  success  of 
my  measure  ;  and  it  succeeded  too  well.  When  the  boy 
was  again  questioned,  his  fingers  sought  again  for  the 
button,  but  it  was  not  to  be  found.  In  his  distress  he 
looked  down  for  it ;  it  was  to  be  seen  no  more  then  to  be 
felt.  He  stood  confounded,  and  I  took  possession  of  his 
place  ;  nor  did  he  ever  recover  it,  or  ever,  I  believe,  sus 
pect  who  was  the  author  of  his  wrong.  Often  in  after 
life  has  the  sight  of  him  smote  me  as  I  passed  by  him ; 
and  often  have  I  resolved  to  make  him  some  reparation  ; 
but  it  ended  in  good  resolutions.  Though  I  never  re 
newed  my  acquaintance  with  him,  I  often  saw  him,  for 

*  Mr,  Irving  inclines  to  think  that  this  incident  must  have  occurred 
during  Scott's  attendance  on  Luke  Eraser,  not  after  he  went  to  Dr. 
A.dam ;  and  he  also  suspects  that  the  boy  referred  to  sat  at  the  top,  not 
tf  the  dass,  but  of  Scott's  own  bench  or  division  of  the  class. 


122  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

he  filled  some  inferior  office  in  one  of  the  courts  of  law 
at  Edinburgh.  Poor  fellow !  I  believe  he  is  dead ;  he 
took  early  to  drinking." 

The  autobiography  tells  us  that  his  translations  in 
verse  from  Horace  and  Virgil  were  often  approved  by 
Dr.  Adam.  One  of  these  little  pieces,  written  in  a  weak 
boyish  scrawl,  within  pencilled  marks  still  visible,  had 
been  carefully  preserved  by  his  mother;  it  was  found 
folded  up  in  a  cover  inscribed  by  the  old  lady  — "  My 
Walter's  fast  lines,  1782." 

"  In  awful  ruins  JEtna  thunders  nigh, 
And  sends  in  pitchy  whirlwinds  to  the  sky 
Black  clouds  of  smoke,  which,  still  as  they  aspire, 
From  their  dark  sides  there  bursts  the  glowing  fire ; 
At  other  times  huge  balls  of  fire  are  toss'd, 
That  lick  the  stars,  and  in  the  smoke  are  lost: 
Sometimes  the  mount,  with  vast  convulsions  torn, 
Emits  huge  rocks,  which  instantly  are  borne 
With  loud  explosions  to  the  starry  skies, 
The  stones  made  liquid  as  the  huge  mass  flies, 
Then  back  again  with  greater  weight  recoils, 
While  JStna  thundering  from  the  bottom  boils." 

I  gather  from  Mr.  Irving  that  these  lines  were  consid 
ered  as  the  second  best  set  of  those  produced  on  the 
occasion  —  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Portmore,  through  life 
Scott's  dear  friend,  carrying  off  the  premium. 

In  his  Introduction  to  the  "Lay,"  he  alludes  to  an 
original  effusion  of  these  "  schoolboy  days,"  prompted 
by  a  thunder-storm,  which  he  says  "  was  much  approved 
of,  until  a  malevolent  critic  sprung  up  in  the  shape  of  an 
apothecary's  blue-buskined  wife,  who  affirmed  that  my 
most  sweet  poetry  was  copied  from  an  old  magazine.  I 
never  "  (he  continues)  "  forgave  the  imputation,  and  even 
now  I  acknowledge  some  resentment  against  the  poo* 


EDINBURGH. HIGH    SCHOOL.  123 

woman's  memory.  She  indeed  accused  me  unjustly, 
when  she  said  I  had  stolen  my  poem  ready  made ;  but 
as  I  had,  like  most  premature  poets,  copied  all  the  words 
and  ideas  of  which  my  verses  consisted,  she  was  so  far 
right.  I  made  one  or  two  faint  attempts  at  verse  after 
I  had  undergone  this  sort  of  daw-plucking  at  the  hands 
of  the  apothecary's  wife,  but  some  friend  or  other  always 
advised  me  to  put  my  verses  into  the  fire ;  and,  like 
Dorax  in  the  play,  I  submitted,  though  with  a  swelling 
heart."  These  lines,  and  another  short  piece  "  On  the 
Setting  Sun,"  were  lately  found  wrapped  up  in  a  cover, 
inscribed  by  Dr.  Adam,  "Walter  Scott,  July  1783,"  and 
have  been  kindly  transmitted  to  me  by  the  gentleman 
who  discovered  them. 

"ON  A  THUNDER-STORM. 

"  Loud  o'er  my  head  though  awful  thunders  roll, 
And  vivid  lightnings  flash  from  pole  to  pole, 
Yet  'tis  thy  voice,  my  God,  that  bids  them  fly, 
Thy  arm  directs  those  lightnings  through  the  sky. 
Then  let  the  good  thy  mighty  name  revere, 
And  hardened  sinners  thy  just  vengeance  fear." 

"ON  THE   SETTING   SUN. 

"  Those  evening  clouds,  that  setting  ray 
And  beauteous  tints,  serve  to  display 

Their  great  Creator's  praise; 
Then  let  the  short-lived  thing  call'd  man, 
Whose  life's  comprised  within  a  span, 
To  Him  his  homage  raise. 

"  We  often  praise  the  evening  clouds, 

And  tints  so  gay  and  bold, 
But  seldom  think  upon  our  God, 

Who  tinged  these  clouds  with  gold ! "  * 

*  I  am  obliged  for  these  little  memorials  to  the  Rev.  W.  Steven  of 
Rotterdam,  author  of  an  interesting  book  on  the  history  of  the  branch 
»f  the  Scotch  Church  long  established  in  Holland,  and  still  flourishing 


124  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

It  must,  I  think,  be  allowed  that  these  lines,  though  of 
the  class  to  which  the  poet  himself  modestly  ascribes 
them,  and  not  to  be  compared  with  the  efforts  of  Pope, 
still  less  of  Cowley  at  the  same  period,  show,  neverthe 
less,  praiseworthy  dexterity  for  a  boy  of  twelve. 

The  fragment  tells  us,  that  on  the  whole  he  was  "  more 
distinguished  in  the  Yards  (as  the  High  School  play 
ground  was  called),  than  in  the  class  ;  "  and  this,  not  less 
than  the  intellectual  advancement  which  years  before  had 
excited  the  admiration  of  Mrs.  Cockburn,  was  the  natural 
result  of  his  lifelong  "  rebellion  against  external  circum 
stances."  He  might  now  with  very  slender  exertion  have 
been  the  dux  of  his  form ;  but  if  there  was  more  dif 
ficulty,  there  was  also  more  to  whet  his  ambition,  in  the 
attempt  to  overcome  the  disadvantages  of  his  physical 
misfortune,  and  in  spite  of  them  assert  equality  with  the 
best  of  his  compeers  on  the  ground  which  they  considered 
as  the  true  arena  of  honour.  He  told  me,  in  walking 
through  these  same  yards  forty  years  afterwards,  that  he 
had  scarcely  made  his  first  appearance  there,  before  some 
dispute  arising,  his  opponent  remarked  that  "  there  was 
no  use  to  hargle-bargle  with  a  cripple  ; "  upon  which  he 
replied,  that  if  he  might  fight  mounted,  he  would  try  his 
hand  with  any  one  of  his  inches.  "  An  elder  boy,"  said 
he,  "  who  had  perhaps  been  chuckling  over  our  friend 
Roderick  Random  when  his  mother  supposed  him  to  be 
in  full  cry  after  Pyrrhus  or  Porus,  suggested  that  the 
two  little  tinklers  might  be  lashed  front  to  front  upon  a 
deal  board  —  and  — '  O  gran  bonta  de'  cavalier  antichi 

under  the  protection  of  the  enlightened  government  of  that  country 
Mr.  Steven  found  them  in  the  course  of  his  recent  researches,  under 
taken  with  a  view  to  some  memoirs  of  the  High  School  of  Edinburgh 
tt  which  he  had  received  his  own  early  education. 


EDINBURGH. HIGH    SCHOOL.  125 

—  the  proposal  being  forthwith  agreed  to,  I  received  my 
rirst  bloody  nose  in  an  attitude  which  would  have  entitled 
hie,  in  the  blessed  days  of  personal  cognizances,  to  assume 
that  of  a  lioncel  seiant  gules.  My  pugilistic  trophies 
here,"  he  continued,  "  were  all  the  results  of  such  sittings 
in  banco."  Considering  his  utter  ignorance  of  fear,  the 
strength  of  his  chest  and  upper  limbs,  and  that  the  scien 
tific  part  of  pugilism  never  flourished  in  Scotland,  I 
daresay  these  trophies  were  not  few. 

The  mettle  of  the  High-School  boys,  however,  was 
principally  displayed  elsewhere  than  in  their  own  yards , 
and  Sir  Walter  has  furnished  us  with  ample  indications 
of  the  delight  with  which  he  found  himself  at  length 
capable  of  rivalling  others  in  such  achievements  as  re 
quired  the  exertion  of  active  locomotive  powers.  Speak 
ing  of  some  scene  of  his  infancy  in  one  of  his  latest  tales, 
he  says  — "  Every  step  of  the  way  after  I  have  passed 
through  the  green  already  mentioned,"  (probably  the 
Meadows  behind  George's  Square,)  "has  for  me  some 
thing  of  an  early  remembrance.  There  is  the  stile  at 
which  I  can  recollect  a  cross  child's-maid  upbraiding  me 
with  my  infirmity  as  she  lifted  me  coarsely  and  carelessly 
over  the  flinty  steps  which  my  brothers  traversed  with 
shout  and  bound.  I  remember  the  suppressed  bitter 
ness  of  the  moment,  and  conscious  of  my  own  infirmity, 
the  envy  with  which  I  regarded  the  easy  movements 
and  elastic  steps  of  my  more  happily  formed  brethren. 
Alas ! "  he  adds,  "  these  goodly  barks  have  all  perished 
in  life's  wide  ocean,  and  only  that  which  seemed,  as  the 
naval  phrase  goes,  so  little  sea-worthy,  has  reached  the 
port  when  the  tempest  is  over."  How  touching  to  com 
pare  with  this  passage,  that  in  which  he  records  his  pride 
in  being  found  before  he  left  the  High  School  one  of  the 


126  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

boldest  and  nimblest  climbers  of  "  the  kittle  nine  stanes," 
a  passage  of  difficulty  which  might  puzzle  a  chamois- 
hunter  of  the  Alps,  its  steps  "few  and  far  between," 
projected  high  in  the  air  from  the  precipitous  black  gran 
ite  of  the  Castle  rock.  But  climbing  and  fighting  could 
sometimes  be  combined,  and  he  has  in  almost  the  same 
page  dwelt  upon  perhaps  the  most  favourite  of  all  these 
juvenile  exploits  —  namely,  "  the  manning  of  the  Cow- 
gate  Port,"  —  in  the  season  when  snowballs  could  be 
employed  by  the  young  scorners  of  discipline  for  the 
annoyance  of  the  Town-guard.  To  understand  fully  the 
feelings  of  a  High-School  boy  of  that  day  with  regard  to 
those  ancient  Highlanders,  who  then  formed  the  only 
police  of  the  city  of  Edinburgh,  the  reader  must  consult 
the  poetry  of  the  scapegrace  Ferguson.  It  was  in  defi 
ance  of  their  Lochaber  axes  that  the  Cowgate  Port  was 
manned  —  and  many  were  the  occasions  on  which  its 
defence  presented  a  formidable  mimicry  of  warfare. 
"  The  gateway,"  Sir  Walter  adds,  "  is  now  demolished, 
and  probably  most  of  its  garrison  lie  as  low  as  the  for 
tress!  To  recollect  that  I,  however  naturally  disquali- 
6ed,  was  one  of  these  juvenile  dreadnoughts,  is  a  sad 
reflection  for  one  who  cannot  now  step  over  a  brook 
without  assistance." 

I  am  unwilling  to  swell  this  narrative  by  extracts  from 
Scott's  published  works,  but  there  is  one  juvenile  exploit 
told  in  the  General  Preface  to  the  Waverley  Novels, 
which  I  must  crave  leave  to  introduce  here  in  his  own 
language,  because  it  is  essentially  necessary  to  complete 
our  notion  of  his  schoolboy  life  and  character.  "  It  is 
well  known,"  he  says,  "  that  there  is  little  boxing  at  the 
Scottish  schools.  About  forty  or  fifty  years  ago,  how 
ever,  a  far  more  dangerous  mode  of  fighting,  in  partiei 


HIGH    SCHOOL. GREEN-BREEKS.  127 

or  factions,  was  permitted  in  the  streets  of  Edinburgh,  to 
the  great  disgrace  of  the  police,  and  danger  of  the  parties 
concerned.  These  parties  were  generally  formed  from 
the  quarters  of  the  town  in  which  the  combatants  resided, 
those  of  a  particular  square  or  district  fighting  against 
those  of  an  adjoining  one.  Hence  it  happened  that  the 
children  of  the  higher  classes  were  often  pitted  against 
those  of  the  lower,  each  taking  their  side  according  to  the 
residence  of  their  friends.  So  far  as  I  recollect,  however, 
it  was  unmingled  either  with  feelings  of  democracy  or 
aristocracy,  or  indeed  with  malice  or  ill-will  of  any  kind 
towards  the  opposite  party.  In  fact,  it  was  only  a  rough 
mode  of  play.  Such  contests  were,  however,  maintained 
with  great  vigour  with  stones,  and  sticks,  and  fisticuffs, 
when  one  party  dared  to  charge,  and  the  other  stood 
their  ground.  Of  course,  mischief  sometimes  happened ; 
boys  are  said  to  have  been  killed  at  these  'Bickers,  as 
they  were  called,  and  serious  accidents  certainly  took 
place,  as  many  contemporaries  can  bear  witness. 

"  The  author's  father,  residing  in  George's  Square,  in 
the  southern  side  of  Edinburgh,  the  boys  belonging  to 
that  family,  with  others  in  the  square,  were  arranged  into 
a  sort  of  company,  to  which  a  lady  of  distinction  pre 
sented  a  handsome  set  of  colours.*  Now,  this  company 
or  regiment,  as  a  matter  of  course,  was  engaged  in  weekly 
warfare  with  the  boys  inhabiting  the  Cross-causeway, 
Bristo-Street,  the  Potterrow  —  in  short,  the  neighbour 
ing  suburbs.  These  last  were  chiefly  of  the  lower  rank, 
but  hardy  loons,  who  threw  stones  to  a  hair's-breadth,  and 
were  very  rugged  antagonists  at  close  quarters.  The 
skirmish  sometimes  lasted  for  a  whole  evening,  until  one 

*  TMs  young  patroness  was  the  late  Duchess-Countess  of  Suther- 


128  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

party  or  the  other  was  victorious,  when,  if  ours  were 
successful,  we  drove  the  enemy  to  their  quarters,  and 
were  usually  chased  back  by  the  reinforcement  of  bigger 
lads  who  came  to  their  assistance.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
we  were  pursued,  as  was  often  the  case,  into  the  precincts 
of  our  square,  we  were  in  our  turn  supported  by  our  elder 
brothers,  domestic  servants,  and  similar  auxiliaries.  It 
followed,  from  our  frequent  opposition  to  each  other,  that, 
though  not  knowing  the  names  of  our  enemies,  we  were 
yet  well  acquainted  with  their  appearance,  and  had  nick 
names  for  the  most  remarkable  of  them.  One  very  active 
and  spirited  boy  might  be  considered  as  the  principal 
leader  in  the  cohort  of  the  suburbs.  He  was,  I  suppose, 
thirteen  or  fourteen  years  old,  finely  made,  tall,  blue-eyed, 
with  long  fair  hair,  the  very  picture  of  a  youthful  Goth. 
This  lad  was  always  first  in  the  charge,  and  last  in  the 
retreat  —  the  Achilles  at  once  and  Ajax  of  the  Cross- 
causeway.  He  was  too  formidable  to  us  not  to  have  a 
cognomen,  and,  like  that  of  a  knight  of  old,  it  was  taken 
from  the  most  remarkable  part  of  his  dress,  being  a  pair 
of  old  green  livery  breeches,  which  was  the  principal 
part  of  his  clothing;  for,  like  Pentapolin,  according  to 
Don  Quixote's  account,  Green-breeks,  as  we  called  him, 
always  entered  the  battle  with  bare  arms,  legs,  and  feet. 

"  It  fell,  that  once  upon  a  time  when  the  combat  was 
at  its  thickest,  this  plebeian  champion  headed  a  charge 
go  rapid  and  furious,  that  all  fled  before  him.  He  was 
several  paces  before  his  comrades,  and  had  actually  laid 
his  hands  upon  the  patrician  standard,  when  one  of  our 
party,  whom  some  misjudging  friend  had  entrusted  with 
a  couteau  de  chasse,  or  hanger,  inspired  with  a  zeal  for 
the  honour  of  the  corps,  worthy  of  Major  Sturgeon 
himself,  struck  poor  Green-breeks  over  the  head,  witb 


GREEN-BREEKS.  129 

strength  sufficient  to  cut  him  down.  When  this  was 
seen,  the  casualty  was  so  far  beyond  what  had  ever 
taken  place  before,  that  both  parties  fled  different  ways, 
leaving  poor  Green-breeks,  with  his  bright  hair  plenti 
fully  dabbled  in  blood,  to  the  care  of  the  watchman,  who 
(honest  man)  took  care  not  to  know  who  had  done  the 
mischief.  The  bloody  hanger  was  thrown  into  one  of 
the  Meadow  ditches,  and  solemn  secrecy  was  sworn  on 
all  hands  ;  but  the  remorse  and  terror  of  the  actor  were 
beyond  all  bounds,  and  his  apprehensions  of  the  most 
dreadful  character.  The  wounded  hero  was  for  a  few 
days  in  the  Infirmary,  the  case  being  only  a  trifling  one. 
But  though  enquiry  was  strongly  pressed  on  him,  no  ar 
gument  could  make  him  indicate  the  person  from  whom 
he  had  received  the  wound,  though  he  must  have  been 
perfectly  well  known  to  him.  When  he  recovered  and 
was  dismissed,  the  author  and  his  brothers  opened  a  com 
munication  with  him,  through  the  medium  of  a  popular 
gingerbread  baker,  of  whom  both  parties  were  customers, 
in  order  to  tender  a  subsidy  in  the  name  of  smart-money. 
The  sum  would  excite  ridicule  were  I  to  name  it ;  but 
sure  I  am,  that  the  pockets  of  the  noted  Green-breeks 
never  held  as  much  money  of  his  own.  He  declined  the 
remittance,  saying  that  he  would  not  sell  his  blood  ;  but 
at  the  same  time  reprobated  the  idea  of  being  an  inform 
er,  which  he  said  was  clam,  i.  e.  base  or  mean.  With 
much  urgency,  he  accepted  a  pound  of  snuff  for  the  use 
of  some  old  woman  —  aunt,  grandmother,  or  the  like  — 
with  whom  he  lived.  We  did  not  become  friends,  for  the 
biekers  were  more  agreeable  to  both  parties  than  any 
more  pacific  amusement ;  but  we  conducted  them  ever 
after,  under  mutual  assurances  of  the  highest  considera« 
lion  for  each  other."  Sir  Walter  adds  —  "  Of  five  broth- 


130  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ers,  all  healthy  and  promising  in  a  degree  far  beyond  on« 
whose  infancy  was  visited  by  personal  infirmity,  an 
whose  health  after  this  period  seemed  long  very  preca 
rious,  I  am,  nevertheless,  the  only  survivor.  The  best 
loved,  and  the  best  deserving  to  be  loved,  who  had  des 
tined  this  incident  to  be  the  foundation  of  a  literary  com 
position,  died  "  before  his  day,"  in  a  distant  and  foreigi 
land;  and  trifles  assume  an  importance  not  their  own 
when  connected  with  those  who  have  been  loved  anc 
lost." 

During  some  part  of  his  attendance  on  the  Hig. 
School,  young  Walter  spent  one  hour  daily  at  a  sma~ 
separate  seminary  of  writing  and  arithmetic,  kept  by  one 
Morton,  where,  as  was,  and  I  suppose  continues  to  be,  the 
custom  of  Edinburgh,  young  girls  came  for  instruction  as 
well  as  boys ;  and  one  of  Mr.  Morton's  female  pupils  has 
been  kind  enough  to  set  down  some  little  reminiscences 
of  Scott,  who  happened  to  sit  at  the  same  desk  with  her 
self.  They  appear  to  me  the  more  interesting,  because 
the  lady  had  no  acquaintance  with  him  in  the  course  of 
his  subsequent  life.  Her  nephew  Mr.  James  (the  accom 
plished  author  of  Richelieu),  to  whose  friendship  I  owe 
her  communication,  assures  me  too,  that  he  had  con 
stantly  heard  her  tell  the  same  things  in  the  very  same 
,vay,  as  far  back  as  his  own  memory  reaches,  many  years 
before  he  had  ever  seen  Sir  Walter,  or  his  aunt  could 
have  dreamt  of  surviving  to  assist  in  the  biography  of 
his  early  days. 

"  He  attracted,"  Mrs.  Churnside  says,  "  the  regard  and 
fondness  of  all  his  companions,  for  he  was  ever  rational, 
fanciful,  lively,  and  possessed  of  that  urbane  gentleness 
of  manner,  which  makes  its  way  to  the  heart.  His  im 
agination  was  constantly  at  work,  and  he  often  so  en 


MRS.    CHURNSIDE.  131 

grossed  the  attention  of  those  who  learnt  with  him,  that 
little  could  be  done  —  Mr.  Morton  himself  being  forced 
to  laugh  as  much  as  the  little  scholars  at  the  odd  turns 
and  devices  he  fell  upon ;  for  he  did  nothing  in  the  ordi 
nary  way,  but,  for  example,  even  when  he  wanted  ink  to 
his  pen,  would  get  up  some  ludicrous  story  about  sending 
his  doggie  to  the  mill  again.  He  used  also  to  interest  us 
in  a  more  serious  way,  by  telling  us  the  visions,  as  he 
called  them,  which  he  had  lying  alone  on  the  floor  or 
sofa,  when  kept  from  going  to  church  on  a  Sunday  by  ill 
health.  Child  as  I  was,  I  could  not  help  being  highly 
delighted  with  his  description  of  the  glories  he  had  seen 
—  his  misty  and  sublime  sketches  of  the  regions  above, 
which  he  had  visited  in  his  trance.  Recollecting  these 
descriptions,  radiant  and  not  gloomy  as  they  were,  I  have 
often  thought  since,  that  there  must  have  been  a  bias  in 
his  mind  to  superstition  —  the  marvellous  seemed  to 
have  such  power  over  him,  though  the  mere  offspring 
of  his  own  imagination,  that  the  expression  of  his  face, 
habitually  that  of  genuine  benevolence,  mingled  with  a 
shrewd  innocent  humour,  changed  greatly  while  he  was 
speaking  of  these  things,  and  showed  a  deep  intenseness 
of  feeling,  as  if  he  were  awed  even  by  his  own  recital. 
...  I  may  add,  that  in  walking  he  used  always  to  keep 
his  eyes  turned  downwards  as  if  thinking,  but  with  a 
pleasing  expression  of  countenance,  as  if  enjoying  his 
thoughts.  Having  once  known  him,  it  was  impossible 
ever  to  forget  him.  In  this  manner,  after  all  the  changes 
of  a  long  life,  he  constantly  appears  as  fresh  as  yesterday 
to  my  mind's  eye." 

This  beautiful  extract  needs  no  commentary.     I  may 
us  well,  however,  bear  witness,  that  exactly  as  the  school 


132  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

boy  still  walks  before  "  her  mind's  eye,"  his  image  rises 
familiarly  to  mine,  who  never  saw  him  until  he  was  past 
the  middle  of  life  :  that  I  trace  in  every  feature  of  her 
delineation,  the  same  gentleness  of  aspect  and  demeanour 
which  the  presence  of  the  female  sex,  whether  in  silk  or 
in  russet,  ever  commanded  in  the  man  ;  and  that  her 
description  of  the  change  on  his  countenance  when  pass 
ing  from  the  "  doggie  of  the  mill "  to  the  dream  of  Par 
adise,  is  a  perfect  picture  of  what  no  one  that  has  heard 
him  recite  a  fragment  of  high  poetry,  in  the  course 
of  table  talk,  can  ever  forget.  Strangers  may  catch 
some  notion  of  what  fondly  dwells  on  the  memory  of 
every  friend,  by  glancing  from  the  conversational  bust 
of  Chantrey,  to  the  first  portrait  by  Raeburn,  which  rep 
resents  the  Last  Minstrel  as  musing  in  his  prime  within 
sight  of  Hermitage. 

I  believe  it  was  about  this  time  that,  as  he  expresses  it 
in  one  of  his  latest  works,  "  the  first  images  of  horror 
from  the  scenes  of  real  life  were  stamped  upon  his  mind," 
by  the  tragical  death  of  his  great-aunt  Mrs.  Margaret 
Swinton.  This  old  lady,  whose  extraordinary  nerve  of 
character  he  illustrates  largely  in  the  introduction  to  the 
story  of  Aunt  Margaret's  Mirror,  was  now  living  with 
one  female  attendant,  in  a  small  house  not  far  from  Mr. 
Scott's  residence  in  George's  Square.  The  maid-servant, 
in  a  sudden  access  of  insanity,  struck  her  mistress  to 
death  with  a  coal-axe,  and  then  rushed  furiously  into  the 
street  with  the  bloody  weapon  in  her  hand,  proclaiming 
aloud  the  horror  she  had  perpetrated.  I  need  not  dwell 
on  the  effects  which  must  have  been  produced  in  a  vir* 
tuous  and  affectionate  circle  by  this  shocking  incident 
The  old  lady  had  been  tenderly  attached  to  her  nephew 


REV.    JAMES    MITCHELL.  133 

"  She  was,"  he  says,  "  our  constant  resource  in  sickness, 
or  when  we  tired  of  noisy  play,  and  closed  round  her  to 
listen  to  her  tales." 

It  was  at  this  same  period  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott 
received  into  their  house,  as  tutor  for  their  children,  Mr. 
James  Mitchell,  of  whom  the  Ashestiel  Memoir  gives  us 
a  description,  such  as  I  could  not  have  presented  had  he 
been  still  alive.  Mr.  Mitchell  was  living,  however,  at  the 
time  of  his  pupil's  death,  and  I  am  now  not  only  at 
liberty  to  present  Scott's  unmutilated  account  of  their 
intercourse,  but  enabled  to  give  also  the  most  simple  and 
characteristic  narrative  of  the  other  party.  I  am  sure  no 
one,  however  nearly  related  to  Mr.  Mitchell,  will  now 
complain  of  seeing  his  keen-sighted  pupil's  sketch  placed 
by  the  side,  as  it  were,  of  the  fuller  portraiture  drawn  by 
the  unconscious  hand  of  the  amiable  and  worthy  man 
himself.  The  following  is  an  extract  from  Mr.  Mitchell's 
MS.,  entitled  "  Memorials  of  the  most  remarkable  occur 
rences  and  transactions  of  my  life,  drawn  up  in  the  hope 
that,  when  I  shall  be  no  more,  they  may  be  read  with 
profit  and  pleasure  by  my  children."  The  good  man  was 
so  kind  as  to  copy  out  one  chapter  for  my  use,  as  soon  as 
he  heard  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  death.  He  was  then,  and 
had  for  many  years  been,  minister  of  a  Presbyterian 
chapel  at  Wooler,  in  Northumberland,  to  which  situation 
he  had  retired  on  losing  his  benefice  at  Montrose,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  Sabbatarian  scruples  alluded  to  in  Scott's 
Autobiography. 

"  In  1782,"  says  Mr.  Mitchell,  "  I  became  a  tutor  in 
Mr.  Walter  Scott's  family.  He  was  a  Writer  to  the 
Signet  in  George's  Square,  Edinburgh.  Mr.  Scott  was  a 
fine  looking  man,  then  a  little  past  the  meridian  of  life,  of 
dignified,  yet  agreeable  manners.  His  business  was  ex 


134  1,IFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tensive.  He  was  a  man  of  tried  integrity,  of  strict 
morals,  and  had  a  respect  for  religion  and  its  ordinances. 
The  church  the  family  attended  was  the  Old  Grey  friars, 
of  which  the  celebrated  Doctors  Robertson  and  Erskine 
were  the  ministers.  Thither  went  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott 
every  Sabbath,  when  well  and  at  home,  attended  by  their 
fine  young  family  of  children,  and  their  domestic  servants 
—  a  sight  so  amiable  and  exemplary  as  often  to  excite  in 
my  breast  a  glow  of  heartfelt  satisfaction.  According  to 
an  established  and  laudable  practice  in  the  family,  the 
heads  of  it,  the  children,  and  servants,  were  assembled  on 
Sunday  evenings  in  the  drawing-room,  and  examined  on 
the  Church  Catechism  and  sermons  they  had  heard  de 
livered  during  the  course  of  the  day ;  on  which  occasions 
I  had  to  perform  the  part  of  chaplain,  and  conclude  with 
prayer.  From  Mrs.  Scott'I  learned  that  Mr.  Scott  was 
one  that  had  not  been  seduced  from  the  paths  of  virtue  ; 
but  had  been  enabled  to  venerate  good  morals  from  his 
youth.  When  he  first  came  to  Edinburgh  to  follow  out 
his  profession,  some  of  his  school-fellows,  who,  like  him, 
had  come  to  reside  in  Edinburgh,  attempted  to  unhinge 
his  principles,  and  corrupt  his  morals ;  but  when  they 
found  him  resolute,  and  unshaken  in  his  virtuous  disposi 
tions,  they  gave  up  the  attempt ;  but,  instead  of  abandon 
ing  him  altogether,  they  thought  the  more  of  him,  and 
honoured  him  with  their  confidence  and  patronage ;  which 
is  certainly  a  great  inducement  to  young  men  in  the  out 
set  of  life  to  act  a  similar  part. 

"  After  having  heard  of  his  inflexible  adherence  to  the 
cause  of  virtue  in  his  youth,  and  his  regular  attendance 
on  the  ordinances  of  religion  in  after-life,  we  will  not  be 
surprised  to  be  told  that  he  bore  a  sacred  regard  for  the 
Sabbath,  nor  at  the  following  anecdote  illustrative  of  it 


MR.  MITCHELL'S  REMINISCENCES.  1 

An  opulent  farmer  of  East  Lothian  had  employed  Mr. 
Scott  as  his  agent,  in  a  cause  depending  before  the  Court 
of  Session.  Having  a  curiosity  to  see  something  in  the 
papers  relative  to  the  process,  which  were  deposited  in 
Mr.  Scott's  hands,  this  worldly  man  came  into  Edinburgh 
on  a  Sunday  to  have  an  inspection  of  them.  As  ther 
was  no  immediate  necessity  for  this  measure,  Mr.  Scott 
asked  the  farmer  if  an  ordinary  week-day  would  not 
answer  equally  well.  The  farmer  was  not  willing  to 
take  this  advice,  but  insisted  on  the  production  of  his 
papers.  Mr.  Scott  then  delivered  them  to  him,  saying, 
it  was  not  his  practice  to  engage  in  secular  business  on 
Sabbath,  and  that  he  would  have  no  difficulty  in  Edin 
burgh  to  find  some  of  his  profession  who  would  have 
none  of  his  scruples.  No  wonder  such  a  man  was  con 
fided  in,  and  greatly  honoured  in  his  professional  line.  — 
All  the  poor  services  I  did  to  his  family  were  more  than 
repaid  by  the  comfort  and  honour  I  had  by  being  in  the 
family,  the  pecuniary  remuneration  I  received,  and  par 
ticularly  by  his  recommendation  of  me,  sometime  after 
wards,  to  the  Magistrates  and  Town- Council  of  Montrose, 
when  there  was  a  vacancy,  and  this  brought  me  on  the 
carpet,  which,  as  he  said,  was  all  he  could  do,  as  the 
settlement  would  ultimately  hinge  on  a  popular  elec 
tion. 

"  Mrs.  Scott  was  a  wife  in  every  respect  worthy  of 
such  a  husband.  Like  her  partner,  she  was  then  a  little 
past  the  meridian  of  life,  of  a  prepossessing  appearance, 
amiable  manners,  of  a  cultivated  understanding,  affection 
ate  disposition,  and  fine  taste.  She  was  both  able  and 
disposed  to  soothe  her  husband's  mind  under  the  asperi 
ties  of  business,  and  to  be  a  rich  blessing  to  her  numerous 
progeny.  But  what  constituted  her  distinguishing  oraa 


136  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ment  was,  that  she  was  sincerely  religious.  Some  years 
previous  to  my  entrance  into  the  family,  I  understood 
from  one  of  the  servants  she  had  been  under  deep  relig 
ious  concern  about  her  soul's  salvation,  which  had  ulti 
mately  issued  in  a  conviction  of  the  truth  of  Christianity, 
and  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  divine  consolations.  She 
liked  Dr.  Erskine's  sermons ;  but  was  not  fond  of  the 
Principal's,  however  rational,  eloquent,  and  well  com 
posed,  and  would,  if  other  things  had  answered,  have 
gone,  when  he  preached,  to  have  heard  Dr.  Davidson. 
Mrs.  Scott  was  a  descendant  of  Dr.  Daniel  Rutherford, 
a  professor  in  the  Medical  School  of  Edinburgh,  and  one 
of  those  eminent  men,  who,  by  learning  and  professional 
skill,  brought  it  to  the  high  pitch  of  celebrity  to  which  it 
has  attained.  He  was  an  excellent  linguist,  and,  accord 
ing  to  the  custom  of  the  times,  delivered  his  prelections 
to  the  students  in  Latin.  Mrs.  Scott  told  me,  that,  when 
prescribing  to  his  patients,  it  was  his  custom  to  offer  up 
at  the  same  time  a  prayer  for  the  accompanying  bless 
ing  of  heaven ;  a  laudable  practice,  in  which,  I  fear,  he 
has  not  been  generally  imitated  by  those  of  his  profes 
sion. 

"  Mr.  Scott's  family  consisted  of  six  children,  all  of 
which  were  at  home  except  the  eldest,  who  was  an  officer 
in  the  army ;  and  as  they  were  of  an  age  fit  for  instruc 
tion,  they  were  all  committed  to  my  superintendence, 
which,  in  dependence  on  God,  I  exercised  with  an 
earnest  and  faithful  regard  to  their  temporal  and  spirit 
ual  good.  As  the  most  of  them  were  under  public 
teachers,  the  duty  assigned  me  was  mainly  to  assist  them 
in  the  prosecution  of  their  studies.  In  all  the  excel 
lencies,  whether  as  to  temper,  conduct,  talents  natural  or 
acquired,  which  any  of  the  children  individually  pos» 


MR.  MITCHELL'S  REMINISCENCES.  137 

sessed,  to  Master  Walter,  since  the  celebrated  Sir  Walter, 
must  a  decided  preference  be  ascribed.  Though,  like 
the  rest  of  the  children,  placed  under  my  tuition,  the  con 
ducting  of  his  education  comparatively  cost  me  but  little 
trouble,  being,  by  the  quickness  of  his  intellect,  tenacity 
f  memory,  and  diligent  application  to  his  studies,  gener 
ally  equal  of  himself  to  the  acquisition  of  those  tasks  I  or 
others  prescribed  to  him.  So  that  Master  Walter  might 
be  regarded  not  so  much  as  a  pupil  of  mine,  but  as  a 
friend  and  companion,  and  I  may  add,  as  an  assistant 
also ;  for,  by  his  example  and  admonitions,  he  greatly 
strengthened  my  hands,  and  stimulated  my  other  pupils 
to  industry  and  good  behaviour.  I  seldom  had  occasion 
all  the  time  I  was  in  the  family  to  find  fault  with  him 
even  for  trifles,  and  only  once  to  threaten  serious  castiga- 
tion,  of  which  he  was  no  sooner  aware  than  he  suddenly 
sprung  up,  threw  his  arms  about  my  neck,  and  kissed 
me.  It  is  hardly  needful  to  state,  that  now  the  intended 
castigation  was  no  longer  thought  of.  By  such  generous 
and  noble  conduct,  my  displeasure  was  in  a  moment  con 
verted  into  esteem  and  admiration  ;  my  soul  melted  into 
tenderness,  and  I  was  ready  to  mingle  my  tears  with  his. 
Some  incidents  in  reference  to  him  in  that  early  period, 
and  some  interesting  and  useful  conversations  I  had  with 
him,  then  deeply  impressed  on  my  mind,  and  which  the 
lapse  of  near  half  a  century  has  not  yet  obliterated, 
fforded  no  doubtful  presage  of  his  future  greatness  and 
celebrity.  On  my  going  into  the  family,  as  far  as  I  can 
judge,  he  might  be  in  his  twelfth  or  thirteenth  year,  a 
boy  in  the  Rector's  class.  However  elevated  above  the 
other  boys  in  genius,  though  generally  in  the  list  of  the 
duxes,  he  was  seldom,  as  far  as  I  recollect,  the  leader  of 
the  school :  nor  need  this  be  deemed  surprising,  as  it  has 


138  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

often  been  observed,  that  boys  of  original  genius  have 
been  outstripped,  by  those  that  were  far  inferior  to  them« 
selves,  in  the  acquisition  of  the  dead  languages.  Dr 
Adam,  the  rector,  celebrated  for  his  knowledge  of  th€ 
Latin  language,  was  deservedly  held  by  Mr.  Walter  in 
high  admiration  and  regard;  of  which  the  following 
anecdote  may  be  adduced  as  a  proof.  In  the  Higlj 
School,  as  is  well  known,  there  are  four  masters  and  a 
rector.  The  classes  of  those  masters  the  rector  in  rota 
tion  inspects,  and  in  the  mean  time  the  master,  whose 
school  is  examined,  goes  in  to  take  care  of  the  rector's, 
of  the  masters,  on  account  of  some  grudge,  had 
rudely  assaulted  and  injured  the  venerable  rector  one 
night  in  the  High  School  Wynd.  The  rector's  scholars, 
exasperated  at  the  outrage,  at  the  instigation  of  Master 
Walter,  determined  on  revenge,  and  which  was  to  be 
executed  when  this  obnoxious  master  should  again  come 
to  teach  the  class.  When  this  occurred,  the  task  the 
class  had  prescribed  to  them  was  that  passage  in  the 
jEneid  of  Virgil,  where  the  Queen  of  Carthage  interro 
gates  the  court  as  to  the  stranger  that  had  come  to  her 
habitation  — 

'  Quis  novus  hie  hospes  successit  sedibus  nostris  ? '  * 

Master  Walter  having  taken  a  piece  of  paper,  inscribed 
upon  it  these  words,  substituting  vanus  for  novus,  and 
pinned  it  to  the  tail  of  the  master's  coat,  and  tumed  him 
into  ridicule  by  raising  the  laugh  of  the  whole  school 

#  This  transposition  of  hospes  and  nostris  sufficiently  confirms  hii 
pupil's  statement  that  Mr.  Mitchell  "  superintended  his  classical 
themes,  but  not  classically."  The  "obnoxious  master"  alluded  tt 
was  Burns's  friend  Nicoll,  the  hero  of  the  song  — 

"  Willie  brewed  a  peck  o'  maut, 
And  Rob  and  Allan  came  to  see,"  &c. 


MR.  MITCHELL'S  REMINISCENCES.  139 

against  him.  Though  this  juvenile  action  could  not  be 
justified  on  the  footing  of  Christian  principles,  yet  cer 
tainly  it  was  so  far  honourable  that  it  was  not  a  dictate 
of  personal  revenge,  but  that  it  originated  in  respect  for 
a  worthy  and  injured  man,  and  detestation  of  one  whom 
he  looked  upon  as  a  bad  character. 

"  One  forenoon,  on  coming  from  the  High  School,  he 
said  he  wished  to  know  my  opinion  as  to  his  conduct  in 
a  matter  he  should  state  to  me.  When  passing  through 
the  High-School  Yards,  he  found  a  half-guinea  piece  on 
the  ground.  Instead  of  appropriating  this  to  his  own 
use,  a  sense  of  honesty  led  him  to  look  around,  and  on 
doing  so  he  espied  a  countryman,  whom  he  suspected  to 
be  the  proprietor.  Having  asked  the  man  if  he  had  lost 
anything,  he  searched  his  pockets,  and  then  replied  that 
he  had  lost  half-a-guinea.  Master  Walter  with  pleasure 
presented  him  with  his  lost  treasure.  In  this  transaction, 
his  ingenuity  in  finding  out  the  proper  owner,  and  his 
integrity  in  restoring  the  property,  met  my  most  cordial 
approbation. 

"  When  in  church,  Master  Walter  had  more  of  a  sop 
orific  tendency  than  the  rest  of  my  young  charge.  This 
seemed  to  be  constitutional.  He  needed  one  or  other  of 
the  family  to  arouse  him,  and  from  this  it  might  be  in 
ferred  that  he  would  cut  a  poor  figure  on  the  Sabbath 
evening  when  examined  about  the  sermons.  But  what 
•jxcited  the  admiration  of  the  family  was,  that  none  of 
the  children,  however  wakeful,  could  answer  as  he  did. 
The  only  way  that  I  could  account  for  this  was,  that 
when  he  heard  the  text,  and  divisions  of  the  subject,  his 
good  sense,  memory,  and  genius,  supplied  the  thoughts 
which  would  occur  to  the  preacher. 

"  On  one  occasion,  in  the  dining  room,  when,  according 


140  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  custom,  he  was  reading  some  author  in  the  time  of 
relaxation  from  study,  I  asked  him  how  he  accounted  for 
the  superiority  of  knowledge  he  possessed  above  the  rest 
of  the  family.  His  reply  was :  —  Some  years  ago  he  had 
been  attacked  by  a  swelling  in  one  of  his  ankles,  which 
confined  him  to  the  house,  and  prevented  him  taking 
amusement  and  exercise,  and  which  was  the  cause  of  his 
lameness.  As  under  this  ailment  he  could  not  rcmp  with 
his  brothers  and  the  other  young  people  in  the  green  in 
George's  Square,  he  found  himself  compelled  to  have 
recourse  to  some  substitute  for  the  juvenile  amusements 
of  his  comrades,  and  this  was  reading.  So  that,  to  what 
he  no  doubt  accounted  a  painful  dispensation  of  Provi 
dence,  he  probably  stood  indebted  for  his  future  celebrity* 
When  it  was  understood  I  was  to  leave  the  family,  Mas- 
ter  Walter  told  me  that  he  had  a  small  present  to  give 
me,  to  be  kept  as  a  memorandum  of  his  friendship,  and 
that  it  was  of  little  value  :  '  But  you  know,  Mr.  Mitchell/ 
said  he,  '  that  presents  are  not  to  be  estimated  according 
to  their  intrinsic  value,  but  according  to  the  intention  of 
the  donor.'  This  was  his  Adam's  Grammar,  which  had 
seen  hard  service  in  its  day,  and  had  many  animals  and 
inscriptions  on  its  margins.  This,  to  my  regret,  is  no 
longer  to  be  found  in  my  collection  of  books,  nor  do  I 
know  what  has  become  of  it. 

"  Since  leaving  the  family,  although  no  stranger  to  the 
widely  spreading  fame  of  Sir  Walter,  I  have  had  few 
opportunities  of  personal  intercourse  with  him.  When 
minister  in  the  second  charge  of  the  Established  Church 
at  Montrose,  he  paid  me  a  visit,  and  spent  a  night  with 
me  —  few  visits  have  been  more  gratifying.  He  wag 
then  on  his  return  from  Aberdeen,  where  he,  as  an  advo 
cate,  had  attended  the  Court  of  Justiciary  in  its  norther** 


MR.  MITCHELL'S  REMINISCENCES.  141 

circuit.  Nor  was  his  attendance  in  this  court  his  sole 
object :  another,  and  perhaps  the  principal,  was,  as  he 
stated  to  me,  to  collect  in  his  excursion  ancient  ballads 
and  traditional  stories  about  fairies,  witches,  and  ghosts. 
Such  intelligence  proved  to  me  as  an  electrical  shock ; 
and  as  I  then  sincerely  regretted,  so  do  I  still,  that  Sir 
Walter's  precious  time  was  so  much  devoted  to  the  dulce, 
rather  than  the  utile  of  composition,  and  that  his  great 
talent  should  have  been  wasted  on  such  subjects.  At  the 
same  time  I  feel  happy  to  qualify  this  censure,  as  I  am 
generally  given  to  understand  that  his  Novels  are  of  a 
more  pure  and  unexceptionable  nature  than  characterizes 
writings  of  a  similar  description  ;  while  at  the  same  time 
his  pen  has  been  occupied  in  the  production  of  works  of 
a  better  and  nobler  order.  Impressed  with  the  convic 
tion  that  he  would  one  day  arrive  at  honour  and  influ 
ence  in  his  native  country,  I  endeavoured  to  improve  the 
occasion  of  his  visit  to  secure  his  patronage  in  behalf  of 
the  strict  and  evangelical  party  in  the  Church  of  Scot 
land,  in  exerting  himself  to  induce  patrons  to  grant  to 
the  Christian  people  liberty  to  elect  their  own  pastors  in 
cases  of  vacancy.  His  answer  struck  me  much  :  it  was 
—  'Nay,  nay,  Mr.  Mitchell,  I'll  not  do  that ;  for  if  that 
were  to  be  done,  I  and  the  like  of  me  would  have  no  life 
with  such  as  you ; '  from  which  I  inferred  he  thought 
that,  were  the  evangelical  clergy  to  obtain  the  superior 
ity,  they  would  introduce  such  strictness  of  discipline  as 
would  not  quadrate  with  the  ideas  of  that  party  called 
'he  moderate  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  whose  views,  I 
presume,  Sir  Walter  had  now  adopted.  Some,  however, 
to  whom  I  have  mentioned  Sir  Walter's  reply,  have  sug 
gested  that  I  had  misunderstood  his  meaning,  and  that 
what  he  said  was  not  in  earnest,  but  in  jocularity  and 


142  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

good-humour.  This  may  be  true,  and  certainly  is  a 
candid  interpretation.  As  to  the  ideal  beings  already 
mentioned  as  the  subject  of  his  enquiries,  my  materials 
were  too  scanty  to  afford  him  much  information." 

Notwithstanding  the  rigidly  Presbyterian  habits  which 
this  chronicle  describes  with  so  much  more  satisfaction 
than  the  corresponding  page  in  the  Ashestiel  Memoir,  I 
am  reminded,  by  a  communication  already  quoted  from  a 
lady  of  the  Ravelstone  family,  that  Mrs.  Scott,  who  had, 
she  says,  "  a  turn  for  literature  quite  uncommon  among 
the  ladies  of  the  time,"  encouraged  her  son  in  his  passion 
for  Shakspeare  ;  that  his  plays,  and  the  Arabian  Nights, 
were  often  read  aloud  in  the  family  circle  by  Walter, 
"  and  served  to  spend  many  a  happy  evening  hour ; " 
nay,  that,  however  good  Mitchell  may  have  frowned  at 
such  a  suggestion,  even  Mr.  Scott  made  little  objection 
to  his  children,  and  some  of  their  young  friends,  getting 
up  private  theatricals  occasionally  in  the  dining-room 
after  the  lessons  of  the  day  were  over.  The  lady  adds, 
that  "Walter  was  always  the  manager,  and  had  the  whole 
charge  of  the  affair,  and  that  the  favourite  piece  used  to 
be  Jane  Shore,  in  which  he  was  the  Hastings,  his  sister 
the  Alicia.  I  have  heard  from  another  friend  of  the 
family,  that  Richard  III.  also  was  attempted,  and  that 
Walter  took  the  part  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester,  observ 
ing  that  "  the  limp  would  do  well  enough  to  represent 
the  hump.* 

A  story  which  I  have  seen  in  print,  about  his  par 
taking  in  the  dancing  lessons  of  his  brothers,  I  do  not 
believe.  But  it  was  during  Mr.  Mitchell's  residence 
in  the  family  that  they  all  made  their  unsuccessful  at« 
tempts  in  the  art  of  music,  under  the  auspices  of 


KELSO. THE    GARDEN.  143 

poor  Allister  Campbell  —  the  Editor  of  "Albyn's  An 
thology." 

Mr.  Mitchell  appears  to  have  terminated  his  superin 
tendence  before  Walter  left  Dr.  Adam,  and  in  the  inter 
val  between  this  and  his  entrance  at  College,  he  spent 
some  time  with  his  aunt,  who  now  inhabited  a  cottage  at 
Kelso;  but  the  Memoir,  I  suspect,  gives  too  much  ex 
tension  to  that  residence  —  which  may  be  accounted 
for  by  his  blending  with  it  a  similar  visit  which  he  paid 
to  the  same  place  during  his  College  vacation  of  the  next 
year. 

Some  of  the  features  of  Miss  Jenny's  abode  at  Kelso 
are  alluded  to  in  the  Memoir,  but  the  fullest  description 
of  it  occurs  in  his  "Essay  on  Landscape  Gardening" 
(1828),  where,  talking  of  grounds  laid  out  in  the  Dutch 
taste,  he  says :  — "  Their  rarity  now  entitles  them  to 
some  care  as  a  species  of  antiques,  and  unquestionably 
they  give  character  to  some  snug,  quiet,  and  sequestered 
situations,  which  would  otherwise  have  no  marked  feature 
of  any  kind.  I  retain  an  early  and  pleasing  recollection 
of  the  seclusion  of  such  a  scene.  A  small  cottage,  adja 
cent  to  a  beautiful  village,  the  habitation  of  an  ancient 
maiden  lady,  was  for  some  time  my  abode.  It  was  sit 
uated  in  a  garden  of  seven  or  eight  acres,  planted  about 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  by  one  of  the 
Millars,  related  to  the  author  of  the  "  Gardeners'  Dic 
tionary,"  or,  for  aught  I  know,  by  himself.  It  was  full 
»f  long  straight  walks,  between  hedges  of  yew  and  horn 
beam,  which  rose  tall  and  close  on  every  side.  There 
were  thickets  of  flowery  shrubs,  a  bower,  and  an  arbour, 
to  which  access  was  obtained  through  a  little  maze  of 
contorted  walks  calling  itself  a  labyrinth.  In  the  centre 
of  the  bower  was  a  splendid  Platanus,  or  Oriental  plane 


144  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

—  a  huge  hill  of  leaves  —  one  of  the  noblest  specimens 
of  that  regularly  beautiful  tree  which  I  remember  to 
have  seen.  In  different  parts  of  the  garden  were  fine 
ornamental  trees,  which  had  attained  great  size,  and  the 
orchard  was  filled  with  fruit  trees  of  the  best  description. 
There  were  seats,  and  hilly  walks,  and  a  banqueting 
house.  I  visited  this  scene  lately,  after  an  absence  of 
many  years.  Its  air  of  retreat,  the  seclusion  which  its 
alleys  afforded,  was  entirely  gone ;  the  huge  Platanus 
had  died,  like  most  of  its  kind,  in  the  beginning  of  this 
century;  the  hedges  were  cut  down,  the  trees  stubbed 
up,  and  the  whole  character  of  the  place  so  destroyed, 
that  I  was  glad  when  I  could  leave  it."  It  was  under 
this  Platanus  that  Scott  first  devoured  Percy's  Reliques. 
I  remember  well  being  with  him,  in  1820  or  1821,  when 
he  revisited  the  favourite  scene,  and  the  sadness  of  his 
looks  when  he  discovered  that  "  the  huge  hill  of  leaves  " 
was  no  more. 

To  keep  up  his  scholarship  while  inhabiting  the  gar 
den,  he  attended  daily,  as  he  informs  us,  the  public  school 
of  Kelso,  and  here  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  a 
family,  two  members  of  which  were  intimately  connected 
with  the  most  important  literary  transactions  of  his  aftei 
life  —  James  Ballantyne,  the  printer  of  almost  all  his 
works,  and  his  brother  John,  who  had  a  share  hi  the  pub 
lication  of  many  of  them.  Their  father  was  a  respect 
able  tradesman  in  this  pretty  town.  The  elder  of  the 
brothers,  who  did  not  long  survive  his  illustrious  friend, 
was  kind  enough  to  make  an  exertion  on  behalf  of  this 
work,  while  stretched  on  the  bed  from  which  he  never 
rose,  and  dictated  a  valuable  paper  of  memoranda,  from 
which  I  shall  here  introduce  my  first  extract :  — 

"  I  think,"  says  James  Ballantyne,  "  it  was  in  the  yea? 


KELSO. JAMES    BALLANTYNE.  145 

i783  that  I  first  became  acquainted  with  Sir  Walter 
Soott,  then  a  boy  about  my  own  age,  at  the  Grammar 
School  of  Kelso,  of  which  Mr.  Lancelot  Whale  was  the 
Rector.  The  impression  left  by  his  manners  was,  even 
at  that  early  period,  calculated  to  be  deep,  and  I  cannot 
recall  any  other  instance  in  which  the  man  and  the  boy 
continued  to  resemble  each  other  so  much  and  so  long. 
Walter  Scott  was  not  a  constant  schoolfellow  at  this 
seminary;  he  only  attended  it  for  a  few  weeks  during 
the  vacation  of  the  Edinburgh  High  School.  He  was 
then,  as  he  continued  during  all  his  after  life  to  be,  de 
voted  to  antiquarian  lore,  and  was  certainly  the  best 
story-teller  I  had  ever  heard,  either  then  or  since.  He 
soon  discovered  that  I  was  as  fond  of  listening  as  he  him 
self  was  of  relating ;  and  I  remember  it  was  a  thing  of 
daily  occurrence,  that  after  he  had  made  himself  master 
of  his  own  lesson,  I,  alas !  being  still  sadly  to  seek  in 
mine,  he  used  to  whisper  to  me,  *  Come,  slink  over  be 
side  me,  Jamie,  and  I'll  tell  you  a  story/  I  well  recol 
lect  that  he  had  a  form,  or  seat,  appropriated  to  himself, 
the  particular  reason  of  which  I  cannot  tell,  but  he  was 
always  treated  with  a  peculiar  degree  of  respect,  not  by 
the  boys  of  the  different  classes  merely,  but  by  the  ven 
erable  Master  Lancelot  himself,  who,  an  absent,  grotesque 
being,  betwixt  six  and  seven  feet  high,  was  nevertheless 
an  admirable  scholar,  and  sure  to  be  delighted  to  find 
any  one  so  well  qualified  to  sympathize  with  him  as 
young  Walter  Scott;  and  the  affectionate  gratitude  of 
the  young  pupil  was  never  intermitted,  so  long  as  his 
venerable  master  continued  to  live.  I  may  mention,  in 
passing,  that  old  Whale  bore,  in  many  particula'rsr~a~ 
strong  resemblance  to  Dominie  Sampson,  though,  it  must 
be  admitted,  combining  more  gentlemanly  manners  with 
VOL.  i.  10 


146  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

equal  classical  lore,  and,  on  the  whole,  being  a  much 
superior  sort  of  person.  In  the  intervals  of  school-hours, 
it  was  our  constant  practice  to  walk  together  by  the 
banks  of  the  Tweed,  our  employment  continuing  exactly 
the  same,  for  his  stories  seemed  to  be  quite  inexhausti 
ble.  This  intercourse  continued  during  the  summers  of 
the  years  1783-4,  but  was  broken  off  in  1785-6,  when  I 
went  into  Edinburgh  to  College." 

Perhaps  the  separate  seat  assigned  to  Walter  Scott 
by  the  Kelso  schoolmaster,  was  considered  due  to  him  as 
a  temporary  visiter  from  the  great  Edinburgh  seminary. 
Very  possibly,  however,  the  worthy  Mr.  Whale  thought 
of  nothing  but  protecting  his  solitary  student  of  Persius 
and  Tacitus  from  the  chances  of  being  jostled  among  the 
adherents  of  Ruddiman  and  Cornelius  Nepos. 

Another  of  his  Kelso  schoolfellows  was  Robert  Wai- 
die  (son  of  Mr.  Waldie  of  Henderside),  and  to  this  con 
nexion  he  owed,  both  while  quartered  in  the  Garden,  and 
afterwards  at  Rosebank,  many  kind  attentions,  of  which 
he  ever  preserved  a  grateful  recollection,  and  which 
have  left  strong  traces  on  every  page  of  his  works  in 
which  he  has  occasion  to  introduce  the  Society  of 
Friends.  This  young  companion's  mother,  though  al 
ways  called  in  the  neighbourhood  "  Lady  Waldie,"  be 
longed  to  that  community ;  and  the  style  of  life  and 
manners  depicted  in  the  household  of  Joshua  Geddes  of 
Mount  Sharon  and  his  amiable  sister,  in  some  of  the 
sweetest  chapters  of  Redgauntlet,  is  a  slightly  decorated 
edition  of  what  he  witnessed  under  her  hospitable  roof. 
He  records,  in  a  note  to  the  Novel,  the  "  liberality  and 
benevolence  "  of  this  "  kind  old  lady  "  in  allowing  him  to 
"  rummage  at  pleasure,  and  carry  home  any  volumes  hs 
chose  of  her  small  but  valuable  library ; "  annexing  only 


KELSO.  — 1783.  147 

the  condition  that  he  should  "  take  at  the  same  time  some 
of  the  tracts  printed  for  encouraging  and  extending  the 
doctrines  of  her  own  sect.  —  She  did  not,"  he  adds,  "  even 
exact  any  assurance  that  I  would  read  these  performances, 
being  too  justly  afraid  of  involving  me  in  a  breach  of 
promise,  but  was  merely  desirous  that  I  should  have  the 
chance  of  instruction  within  my  reach,  in  case  whim, 
curiosity,  or  accident,  might  induce  me  to  have  recourse 
to  it."  I  remember  the  pleasure  with  which  he  read, 
late  in  life,  "  Rome  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  an  in 
genious  work  produced  by  one  of  Mrs.  Waldie's  grand 
daughters,  and  how  comically  he  pictured  the  alarm  with 
which  his  ancient  friend  would  have  perused  some  of  its 
delineations  of  the  high  places  of  Popery. 

I  shall  be  pardoned  for  adding  a  marginal  note  written, 
apparently  late  in  Scott's  life,  on  his  copy  of  a  little  for 
gotten  volume,  entitled  Trifles  in  Verse,  by  a  Young 
Soldier.  "In  1783,"  he  says,  "or  about  that  time,  I 
remember  John  Marjoribanks,  a  smart  recruiting  officer 
in  the  village  of  Kelso,  the  Weekly  Chronicle  of  which 
Ue  filled  with  his  love  verses.  His  Delia  was  a  Miss 
Dickson,  daughter  of  a  shopkeeper  in  the  same  village  — 
ais  Gloriana  a  certain  prudish  old  maiden  lady,  benempt 
Miss  Goldie ;  I  think  I  see  her  still,  with  her  thin  arms 
sheathed  in  scarlet  gloves,  and  crossed  like  two  lobsters 
in  a  fishmonger's  stand.  Poor  Delia  was  a  very  beauti 
ful  girl,  and  not  more  conceited  than  a  be-rhymed  miss 
ought  to  be.  Many  years  afterwards  I  found  the  Kelso 
belle,  thin  and  pale,  her  good  looks  gone,  and  her  smart 
dress  neglected,  governess  to  the  brats  of  a  Paisley 
manufacturer.  I  ought  to  say  there  was  not  an  atom  of 
scandal  in  her  flirtation  with  the  young  military  poet. 
The  bard's  fate  was  not  much  better ;  after  some  service 


148  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

in  India,  and  elsewhere,  he  led  a  half-pay  life  about 
Edinburgh,  and  died  there.  There  is  a  tenuity  of  thought 
in  what  he  has  written,  but  his  verses  are  usually  easy, 
and  I  like  them  because  they  recall  my  schoolboy  days, 
when  I  thought  him  a  Horace,  and  his  Delia  a  god 
dess." 


EDINBURGH    COLLEGE.  149 


CHAPTER  IV. 

({lustrations  of  the  Autobiography  continued  —  Anecdotes  of 
Scott's  College  Life. 

1783-1786. 

ON  returning  to  Edinburgh,  and  entering  the  College, 
in  November,  1783,  Scott  found  himself  once  more  in  the 
fellowship  of  all  his  intimates  of  the  High  School;  of 
whom,  besides  those  mentioned  in  the  autobiographical 
fragment,  he  speaks  in  his  diaries  with  particular  affec 
tion  of  Sir  William  Rae,  Bart.,  David  Monypenny  (after 
wards  Lord  Pitmilly),  Thomas  Tod,  W.  S.,  Sir  Archibald 
Campbell  of  Succoth,  Bart.,  all  familiar  friends  of  his 
through  manhood,  —  and  the  Earl  of  Dalhousie,*  whom, 
on  meeting  with  him  after  a  long  separation  in  the  even 
ing  of  life,  he  records  as  still  being,  and  having  always 
been,  "  the  same  manly  and  generous  character  that  all 
about  him  loved  as  the  Lordie  Ramsay  of  the  Yards." 
The  chosen  companion,  however,  continued  to  be  for 
some  time  Mr.  John  Irving  —  his  suburban  walks  with 
whom  have  been  recollected  so  tenderly,  both  in  the 
Memoir  of  1808,  and  in  the  Preface  to  Waverley  of 
1829.  It  will  interest  the  rsader  to  compare  with  those 

*  George,  ninth  Earl  of  Dalhousie,  highly  distinguished  in  the  mill- 
toy  annals  of  his  time,  died  on  the  21st  March  1838,  in  his  68th  year 


150  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

beautiful  descriptions,  the  following  extract  from  a  lettei 
with  which  Mr.  Irving  has  favoured  me  :  — 

"  Every  Saturday,  and  more  frequently  during  the  vaca 
tions,  we  used  to  retire,  with  three  or  four  books  from  the  cir 
culating  library,  to  Salisbury  Crags,  Arthur's  Seat,  or  Black- 
ford  Hill,  and  read  them  together.  He  read  faster  than  I,  and 
had,  on  this  account,  to  wait  a  little  at  finishing  every  two 
pages,  before  turning  the  leaf.  The  books  we  most  delighted 
in  were  romances  of  knight-errantry  ;  the  Castle  of  Otranto, 
Spenser,  Ariosto,  and  Boiardo  were  great  favourites.  We  used 
to  climb  up  the  rocks  in  search  of  places  where  we  might  sit 
sheltered  from  the  wind;  and  the  more  inaccessible  they  were, 
the  better  we  liked  them.  He  was  very  expert  at  climbing. 
Sometimes  we  got  into  places  where  we  found  it  difficult  to 
move  either  up  or  down,  and  I  recollect  it  being  proposed,  on 
several  occasions,  that  I  should  go  for  a  ladder  to  see  and  ex 
tricate  him  ;  but  I  never  had  any  need  really  to  do  so,  for  he 
always  managed  somehow  either  to  get  down  or  ascend  to  the 
top.  The  number  of  books  we  thus  devoured  was  very  great.  - 
I  forgot  great  part  of  what  I  read ;  but  my  friend,  notwith 
standing  he  read  with  such  rapidity,  remained,  to  my  surprise, 
master  of  it  all,  and  could  even  weeks  or  months  afterwards 
repeat  a  whole  page  in  which  any  thing  had  particularly 
struck  him  at  the  moment.  After  we  had  continued  this  prac 
tice  of  reading  for  two  years  or  more  together,  he  proposed 
that  we  should  recite  to  each  other  alternately  such  adven 
tures  of  knight-errants  as  we  could  ourselves  contrive ;  and  we 
continued  to  do  so  a  long  while.  He  found  no  difficulty  in  it, 
and  used  to  recite  for  half  an  hour  or  more  at  a  time,  while  I 
seldom  continued  hah7  that  space.  The  stories  we  told  were, 
as  Sir  Walter  has  said,  interminable  —  for  we  were  unwilling 
to  have  any  of  our  favourite  knights  killed.  Our  passion  for 
romance  led  us  to  learn  Italian  together ;  after  a  time  we  could 
both  read  it  with  fluency,  and  we  then  copied  such  tales  as  we 
had  met  with  in  that  language,  being  a  continued  succession 
of  battles  and  enchantments.  He  began  early  to  collect  old 


MR.  IRVING'S  REMINISCENCES.  151 

ballads,  and  as  my  mother  could  repeat  a  great  many,  he  used 
to  come  and  learn  those  she  could  recite  to  him.  He  used  to 
get  all  the  copies  of  these  ballads  he  could,  and  select  the 
best." 

These,  no  doubt,  were  among  the  germs  of  the  collec 
tion  of  ballads  in  six  little  volumes,  which,  from  the  hand 
writing,  had  been  begun  at  this  early  period,  and  which 
is  still  preserved  at  Abbotsford.  And  it  appears,  that  at 
least  as  early  a  date  must  be  ascribed  to  another  collec 
tion  of  little  humorous  stories  in  prose,  the  Penny  Chap- 
books,  as  they  are  called,  still  in  high  favour  among  the 
lower  classes  in  Scotland,  which  stands  on  the  same  shelf. 
In  a  letter  of  1830*  he  states  that  he  had  bound  up 
things  of  this  kind  to  the  extent  of  several  volumes,  be 
fore  he  was  ten  years  old. 

Although  the  Ashestiel  Memoir  mentions  so  very 
lightly  his  boyish  addiction  to  verse,  and  the  rebuke 
which  his  vein  received  from  the  Apothecary's  blue- 
buskined  wife  as  having  been  followed  by  similar  treat 
ment  on  the  part  of  others,  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
while  thus  devouring,  along  with  his  young  friend,  the 
stories  of  Italian  romance,  he  essayed,  from  time  to  time, 
to  weave  some  of  their  materials  into  rhyme  ;  —  nay, 
that  he  must  have  made  at  least  one  rather  serious  effort 
of  this  kind,  as  early  as  the  date  of  these  rambles  to 
the  Salisbury  Crags.  I  have  found  among  his  mother's 
__  apers  a  copy  of  verses,  headed  —  "  Lines  to  Mr.  Walter 
Scott  —  on  reading  his  poem  of  Guiscard  and  Matilda, 
inscribed  to  Miss  Keith  of  Ravelston"  —  There  is  no  date ; 
but  I  conceive  the  lines  bear  internal  evidence  of  having 
been  written  when  he  was  very  young  —  not,  I  should 
suppose,  above  fourteen  or  fifteen  at  most.  I  think  it 
*  See  Strang's  Germany  in  1831,  vol.  i.  p.  265. 


152  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

also  certain  that  the  writer  was  a  woman ;  and  have 
almost  as  little  doubt  that  they  came  from  the  pen  of  liis 
old  admirer,  Mrs.  Cockburn.  They  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  If  such  the  accents  of  thy  early  youth 
When  playful  fancy  holds  the  place  of  truth; 
If  so  divinely  sweet  thy  numbers  flow, 
And  thy  young  heart  melts  with  such  tender  wo; 
What  praise,  what  admiration  shall  be  thine, 
When  sense  mature  with  science  shall  combine 
To  raise  thy  genius,  and  thy  taste  refine ! 

"  Go  on,  dear  youth,  the  glorious  path  pursue 
Which  bounteous  Nature  kindly  smooths  for  you ; 
Go,  bid  the  seeds  her  hand  hath  sown  arise 
By  timely  culture,  to  their  native  skies ; 
Go,  and  employ  the  poet's  heavenly  art, 
Not  merely  to  delight,  but  mend  the  heart. 
Than  other  poets  happier  mayst  thou  prove, 
More  blest  in  friendship,  fortunate  in  love, 
Whilst  Fame,  who  longs  to  make  true  merit  kno^n, 
Impatient  waits,  to  claim  thee  as  her  own. 

"  Scorning  the  yoke  of  prejudice  and  pride, 
Thy  tender  mind  let  truth  and  reason  guide ; 
Let  meek  humility  thy  steps  attend, 
And  firm  integrity,  youth's  surest  friend. 
So  peace  and  honour  all  thy  hours  shall  bless, 
And  conscious  rectitude  each  joy  increase; 
A  nobler  meed  be  thine  than  empty  praise  — 
Heaven  shall  approve  thy  life,  and  Keith  thy  lays." 

At  the  period  to  which  1  refer  these  verses,  Scott's 
parents  still  continued  to  have  some  expectations  of  cur 
ing  his  lameness,  and  Mr.  Irving  remembers  to  have 
often  assisted  in  applying  the  electrical  apparatus,  on 
which  for  a  considerable  time  they  principally  rested 
their  hopes.  There  is  an  allusion  to  these  experiments 
in  Scott's  autobiographical  fragment,  but  I  have  found 
a  fuller  notice  on  the  margin  of  his  copy  of  the  "  Guide 
k>  Health,  Beauty,  Riches,  and  Longevity,"  as  Captain 


DR.    GRAHAM.  153 

Grose  chose  to  entitle  an  amusing  collection   of  quack 
advertisements. 

"  The  celebrated  Dr.  Graham,"  says  the  annotator, 
"  was  an  empiric  of  some  genius  and  great  assurance. 
In  iact,  he  had  a  dash  of  madness  in  his  composition.  He 
had  a  fine  electrical  apparatus,  and  used  it  with  skill.  1 
myself,  amongst  others,  was  subjected  to  a  course  of  elec 
tricity  under  his  charge.  I  remember  seeing  the  old 
Earl  of  Hopetoun  seated  in  a  large  arm-chair,  and  hung 
round  with  a  collar,  and  a  belt  of  magnets,  like  an  Indian 
chief.  After  this,  growing  quite  wild,  Graham  set  up  his 
Temple  of  Health,  and  lectured  on  the  Celestial  Bed.  He 
attempted  a  course  of  these  lectures  at  Edinburgh,  and 
as  the  Magistrates  refused  to  let  him  do  so,  he  libelled 
them  in  a  series  of  advertisements,  the  nights  of  which 
were  infinitely  more  absurd  and  exalted  than  those  which 
Grose  has  collected.  In  one  tirade  (long  in  my  posses 
sion),  he  declared  that '  he  looked  down  upon  them'  (the 
Magistrates)  'as  the  sun  in  his  meridian  glory  looks 
down  on  the  poor,  feeble,  stinking  glimmer  of  an  expiring 
farthing  candle,  or  as  G —  himself,  in  the  plenitude  of  his 
omnipotence,  may  regard  the  insolent  bouncings  of  a  few 
refractory  maggots  in  a  rotten  cheese.'  Graham  was  a 
good-looking  man ;  he  used  to  come  to  the  Greyfriars' 
Church  in  a  suit  of  white  and  silver,  with  a  chapeau-bras, 
and  his  hair  marvellously  dressed  into  a  sort  of  double 
toupee,  which  divided  upon  his  head  like  the  tvo  tops  of 
Parnassus.  Mrs.  Macaulay  the  historianess,  married  his 
brother.  Lady  Hamilton  is  said  to  have  first  enacted  his 
Goddess  of  Health,  being  at  this  time  a  file  de  joie  of 
great  celebrity.*  The  Temple  of  Health  dwindled  into 

*  Lord  Nelson's  connexion  with  this  lady  will  preserve  her  celebrity. 
In  "  Kay's  Edinburgh  Portraits  "  tne  reader  will  find  more  about  Dr. 
Qraham. 


154  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

a  sort  of  obscene  hell,  or  gambling  house.  In  a  quarrel 
which  took  place  there,  a  poor  young  man  was  run  into 
the  bowels  with  a  red-hot  poker,  of  which  injury  he  died. 
The  mob  vented  their  fury  on  the  house,  and  the  Magis 
trates,  somewhat  of  the  latest,  shut  up  the  exhibition.  A 
quantity  of  glass  and  crystal  trumpery,  the  remains  of 
the  splendid  apparatus,  was  sold  on  the  South  Bridge 
for  next  to  nothing.  Graham's  next  receipt  was  the 
earth-bath,  with  which  he  wrought  some  cures ;  but 
that  also  failing,  he  was,  I  believe,  literally  starved  to 
death." 

Graham's  earth-bath  too  was,  I  understand,  tried  upon 
Scott,  but  his  was  not  one  of  the  cases,  if  any  such  there 
were,  in  which  it  worked  a  cure.  He,  however,  improved 
about  this  time  greatly  in  his  general  health  and  strength, 
and  Mr.  Irving,  in  accordance  with  the  statement  in  the 
Memoir,  assures  me,  that  while  attending  the  early 
classes  at  the  College,  the  young  friends  extended  their 
walks,  so  as  to  visit  in  succession  all  the  old  castles 
within  eight  or  ten  miles  of  Edinburgh.  "  Sir  Walter," 
he  says,  "  was  specially  fond  of  Rosslyn.  We  frequently 
walked  thither  before  breakfast — after  breakfasting  there, 
walked  all  down  the  river  side  to  Lasswade  —  and  thence 
home  to  town  before  dinner.  He  used  generally  to  rest 
one  hand  upon  my  shoulder  when  we  walked  together, 
and  leaned  with  the  other  on  a  stout  stick." 

The  love  of  picturesque  scenery,  and  especially  of 
'  feudal  castles,  with  which  the  vicinity  of  Edinburgh  is 
plentifully  garnished,  awoke,  as  the  Memoir  tells  us,  the 
desire  of  being  able  to  use  the  pencil.  Mr.  Irving  says  — 
"  I  attended  one  summer  a  class  of  drawing  along  with 
him,  but  although  both  fond  of  it,  we  found  it  took  up  so 
much  time  that  we  gave  this  up  before  we  had  made 


BURRELL.  —  WALKER.  155 

much  progress."  In  one  of  his  later  diaries,  Scott  him 
self  gives  the  following  more  particular  account  of  this 
matter :  — 

"  I  took  lessons  of  oil-painting  in  youth  from  a  little 
Jew  animalcule  —  a  smouch  called  Burrell  —  a  clever 
sensible  creature  though.  But  I  could  make  no  progress 
in  either  painting  or  drawing.  Nature  denied  me  the 
correctness  of  eye  and  neatness  of  hand.  Yet  I  was 
very  desirous  to  be  a  draughtsman  at  least  —  and  la 
boured  harder  to  attain  that  point  than  at  any  other  in 
my  recollection  to  which  I  did  not  make  some  approaches. 
Burrell  was  not  useless  to  me  altogether  neither.  He 
was  a  Prussian,  and  I  got  from  him  many  a  long  story 
of  the  battles  of  Frederick,  in  whose  armies  his  father 
had  been  a  commissary,  or  perhaps  a  spy.  I  remember 
his  picturesque  account  of  seeing  a  party  of  the  black 
hussars  bringing  in  some  forage  carts  which  they  had 
taken  from  a  body  of  the  Cossacks,  whom  he  described 
as  lying  on  the  top  of  the  carts  of  hay  mortally  wounded, 
and  like  the  dying  gladiator,  eyeing  their  own  blood  as  it 
ran  down  through  the  straw." 

A  year  or  two  later,  Scott  renewed  his  attempt.  "  I 
afterwards,"  he  says,  "  took  lessons  from  Walker,  whom 
we  used  to  call  Blue  Beard.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
conceited  persons  in  the  world,  but  a  good  teacher ;  one 
of  the  ugliest  countenances  he  had  that  need  be  exhibited 
—  enough,  as  we  say,  to  spean  weans.  The  man  was 
always  extremely  precise  in  the  quality  of  every  thing 
about  him ;  his  dress,  accommodations,  and  every  thing 
else.  He  became  insolvent,  poor  man,  and,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  I  attended  the  meeting  of  those  con 
cerned  in  his  affairs.  Instead  of  ordinary  accommo 
dations  for  writing,  each  of  the  persons  present  was 


156  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

equipped  with  a  large  sheet  of  drawing-paper,  and  a 
swan's  quill.  It  was  mournfully  ridiculous  enough. 
Skirving  made  an  admirable  likeness  of  Walker ;  not  a 
single  scar  or  mark  of  the  small-pox,  which  seamed  his 
countenance,  but  the  too  accurate  brother  of  the  brush 
had  faithfully  laid  it  down  in  longitude  and  latitude. 
Poor  Walker  destroyed  it  (being  in  crayons)  rather  than 
let  the  caricature  of  his  ugliness  appear  at  the  sale  of  his 
effects.  I  did  learn  myself  to  take  some  vile  views  from 
nature.  When  Will  Clerk  and  I  lived  very  much  to 
gether,  I  used  sometimes  to  make  them  under  his  in 
struction.  He  to  whom,  as  to  all  his  family,  art  is  a 
familiar  attribute,  wondered  at  me  as  a  Newfoundland 
dog  would  *t  a  greyhound  which  showed  fear  of  the 
water." 

Notwithstanding  all  that  Scott  says  about  the  total 
failure  of  his  attempts  in  the  art  of  the  pencil,  I  presume 
feiv  will  doubt  that  they  proved  very  useful  to  him  after 
wards  ;  *Vom  them  it  is  natural  to  suppose  he  caught  the 
habit  of  analyzing,  with  some  approach  at  least  to  ac 
curacy,  the  scenes  over  which  his  eye  might  have  con 
tinued  to  wander  with  the  vague  sense  of  delight.  I  may 
add.  that  a  longer  and  more  successful  practice  of  the 
crayon  might,  I  cannot  but  think,  have  proved  the  re 
verse  of  serviceable  to  him  as  a  future  painter  with  the 
pen.  He  might  have  contracted  the  habit  of  copying 
from  pictures  rather  than  from  nature  itself;  and  we 
should  thus  have  lost  that  which  constitutes  the  very 
highest  charm  in  his  delineations  of  scenery,  namely, 
that  the  effect  is  produced  by  the  selection  of  a  few 
striking  features,  arranged  with  a  light  unconscious 
grace,  neither  too  much  nor  too  little  —  equally  remote 
from  the  barren  generalizations  of  a  former  age,  and 


LESSONS    IN    DRAWING.  157 

the  dull  servile  fidelity  with  which  so  many  inferior 
writers  of  our  time  fill  in  both  background  and  fore 
ground,  having  no  more  notion  of  the  perspective  of 
genius  than  Chinese  paper-stainers  have  of  that  of  the 
atmosphere,  and  producing  in  fact  not  descriptions  but 
inventories. 

The  illness  which  he  alludes  to  in  his  Memoir,  as  in 
terrupting  for  a  considerable  period  his  attendance  on  the 
Latin  and  Greek  classes  in  Edinburgh  College,  is  spoken 
of  more  largely  in  one  of  his  prefaces.*  It  arose  from 
the  bursting  of  a  blood-vessel  in  the  lower  bowels ;  and 
I  have  heard  him  say  that  his  uncle,  Dr.  Rutherford, 
considered  his  recovery  from  it  as  little  less  than  miracu 
lous.  His  sweet  temper  and  calm  courage  were  no  doubt  i> 
important  elements  of  safety.  He  submitted  without  a  ' 
murmur  to  the  severe  discipline  prescribed  by  his  affec 
tionate  physician,  and  found  consolation  in  poetry,  ro 
mance,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  young  friendship.  Day 
after  day,  John  Irving  relieved  his  mother  and  sister  in 
their  attendance  upon  him.  The  bed  on  which  he  lay 
was  piled  with  a  constant  succession  of  works  of  imag 
ination,  and  sad  realities  were  forgotten  amidst  the  brill 
iant  day-dreams  of  genius  drinking  unwearied  from  the 
eternal  fountains  of  Spenser  and  Shakspeare.  Chess 
was  recommended  as  a  relief  to  these  unintermitted, 
though  desultory  studies  ;  and  he  engaged  eagerly  in  the 
game  which  had  found  favour  with  so  many  of  his  Pala 
dins.  Mr.  Irving  remembers  playing  it  with  him  hour 
after  hour,  in  very  cold  weather,  when,  the  windows  be 
ing  kept  open  as  a  part  of  the  medical  treatment,  nothing 
but  youthful  nerves  and  spirit  could  have  persevered. 
But  Scott  did  not  pursue  the  science  of  chess  after  his 
*  See  Preface  to  Waverley,  1829. 


158  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

boyhood.  He  used  to  say  that  it  was  a  shame  to  tioow 
away  upon  mastering  a  mere  game,  however  ingenious, 
the  time  which  would  suffice  for  the  acquisition  of  a  new 
language.  "  Surely,"  he  said,  "  chess-playing  is  a  sad 
waste  of  brains." 

His  recovery  was  completed  by  another  visit  to  Rox 
burghshire.  Captain  Robert  Scott,  who  had  been  so 
kind  to  the  sickly  infant  at  Bath,  finally  retired  about 
this  time  from  his  profession,  and  purchased  the  elegant 
villa  of  Rosebank,  on  the  Tweed,  a  little  below  Kelso. 
Here  Walter  now  took  up  his  quarters,  and  here,  during 
all  the  rest  of  his  youth,  he  found,  whenever  he  chose,  a 
second  home,  in  many  respects  more  agreeable  than  his 
own.  His  uncle,  as  letters  to  be  subsequently  quoted 
will  show,  had  nothing  of  his  father's  coldness  for  po 
lite  letters,  but  entered  into  all  his  favourite  pursuits 
with  keen  sympathy,  and  was  consulted,  from  this  time 
forth,  upon  all  his  juvenile  essays,  both  in  prose  and 
verse. 

He  does  not  seem  to  have  resumed  attendance  at  Col 
lege  during  the  session  of  1785-6 ;  so  that  the  Latin  and 
Greek  classes,  with  that  of  Logic,  were  the  only  ones  he 
had  passed  through  previous  to  the  signing  of  his  inden 
tures  as  an  apprentice  to  his  father.  The  Memoir  men 
tions  the  ethical  course  of  Dugald  Stewart,  as  if  he  had 
gone  immediately  from  the  logical  professor  (Mr.  Bruce) 
to  that  eminent  lecturer;  but  he,  in  fact,  attended  Mr. 
Stev/art  four  years  afterwards,  when  beginning  to  con 
sider  himself  as  finally  destined  for  the  bar. 

I  shall  only  add  to  what  he  sets  down  on  the  subject 
of  his  early  academical  studies,  that  in  this,  as  in  almos 
every  case,  he  appears  to  have  underrated  his  own  attain 
ments.  He  had,  indeed,  no  pretensions  to  the  name  of 


ACADEMICAL    STUDIES.  159 

an  extensive,  far  less  of  an  accurate,  Latin  scholar  ;  but 
he  could  read,  I  believe,  any  Latin  author,  of  any  age, 
so  as  to  catch  without  difficulty  his  meaning;  and  al 
though  his  favourite  Latin  poet,  as  well  as  historian,  in 
later  days,  was  Buchanan,  he  had  preserved,  or  subse 
quently  acquired,  a  strong  relish  for  some  others  of  more 
ancient  date.  I  may  mention,  in  particular,  Lucan  and 
Claudian.  Of  Greek,  he  does  not  exaggerate  in  saying 
that  he  had  forgotten  even  the  alphabet ;  for  he  was  puz 
zled  with  the  words  aoidoe  and  mwrnis,  which  he  had  occa 
sion  to  introduce,  from  some  authority  on  his  table,  into 
his  "  Introduction  to  Popular  Poetry,"  written  in  April 
1830  ;  and  happening  to  be  in  the  house  with  him  at  the 
time,  he  sent  for  me  to  insert  them  for  him  in  his  MS. 
Mr.  Irving  has  informed  us  of  the  early  period  at  which 
he  enjoyed  the  real  Tasso  and  Ariosto.  I  presume  he 
had  at  least  as  soon  as  this  enabled  himself  to  read  Gil 
Bias  in  the  original ;  and,  in  all  probability,  we  may 
refer  to  the  same  time  of  his  life,  or  one  not  much  later, 
his  acquisition  of  as  much  Spanish  as  served  for  the 
Guerras  Civiles  de  Granada,  Lazarillo  de  Tormes,  and, 
above  all,  Don  Quixote.  He  read  all  these  languages  in 
after  life  with  about  the  same  facility.  I  never  but  once 
heard  him  attempt  to  speak  any  of  them,  and  that  was 
when  some  of  the  courtiers  of  Charles  X.  came  to  Ab- 
botsford,  soon  after  that  unfortunate  prince  took  up  his 
residence  for  the  second  time  at  Holyroodhouse.  Find' 
ing  that  one  or  two  of  these  gentlemen  could  speak  no 
English  at  all,  he  made  some  efforts  to  amuse  them  in 
their  own  language  after  the  champagne  had  been  pass 
ing  briskly  round  the  table ;  and  I  was  amused  next 
morning  with  the  expression  of  one  of  the  party,  who, 
alluding  to  the  sort  of  reading  in  which  Sir  Walter 


160  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

seemed  to  have  chiefly  occupied  himself,  said  —  "  Mon 
Dieu !  comme  il  estropiait,  entre  deux  vins,  le  Fran§ais 
du  bon  sire  de  Joinville  ! "  Of  all  these  tongues,  as  of 
German  somewhat  later,  he  acquired  as  much  as  was 
needful  for  his  own  purposes,  of  which  a  critical  study 
of  any  foreign  language  made  at  no  time  any  part.  In 
them  he  sought  for  incidents,  and  he  found  images ;  but 
for  the  treasures  of  diction  he  was  content  to  dig  on 
British  soil.  He  had  all  he  wanted  in  the  old  wells 
of  "  English  undefiled,"  and  the  still  living,  though  fast 
shiinking,  waters  of  that  sister  idiom  which  had  not  al 
ways,  as  he  flattered  himself,  deserved  the  name  of  a 
dialect. 

As  may  be  said,  I  believe,  with  perfect  truth  of  every 
really  great  man,  Scott  was  self-educated  in  every  branch 
of  knowledge  which  he  ever  turned  to  account  in  the 
works  of  his  genius  —  and  he  has  himself  told  us  that 
his  real  studies  were  those  lonely  and  desultory  ones 
of  which  he  has  given  a  copy  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Waverley,  where  the  hero  is  represented  as  "  driving 
through  the  sea  of  books,  like  a  vessel  without  pilot  or 
rudder ; "  that  is  to  say,  obeying  nothing  but  the  strong 
breath  of  native  inclination  :  —  He  had  read,  and  stored 
in  a  memory  of  uncommon  tenacity,  much  curious,  though 
ill  arranged  and  miscellaneous  information.  In  English 
literature,  he  was  master  of  Shakspeare  and  Milton,  of 
our  earlier  dramatic  authors,  of  many  picturesque  and 
interesting  passages  from  our  old  historical  chronicles, 
and  was  particularly  well  acquainted  with  Spenser, 
Dray  ton,  and  other  poets,  who  have  exercised  them 
selves  on  romantic  fiction,  —  of  all  themes  the  most  fas 
cinating  to  a  youthful  imagination,  before  the  passions 
have  roused  themselves,  and  demand  poetry  of  a  more  sen> 


SELF-EDUCATION.  16  * 

timental  description"*  I  need  not  repeat  his  enumer 
ation  of  other  favourites,  Pulci,  the  Decameron,  Frois- 
sart,  Brantome,  Delanone,  and  the  chivalrous  and  ro 
mantic  lore  of  Spain.  I  have  quoted  a  passage  so  well 
known,  only  for  the  sake  of  the  striking  circumstance 
by  which  it  marks  the  very  early  date  of  these  multifa- 
ious  studies. 

*  Waverley,  vol.  i. 


TOL.  I.  11 


162  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  V. 

Illustrations  continued — Scoff 's  Apprenticeship  to  his  Pather— 
Excursions  to  the  Highlands,  fyc.  —  Debating  Societies  — 
Early  Correspondence,  fyc.  Sfc. 

1786-1790. 

IN  the  Minute-books  of  the  Society  of  Writers  to  the 
Signet  appears  the  following  entry  :  —  "  Edinburgh,  15th 
May  1786.  Compeared  Walter  Scott,  and  presented  an 
indenture,  dated  31st  March  last,  entered  into  between 
him  and  Walter  Scott,  his  son,  for  five  years  from  the 
date  thereof,  under  a  mutual  penalty  of  £40  sterling.'' 

An  inauspicious  step  this  might  at  first  sight  appear  in 
the  early  history  of  one  so  strongly  predisposed  for  pur 
suits  wide  as  the  antipodes  asunder  from  the  dry  techni 
calities  of  conveyancing ;  but  he  himself,  I  believe,  was 
never  heard,  in  his  mature  age,  to  express  any  regret 
that  it  should  have  been  taken  ;  and  I  am  convinced  for 
my  part  that  it  was  a  fortunate  one.  It  prevented  him, 
indeed,  from  passing  with  the  usual  regularity  through 
a  long  course  of  Scotch  metaphysics ;  but  I  extremely 
doubt  whether  any  discipline  could  ever  have  led  him  to 
derive  either  pleasure  or  profit  from  studies  of  that  order. 
His  apprenticeship  left  him  time  enough,  as  we  shall  find, 
for  continuing  his  application  to  the  stores  of  poetry  and 
romance,  and  those  old  chroniclers,  wl>o  to  the  end  were 


APPRENTICESHIP  TO  HIS  FATHEK.        163 

his  darling  historians.  Indeed,  if  he  had  wanted  any 
new  stimulus,  the  necessity  of  devoting  certain  hours  of 
every  day  to  a  routine  of  drudgery,  however  it  might 
have  operated  on  a  spirit  more  prone  to  earth,  must  have 
tended  to  quicken  his  appetite  for  "the  sweet  bread 
eaten  in  secret."  But  the  duties  which  he  had  now  to  ful 
fil  were,  in  various  ways,  directly  and  positively  beneficial 
to  the  development  both  of  his  genius  and  his  character. 
It  was  in  the  discharge  of  his  functions  as  a  Writer's 
Apprentice  that  he  first  penetrated  into  the  Highlands, 
and  formed  those  friendships  among  the  surviving  heroes 
of  1745,  which  laid  the  foundation  for  one  great  class  of 
his  works.  Even  the  less  attractive  parts  of  his  new 
vocation  were  calculated  to  give  him  a  more  complete 
insight  into  the  smaller  workings  of  poor  human  nature, 
than  can  ever  perhaps  be  gathered  from  the  experience 
of  the  legal  profession  in  its  higher  walk ;  —  the  etiquette 
of  the  Bar  in  Scotland,  as  in  England,  being  averse  to 
personal  intercourse  between  the  advocate  and  his  client. 
But  finally,  and  I  will  say  chiefly,  it  was  to  this  prosaio 
discipline  that  he  owed  those  habits  of  steady,  sober  dili 
gence,  which  few  imaginative  authors  had  ever  before 
exemplified  —  and  which,  unless  thus  beaten  into  his 
composition  at  a  ductile  stage,  even  he,  in  all  probability, 
could  never  have  carried  into  the  almost  professional  ex 
ercise  of  some  of  the  highest  and  most  delicate  facultie 
of  the  human  mind.  He  speaks,  in  not  the  least  remark 
able  passage  of  the  preceding  Memoir,  as  if  constitutional 
indolence  had  been  his  portion  in  common  with  all  the 
members  of  his  father's  family.  When  Gifford,  in  a  dis 
pute  with  Jacob  Bryant,  quoted  Doctor  Johnson's  own 
confession  that  he  knew  little  Greek,  Bryant  answered, 
"  Yes,  young  man  ;  but  how  shall  we  know  what  Johnson 


164  LTFE    OP    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

would  have  called  much  Greek?"  and  Gifford  has  re 
corded  the  deep  impression  which  this  hint  left  on  hia 
own  mind.  What  Scott  would  have  called  constitutional 
diligence,  I  know  not;  but  surely,  if  indolence  of  any 
kind  had  been  inherent  in  his  nature,  even  the  triumph 
of  Socrates  was  not  more  signal  than  his. 

It  will  be,  by  some  of  my  friends,  considered  as  trivial 
to  remark  on  such  a  circumstance  —  but  the  reader  who 
is  unacquainted  with  the  professional  habits  of  the  Scotch 
lawyers,  may  as  well  be  told  that  the  Writer's  Appren 
tice  receives  a  certain  allowance  in  money  for  every  page 
he  transcribes ;  and  that,  as  in  those  days  the  greater 
part  of  the  business,  even  of  the  supreme  courts,  was 
carried  on  by  means  of  written  papers,  a  ready  penman, 
in  a  well-employed  chamber,  could  earn  in  this  way 
enough,  at  all  events,  to  make  a  handsome  addition  to 
the  pocket-money  which  was  likely  to  be  thought  suitable 
for  a  youth  of  fifteen  by  such  a  man  as  the  elder  Scott. 
The  allowance  being,  I  believe,  threepence  for  every 
page  containing  a  certain  fixed  number  of  words,  when 
Walter  had  finished,  as  he  tells  us  he  occasionally  did, 
120  pages  within  twenty-four  hours,  his  fee  would 
amount  to  thirty  shillings  ;  and  in  his  early  letters  I  find 
him  more  than  once  congratulating  himself  on  having 
been,  by  some  such  exertion,  enabled  to  purchase  a  book, 
or  a  coin,  otherwise .  beyond  his  reach.  .  A  schoolfellow, 
who  was  now,  like  himself,  a  writer's  apprentice,  recol- 
'  lects  the  eagerness  with  which  he  thus  made  himself 
master  of  Evans's  Ballads,  shortly  after  their  publication 
and  another  of  them,  already  often  referred  to,  remem 
bers,  in  particular,  his  rapture  with  Mickle's  Cumnor 
Hall,  which  first  appeared  in  that  collection.  "  After  the 
labours  of  the  day  were  over,"  says  Mr.  Irving,  "  we 


APPRENTICESHIP    TO    HIS    FATHER.  165 

often  walked  in  the  Meadows "  —  (a  large  field  inter 
sected  by  formal  alleys  of  old  trees,  adjoining  George's 
Square)  —  "  especially  in  the  moonlight  nights  ;  and  he 
seemed  never  weary  of  repeating  the  first  stanza  — • 

'  The  dews  of  summer  night  did  fall  — 
The  Moon,  sweet  regent  of  the  sky, 
Silvered  the  walls  of  Cumnor  Hall, 
And  many  an  oak  that  grew  thereby.' " 

I  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  preserve  these  remi 
niscences  of  his  companions  at  the  time,  though  he  has 
himself  stated  the  circumstance  in  his  Preface  to  Kenil- 
worth.  "  There  is  a  period  in  youth,"  he  there  says, 
'*  when  the  mere  power  of  numbers  has  a  more  strong 
effect  on  ear  and  imagination  than  in  after  life.  At  this 
season  of  immature  taste,  the  author  was  greatly  de 
lighted  with  the  poems  of  Mickle  and  Langhorne.  The 
first  stanza  of  Cumnor  Hall  especially  had  a  peculiar 
enchantment  for  his  youthful  ear  —  the  force  of  which 
is  not  yet  (1829)  entirely  spent."  Thus  that  favourite 
elegy,  after  having  dwelt  on  his  memory  and  imagination 
for  forty  years,  suggested  the  subject  of  one  of  his  noblest 
romances. 

It  is  affirmed  by  a  preceding  biographer,  on  the  au 
thority  of  one  of  these  brother-apprentices,  that  about 
this  period  Scott  showed  him  a  MS.  poem  on  the  Con 
quest  of  Granada,  in  four  books,  each  amounting  to  about 
400  lines,  which,  soon  after  it  was  finished,  he  committed 
to  the  flames.*  As  he  states  in  his  Essay  on  the  Imita 
tion  of  Popular  Poetry,  that,"  for  ten  years  previous  to 
1796,  when  his  first  translation  from  the  German  was 
executed,  he  had  written  no  verses  "  except  an  occa 
sional  sonnet  to  his  mistress's  eyebrow,"  I  presume  this 
*  Life  of  Scott,  by  Mr.  Allan,  p.  53. 


166  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Conquest  of  Granada,  the  fruit  of  his  study  of  the  Cfuer- 
ras  Civiles,  must  be  assigned  to  the  summer  of  1786  — 
or,  making  allowance  for  trivial  inaccuracy,  to  the  next 
year  at  latest.  It  was  probably  composed  in  imitation  of 
Mickle's  Lusiad :  —  at  ah1  events,  we  have  a  very  distinct 
statement,  that  he  made  no  attempts  in  the  manner  of  the 
old  minstrels,  early  as  his  admiration  for  them  had  been 
until  the  period  of  his  acquaintance  with  Burger.  Thus 
with  him,  as  with  most  others,  genius  had  hazarded  many 
a  random  effort  ere  it  discovered  the  true  key-note. 
Long  had 

'  Amid  the  strings  his  fingers  stray' d, 
And  an  uncertain  warbling  made,' 

before  'the  measure  wild'  was  caught,  and 

'  In  varying  cadence,  soft  or  strong, 
He  swept  the  sounding  chords  along.' 

His  youthful  admiration  of  Langhorne  has  been  ren- 
ilered  memorable  by  his  own  record  of  his  first  and  only 
interview  with  his  great  predecessor,  Robert  Burns. 
Although  the  letter  in  which  he  narrates  this  incident, 
addressed  to  myself  in  1827,  when  I  was  writing  a  short 
biography  of  that  poet,  has  been  often  reprinted,  it  is  too 
important  for  my  present  purpose  to  be  omitted  here. 

"  As  for  Burns,"  he  writes,  "  I  may  truly  say,  Virgil 
\um  vidi  tantum.  I  was  a  lad  of  fifteen  in  1786-7,  whei 
he  came  first  to  Edinburgh,  but  had  sense  and  feeling 
enough  to  be  much  interested  in  his  poetry,  and  would 
have  given  the  world  to  know  him  ;  but  I  had  very  little 
acquaintance  with  any  literary  people,  and  still  less  with 
the  gentry  of  the  west  country,  the  two  sets  that  he  most 
frequented.  Mr.  Thomas  Grierson  was  at  that  time  a 
clerk  of  my  father's.  He  knew  Burns,  and  promised  to 
ask  him  to  his  lodgings  to  dinner,  but  had  no  opportunity 


KOBERT   BURNS. 1786-7.  167 

lo  keep  his  word,  otherwise  I  might  have  seen  more  of 
this  distinguished  man.  As  it  was,  I  saw  him  one  day 
at  the  late  venerable  Professor  Fergusson's,  where  there 
were  several  gentlemen  of  literary  reputation,  among 
whom  I  remember  the  celebrated  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart. 
Of  course  we  youngsters  sate  silent,  looked  and  listened. 
The  only  thing  I  remember  which  was  remarkable  in 
Burns'  manner,  was  the  effect  produced  upon  him  by  a 
print  of  Bunbury's,  representing  a  soldier  lying  dead  on 
the  snow,  his  dog  sitting  in  misery  on  the  one  side,  on  the 
other  his  widow,  with  a  child  in  her  arms.  These  lines 
were  written  beneath,  — 

'  Cold  on  Canadian  hills,  or  Minden's  plain, 
Perhaps  that  parent  wept  her  soldier  slain ; 
Bent  o'er  her  babe,  her  eye  dissolved  in  dew, 
The  big  drops,  mingling  with  the  milk  he  drew, 
Gave  the  sad  presage  of  his  future  years, 
The  child  of  misery  baptized  in  tears.' 

Burns  seemed  much  affected  by  the  print,  or  rather  the 
ideas  which  it  suggested  to  his  mind.  He  actually  shed 
tears.  He  asked  whose  the  lines  were,  and  it  chanced 
that  nobody  but  myself  remembered  that  they  occur  in  a 
half-forgotten  poem  of  Langhorne's,  called  by  the  un 
promising  title  of  '  The  Justice  of  the  Peace.'  I  whis 
pered  my  information  to  a  friend  present,  who  mentioned 
it  to  Burns,  who  rewarded  me  with  a  look  and  a  word, 
which,  though  of  mere  civility,  I  then  received,  and  still 
recollect,  with  very  great  pleasure. 

"  His  person  was  strong  and  robust :  his  manners 
rastic,  not  clownish  ;  a  sort  of  dignified  plainness  and 
simplicity,  which  received  part  of  its  effect  perhaps  from 
one's  knowledge  of  his  extraordinary  talents.  His  fea 
tures  are  represented  in  Mr.  Nasmyth's  picture,  but  to 


168  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

me  it  conveys  the  idea  that  they  are  diminished  as  if  seen 
in  perspective.  I  think  his  countenance  was  more  mas 
sive  than  it  looks  in  any  of  the  portraits.  I  would  have 
taken  the  poet,  had  I  not  known  what  he  was,  for  a  very 
sagacious  country  farmer  of  the  old  Scotch  school  —  i.  e. 
none  of  your  modern  agriculturists,  who  keep  labourers 
for  their  drudgery,  but  the  douce  gudeman  who  held  hia 
own  plough.  There  was  a  strong  expression  of  sense 
and  shrewdness  in  all  his  lineaments ;  the  eye  alone,  I 
think,  indicated  the  poetical  character  and  temperament. 
It  was  large,  and  of  a  dark  cast,  and  glowed  (I  say  liter 
ally  glowed)  when  he  spoke  with  feeling  or  interest.  I 
never  saw  such  another  eye  in  a  human  head,  though  I 
have  seen  the  most  distinguished  men  in  my  time.  His 
conversation  expressed  perfect  self-confidence,  without  the 
slightest  presumption.  Among  the  men  who  were  the 
most  learned  of  their  time  and  country,  he  expressed 
himself  with  perfect  firmness,  but  without  the  least  intru 
sive  forwardness ;  and  when  he  differed  in  opinion,  he  did 
not  hesitate  to  express  it  firmly,  yet  at  the  same  time 
with  modesty.  I  do  not  remember  any  part  of  hfe  con 
versation  distinctly  enough  to  be  quoted,  nor  did  I  ever 
see  him  again,  except  in  the  street,  where  he  did  not 
recognise  me,  as  I  could  not  expect  he  should.  He  was 
much  caressed  in  Edinburgh,  but  (considering  what  liter 
ary  emoluments  have  been  since  his  day)  the  efforts  made 
for  his  relief  were  extremely  trifling. 

"I  remember  on  this  occasion  I  mention,  I  thought 
Burns'  acquaintance  with  English  poetry  was  rather 
limited,  and  also,  that  having  twenty  times  the  abilities 
of  Allan  Ramsay  and  of  Ferguson,  he  talked  of  them 
with  too  much  humility  as  his  models ;  there  was  doubt* 
less  national  predilection  in  his  estimate." 


KOBERT    BURNS.  169 

I  need  not  remark  on  the  extent  of  knowledge,  and 
justness  of  taste,  exemplified  in  this  early  measurement 
of  Burns,  both  as  a  student  of  English  literature  and  as 
a  Scottish  poet.  The  print,  over  which  Scott  saw  Bums 
shed  tears,  is  still  in  the  possession  of  Dr.  Fergusson's 
family,  and  I  had  often  heard  him  tell  the  story,  in  the 
room  where  the  precious  relic  hangs,  before  I  requested 
him  to  set  it  down  in  writing  —  how  little  anticipating  the 
use  to  which  I  should  ultimately  apply  it ! 

His  intimacy  with  Adam  (now  Sir  Adam  Fergusson) 
was  thus  his  first  means  of  introduction  to  the  higher 
literary  society  of  Edinburgh ;  and  it  was  very  probably 
to  that  connexion  that  he  owed,  among  the  rest,  his  ac 
quaintance  with  the  blind  poet  Blacklock,  whom  Johnson, 
twelve  years  earlier,  "  beheld  with  reverence."  We  have 
seen,  however,  that  the  venerable  author  of  Douglas  was 
a  friend  of  his  own  parents,  and  had  noticed  him  even 
in  his  infancy  at  Bath.  John  Home  now  inhabited  a 
villa  at  no  great  distance  from  Edinburgh,  and  there, 
all  through  his  young  days,  Scott  was  a  frequent  guest. 
Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  his  uncle,  Dr.  Rutherford, 
inherited  much  of  the  general  accomplishments,  as  well 
as  the  professional  reputation  of  his  father  —  and  that  it 
was  beneath  that  roof  he  saw,  several  years  before  this, 
Dr.  Cartwright,  then  in  the  enjoyment  of  some  fame  as  a 
poet  In  this  family,  indeed,  he  had  more  than  one  kind 
ind  strenuous  encourager  of  his  early  literary  tastes,  as 
will  be  shown  abundantly  when  we  reach  certain  relics 
of  his  correspondence  with  his  mother's  sister.  Dr. 
Rutherford's  good-natured  remonstrances  with  him,  as 
a  boy,  for  reading  at  breakfast,  are  well  remembered, 
and  will  remind  my  reader  of  a  similar  trait  in  the 
juvenile  manners  both  of  Burns  and  Byron ;  nor  was 


170  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

this  habit  entirely  laid  aside  even  in  Scott's  advanced 
age. 

If  he  is  quite  accurate  in  referring  his  first  acquaint 
ance  with  the  Highlands  to  his  fifteenth  year,  this  inci 
dent  also  belongs  to  the  first  season  of  his  apprenticeship. 
His  father  had,  among  a  rather  numerous  list  of  Highland 
clients,  Alexander  Stewart  of  Invernahyle,  an  enthusi 
astic  Jacobite,  who  had  survived  to  recount,  in  secure 
and  vigorous  old  age,  his  active  experiences  in  the  insur 
rections  both  of  1715  and  1745.  He  had,  it  appears, 
attracted  Walter's  attention  and  admiration  at  a  very 
early  date  ;  for  he  speaks  of  having  "  seen  him  in  arms  " 
and  heard  him  "exult  in  the  prospect  of  drawing  his 
claymore  once  more  before  he  died,"  when  Paul  Jones 
threatened  a  descent  on  Edinburgh ;  which  transaction 
occurred  in  September  1779.  Invernahyle,  as  Scott 
adds,  was  the  only  person  who  seemed  to  have  retained 
possession  of  his  cool  senses  at  the  period  of  that  dis 
graceful  alarm,  and  offered  the  magistrates  to  collect  as 
many  Highlanders  as  would  suffice  for  cutting  off  any 
part  of  the  pirate's  crew  that  might  venture,  in  quest  of 
plunder,  into  a  city  full  of  high  houses  and  narrow  lanes, 
and  every  way  well  calculated  for  defence.  The  eager 
delight  with  which  the  young  apprentice  now  listened  to 
the  tales  of  this  fine  old  man's  early  days,  produced  an 
invitation  to  his  residence  among  the  mountains ;  and  to 
his  excursion  he  probably  devoted  the  few  weeks  of  an 
autumnal  vacation  —  whether  in  1786  or  1787,  it  is  of 
jo  great  consequence  to  ascertain. 

In  the  Introduction  to  one  of  his  Novels  he  has  pre 
served  a  vivid  picture  of  his  sensations  when  the  valt 
of  Perth  first  burst  on  his  view,  in  the  course  of  his  prog, 
to  Invernahyle,  and  the  description  has  made  class*- 


INVEKNAHYLE.  171 

cal  ground  of  the  Wicks  of  Baiglie,  the  spot  from  which 
that  beautiful  landscape  was  surveyed.  "  Childish  won 
der,  indeed,"  he  says,.  "  was  an  ingredient  in  my  delight, 
for  I  was  not  above  fifteen  years  old,  and  as  this  had 
been  the  first  excursion  which  I  was  permitted  to  make 
on  a  pony  of  my  own,  I  also  experienced  the  glow  of  in 
dependence,  mingled  with  that  degree  of  anxiety  which 
the  most  conceited  boy  feels  when  he  is  first  abandoned 
to  his  own  undirected  counsels.  I  recollect  pulling  up 
the  reins,  without  meaning  to  do  so,  and  gazing  on  the 
scene  before  me  as  if  I  had  been  afraid  it  would  shift, 
like  those  in  a  theatre,  before  I  could  distinctly  observe 
its  different  parts,  or  convince  myself  that  what  I  saw 
was  real.  Since  that  hour,  the  recollection  of  that  inimi 
table  landscape  has  possessed  the  strongest  influence  over 
my  mind,  and  retained  its  place  as  a  memorable  thing, 
while  much  that  was  influential  on  my  own  fortunes  has 
fled  from  my  recollection."  So  speaks  the  poet ;  and 
vho  will  not  recognise  his  habitual  modesty,  in  thus 
undervaluing,  as  uninfluential  in  comparison  with  some 
affair  of  worldly  business,  the  ineffaceable  impression 
thus  stamped  on  the  glowing  imagination  of  his  boy 
hood? 

I  need  not  quote  the  numerous  passages  scattered  over 
his  writings,  both  early  and  late,  in  which  he  dwells  with 
fond  affection  on  the  chivalrous  character  of  Invernahyle 
—  the  delight  with  which  he  heard  the  veteran  describe 
his  broadsword  duel  with  Rob  Roy  —  his  campaigns  with 
Mar  and  Charles  Edward  —  and  his  long  seclusion  (as 
pictured  in  the  story  of  Bradwardine)  within  a  rocky 
cave  situated  not  far  from  his  own  house,  while  it  was 
garrisoned  by  a  party  of  English  soldiers,  after  the  battle 
tf  Culloden.  Here,  too,  still  survived  the  trusty  henchman 


172  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

who  had  attended  the  chieftain  in  many  a  bloody  field 
and  perilous  escape,  the  same  "  grim-looking  old  High 
lander  "  who  was  in  the  act  of  cutting  down  Colonel 
Whitefoord  with  his  Lochaber  axe  at  Prestonpans  when 
his  master  arrested  the  blow  —  an  incident  to  which  In- 
vernahyle  owed  his  life,  and  we  are  indebted  for  another 
of  the  most  striking  pages  in  Waverley. 

I  have  often  heard  Scott  mention  some  curious  partic 
ulars  of  his  first  visit  to  the  remote  fastness  of  one  of 
these  Highland  friends ;  but  whether  he  told  the  story  of 
Invernahyle,  or  of  one  of  his  own  relations  of  the  Clan 
Campbell,  I  do  not  recollect ;  I  rather  think  the  latter 
was  the  case.  On  reaching  the  brow  of  a  bleak  emi 
nence  overhanging  the  primitive  tower  and  its  tiny  patch 
of  cultivated  ground,  he  found  his  host  and  three  sons, 
and  perhaps  half-a-dozen  attendant  gillies,  all  stretched 
half  asleep  in  their  tartans  upon  the  heath,  with  guns  and 
dogs,  and  a  profusion  of  game  about  them  ;  while  in  the 
courtyard,  far  below,  appeared  a  company  of  women, 
actively  engaged  in  loading  a  cart  with  manure.  The 
stranger  was  not  a  little  astonished  when  he  discovered, 
on  descending  from  the  height,  that  among  these  indus 
trious  females  were  the  laird's  own  lady,  and  two  or  three 
of  her  daughters  ;  but  they  seemed  quite  unconscious  of 
laving  been  detected  in  an  occupation  unsuitable  to  their 
rank  —  retired  presently  to  their  "bowers,"  and  when 
they  re -appeared  in  other  dresses,  retained  no  traces  of 
their  morning's  work,  except  complexions  glowing  with  a 
radiant  freshness,  for  one  evening  of  which  many  a  high 
bred  beauty  would  have  bartered  half  her  diamonds. 
He  found  the  young  ladies  not  ill  informed,  and  exceed 
ingly  agreeable ;  and  the  song  and  the  dance  seemed  tc 
form  the  invariable  termination  of  their  busy  days.  I 


HIGHLAND    EXCURSIONS.  173 

must  not  forget  his  admiration  at  the  principal  article  of 
this  laird's  first  course ;  namely,  a  gigantic  haggis,  borne 
into  the  hall  in  a  wicker  basket  by  two  half-naked  Celts, 
while  the  piper  strutted  fiercely  behind  them,  blowing  a 
tempest  of  dissonance. 

These  Highland  visits  were  repeated  almost  every 
summer  for  several  successive  years,  and  perhaps  even 
the  first  of  them  was  in  some  degree  connected  with  his 
professional  business.  At  all  events,  it  was  to  his  allotted 
task  of  enforcing  the  execution  of  a  legal  instrument 
against  some  Maclarens,  refractory  tenants  of  Stewart  of 
Appin,  brother-in-law  to  Invernahyle,  that  Scott  owed 
his  introduction  to  the  scenery  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake. 
"  An  escort  of  a  sergeant  and  six  men,"  he  says,  "  was 
obtained  from  a  Highland  regiment  lying  in  Stirling,  and 
the  author,  then  a  writer's  apprentice,  equivalent  to  the 
honourable  situation  of  an  attorney's  clerk,  was  invested 
with  the  superintendence  of  the  expedition,  with  direc 
tions  to  see  that  the  messenger  discharged  his  duty  fully, 
and  that  the  gallant  sergeant  did  not  exceed  his  part 
by  committing  violence  or  plunder.  And  thus  it  hap 
pened,  oddly  enough,  that  the  author  first  entered  the 
romantic  scenery  of  Loch  Katrine,  of  which  he  may 
perhaps  say  he  has  somewhat  extended  the  reputa 
tion,  riding  in  all  the  dignity  of  danger,  with  a  front 
and  rear  guard,  and  loaded  arms.  The  sergeant  was  ab 
solutely  a  Highland  Sergeant  Kite,  full  of  stories  of  Rob 
Roy  and  of  himself,  and  a  very  good  companion.  We 
experienced  no  interruption  whatever,  and  when  we 
came  to  Invernenty,  found  the  house  deserted.  We  took 
up  our  quarters  for  the  night,  and  used  some  of  the  vict 
uals  which  we  found  tbere.  The  Maclarens,  who  prob 
ably  had  never  thought  of  any  serious  opposition,  went 


174  LII'E    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  America,  where,  having  had  some  slight  share  in  re 
moving  them  from  their  paupera  regna,  I  sincerely  hope 
they  prospered."  * 

That  he  entered  with  ready  zeal  into  such  professional 
business  as  inferred  Highland  expeditions  with  comrades 
who  had  known  Rob  Roy,  no  one  will  think  strange  ;  but 
more  than  one  of  his  biographers  allege,  that  in  the  ordi 
nary  indoor  fagging  of  the  chamber  in  George's  Square, 
he  was  always  an  unwilling,  and  rarely  an  efficient  as 
sistant.  Their  addition,  that  he  often  played  chess  with 
one  of  his  companions  in  the  office,  and  had  to  conceal 
the  board  with  precipitation  when  the  old  gentleman's 
footsteps  were  heard  on  the  staircase,  is,  I  do  not  doubt, 
true  ;  and  we  may  remember  along  with  it  his  own  insin 
uation  that  his  father  was  sometimes  poring  in  his  secret 
nook  over  Spottiswoode  or  Wodrow,  when  his  appren 
tices  supposed  him  to  he  deep  in  Dirleton's  Doubts,  or 
Stair's  decisions.  But  the  Memoir  of  1808,  so  candid  — 
indeed  more  than  candid  —  as  to  many  juvenile  irregu 
larities,  contains  no  confession  that  supports  the  broad 
assertion  to  which  I  have  alluded ;  nor  can  I  easily  be 
lieve,  that  with  his  affection  for  his  father,  and  that  sense 
of  duty  which  seems  to  have  been  inherent  in  his  char 
acter,  and,  lastly,  with  the  evidence  of  a  most  severe 
training  in  industry  which  the  habits  of  his  after-life  pre 
sented,  it  is  at  all  deserving  of  serious  acceptation.  His 
nere  handwriting,  indeed,  continued,  during  the  whole  of 
his  prime,  to  afford  most  striking  and  irresistible  proof 
bow  completely  he  must  have  submitted  himself  for  some 
very  considerable  period  to  the  mechanical  discipline  of 
his  father's  office.  It  spoke  to  months  after  months  of  thia 
humble  toil,  as  distinctly  as  the  illegible  scrawl  of  Lord 
*  Introduction  to  Rob  Roy. 


APPRENTICESHIP.  1?0 

Byron  did  to  his  self-mastership  from  the  hour  that  he 
left  Harrow.  There  are  some  little  technical  tricks,  such 
as  no  gentleman  who  has  not  been  subjected  to  a  similar 
regimen  ever  can  fall  into,  which  he  practised  invariably 
while  composing  his  poetry,  which  appear  not  unfre- 
quently  on  the  MSS.  of  his  best  novels,  and  which  now 
and  then  dropt  instinctively  from  his  pen,  even  in  the 
private  letters  and  diaries  of  his  closing  years.  I  allude 
particularly  to  a  sort  of  flourish  at  the  bottom  of  the 
page,  originally,  I  presume,  adopted  in  engrossing  as  a 
safeguard  against  the  intrusion  of  a  forged  line  between 
the  legitimate  text  and  the  attesting  signature.  He  was 
quite  sensible  that  this  ornament  might  as  well  be  dis 
pensed  with ;  and  his  family  often  heard  him  mutter, 
after  involuntarily  performing  it,  "There  goes  the  old 
shop  again ! " 

I  dwell  on  this  matter,  because  it  was  always  his  fa 
vourite  tenet,  in  contradiction  to  what  he  called  the  cant 
of  sonnetteers,  that  there  is  no  necessary  connexion  be 
tween  genius  and  an  aversion  or  contempt  for  any  of  the 
common  duties  of  life ;  he  thought,  on  the  contrary,  that 
to  spend  some  fair  portion  of  every  day  in  any  matter  of 
fact  occupation,  is  good  for  the  higher  faculties  them 
selves  hi  the  upshot.  In  a  word,  from  beginning  to  end, 
he  piqued  himself  on  being  a  man  of  business ;  and  did 
—  with  one  sad  and  memorable  exception  —  whatever 
the  ordinary  course  of  things  threw  in  his  way,  in  ex 
actly  the  business-like  fashion  which  might  have  been  ex- 
3cted  from  the  son  of  a  thoroughbred  old  Clerk  to  the 
Signet,  who  had  never  deserted  his  father's  profession. 

In  the  winter  of  1788,  however,  his  apprentice  habits 
were  exposed  to  a  new  danger;  and  from  that  date  I 
6elieve  them  to  have  undergone  a  considerable  change 


176  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

He  was  then  sent  to  attend  the  lectures  of  the  Professor 
of  Civil  Law  in  the  University,  this  course  forming  part 
of  the  usual  professional  education  of  Writers  to  the 
Signet,  as  well  as  of  Advocates.  For  some  time  his 
companions,  when  in  Edinburgh,  had  been  chiefly,  almost 
solely,  his  brother  apprentices  and  the  clerks  in  his 
father's  office.  He  had  latterly  seen  comparatively  little 
even  of  the  better  of  his  old  High  School  friends,  such 
as  Fergusson  and  Irving  —  for  though  both  of  these  also 
were  writer's  apprentices,  they  had  been  indentured  to 
other  masters,  and  each  had  naturally  formed  new  inti 
macies  within  his  own  chamber.  The  Civil  Law  class 
brought  him  again  into  daily  contact  with  both  Irving 
and  Fergusson,  as  well  as  others  of  his  earlier  acquaint 
ance  of  the  higher  ranks ;  but  it  also  led  him  into  the 
society  of  some  young  gentlemen  previously  unknown  to 
him,  who  had  from  the  outset  been  destined  for  the  Bar, 
and  whose  conversation,  tinctured  with  certain  prejudices 
natural  to  scions  of  what  he  calls  in  Redgauntlet  the 
Scottish  noblesse  de  la  robe,  soon  banished  from  his  mind 
every  thought  of  ultimately  adhering  to  the  secondary 
branch  of  the  law.  He  found  these  future  barristers 
cultivating  general  literature,  without  the  least  apprehen 
sion  that  such  elegant  pursuits  could  be  regarded  by  any 
one  as  interfering  with  the  proper  studies  of  their  pro 
fessional  career;  justly  believing,  on  the  contrary,  that 
for  the  higher  class  of  forensic  exertion  some  acquaint 
ance  with  almost  every  branch  of  science  and  letters  is 
a  necessary  preparative.  He  contrasted  their  liberal  as 
pirations,  and  the  encouragement  which  these  received 
in  their  domestic  circles,  with  the  narrower  views  which 
predominated  in  his  own  home  ;  and  resolved  to  gratify 
his  ambition  by  adopting  a  most  precarious  walk  in  life 


WILLIAM    CLERK    OF    ELDIN.  177 

instead  oi  adhering  to  that  in  which  he  might  have 
counted  with  perfect  security  on  the  early  attainment 
of  pecuniary  independence.  This  resolution  appears  to 
have  been  foreseen  by  his  father,  long  before  it  was  an 
nounced  in  terms  ;  and  the  handsome  manner  in  which 
the  old  gentleman  conducted  himself  upon  the  occasion, 
is  remembered  with  dutiful  gratitude  in  the  preceding 
autobiography. 

The  most  important  of  these  new  alliances  was  the 
intimate  friendship  which  he  now  formed  with  Mr.  John 
Irving's  near  relation,  William  Clerk  of  Eldin,  of  whose 
powerful  talents  and  extensive  accomplishments  we  shall 
hereafter  meet  with  many  enthusiastic  notices.  It  was 
in  company  with  this  gentleman  that  he  entered  the 
debating  societies  described  in  his  Memoir ;  through  him 
he  soon  became  linked  in  the  closest  intimacy  with 
George  Cranstoun  (now  Lord  Corehouse),  George  Aber- 
cromby  (now  Lord  Abercromby),  John  James  Edmon- 
stone  *  of  Newton  (whose  mother  was  sister  of  Sir  Ralph 
Abercromby),  Patrick  Murray  of  Simprim,  Sir  Patrick 
Murray  of  Ochtertyre,  and  a  group  of  other  young  men, 
all  high  in  birth  and  connexion,  and  all  remarkable  in 
early  life  for  the  qualities  which  afterwards  led  them  to 
eminent  station,  or  adorned  it.  The  introduction  to  their 
several  families  is  alluded  to  by  Scott  as  having  opened 
to  him  abundantly  certain  advantages,  which  no  one 
could  have  been  more  qualified  to  improve,  but  from 
which  he  had  hitherto  been  in  great  measure  debarred 
in  consequence  of  the  retired  habits  of  his  parents. 

Mr.  Clerk  says,  that  he  had  been  struck  from  the  first 
day  he  entered  the  Civil  Law  class-room  with  something 
add  and  remarkable  in  Scott's  appearance  :  but  what  this 
*  Mr.  Edmonstone  died  19th  April,  1840. 

VOL.  I.  12 


178  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

something  was,  he  cannot  now  recall,  but  he  remembers 
telling  his  companion  some  time  afterwards,  that  he 
thought  he  looked  like  a  hautboy  player.  Scott  was 
amused  with  this  notion,  as  he  had  never  touched  a 
musical  instrument  of  any  kind ;  but  I  fancy  his  friend 
had  been  watching  a  certain  noticeable  but  altogether  in 
describable  play  of  the  upper  lip  when  in  an  abstracted 
mood.  He  rallied  Walter,  he  says,  during  one  of  their 
first  evening  walks  together,  on  the  slovenliness  of  his 
dress  :  he  wore  a  pair  of  corduroy  breeches,  much  glazed 
by  the  rubbing  of  his  staff,  which  he  immediately  flour 
ished  —  and  said,  "  they  be  good  enough  for  drinking  in  — 
let  us  go  and  have  some  oysters  in  the  Covenant  Close." 

Convivial  habits  were  then  indulged  among  the  young 
men  of  Edinburgh,  whether  students  of  law,  solicitors,  or 
barristers,  to  an  extent  now  happily  unknown ;  and  this 
anecdote  recalls  some  striking  hints  on  that  subject  which 
occur  in  Scott's  brief  autobiography.  That  he  partook 
profusely  in  the  juvenile  bacchanalia  of  that  day,  and 
continued  to  take  a  plentiful  share  in  such  jollities  down 
to  the  time  of  his  marriage,  are  facts  worthy  of  being 
distinctly  stated ;  for  no  man  in  mature  life  was  more 
habitually  averse  to  every  sort  of  intemperance.  He 
could,  when  I  first  knew  him,  swallow  a  great  quantity 
of  wine  without  being  at  all  visibly  disordered  by  it ;  but 
nothing  short  of  some  very  particular  occasion  could  ever 
induce  him  to  put  this  strength  of  head  to  a  trial ;  and  I 
have  heard  him  many  times  utter  words  which  no  one  in 
the  days  of  his  youthful  temptation  can  be  the  worse  for 
remembering :  —  "  Depend  upon  it,  of  all  vices  drinking 
is  the  most  incompatible  with  greatness." 

The  liveliness  of  his  conversation  —  the  strange  vari- 
ity  of  his  knowledge  —  and  above  all,  perhaps,  the  por 


SEA    EXCURSIONS.  170 

tentous  tenacity  of  his  memory  —  riveted  more  and  more 
Clerk's  attention,  and  commanded  the  wonder  of  all  his 
new  allies ;  but  of  these  extraordinary  gifts  Scott  him 
self  appeared  to  be  little  conscious  ;  or  at  least  he  im 
pressed  them  all  as  attaching  infinitely  greater  conse 
quence  —  (exactly  as  had  been  the  case  with  him  in  the 
days  of  the  Cowgate  Port  and  the  kittle  nine-steps)  —  to 
feats  of  personal  agility  and  prowess.  William  Clerk's 
brother,  James,  a  midshipman  in  the  navy,  happened  to 
come  home  from  a  cruise  in  the  Mediterranean  shortly 
after  this  acquaintance  began,  and  Scott  and  the  sailor 
became  almost  at  sight  "  sworn  brothers."  In  order  to 
complete  his  time  under  the  late  Sir  Alexander  Coch- 
rane,  who  was  then  on  the  Leith  station,  James  Clerk 
obtained  the  command  of  a  lugger,  and  the  young  friends 
often  made  little  excursions  to  sea  with  him.  "  The  first 
time  Scott  dined  on  board,"  says  William  Clerk,  "we 
met  before  embarking  at  a  tavern  in  Leith  —  it  was  a 
large  party,  mostly  midshipmen,  and  strangers  to  him, 
and  our  host  introducing  his  landsmen  guests  said,  '  My 
brother  you  know,  gentlemen ;  as  for  Mr.  Scott,  mayhap 
you  may  take  him  for  a  poor  lamiter,  but  he  is  the  first 
to  begin  a  row,  and  the  last  to  end  it ; '  which  eulogium 
he  confirmed  with  some  of  the  expletives  of  Tom  Pipes."  * 
When,  many  years  afterwards,  Clerk  read  The  Pirate,  he 
was  startled  by  the  resurrection  of  a  hundred  traits  of 
the  table-talk  of  this  lugger ;  but  the  author  has  since 
traced  some  of  the  most  striking  passages  in  that  novel  to 
his  recollection  of  the  almost  childish  period  when  he 

*  "Dinna  steer  him,"  saya  Hobbie  Elliot;  "ye  may  think  Elshie's 
but  a  lamiter,  but  I  warrant  ye,  grippie  for  grippie,  he'll  gar  the  blue 
blood  spin  frae  your  nails  —  his  hand's  like  a  smi^'s  vice." — Elact 
Dwarf—  Waverley  Novels,  vol.  ix.  Edition  1829. 


180         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

hung  on  his  own  brother  Robert's  stories  about  Rodney's 
battles  and  the  haunted  keys  of  the  West  Indies. 

One  morning  Scott  called  on  Clerk,  and,  exhibiting  his 
stick  all  cut  and  marked,  told  him  he  had  been  attacked 
in  the  streets  the  night  before  by  three  fellows,  against 
whom  he  had  defended  himself  for  an  hour.  "  By  Shrews 
bury  clock  ?  "  said  his  friend.  "  No,"  said  Scott,  smiling, 
"  by  the  Tron."  But  thenceforth,  adds  Mr.  Clerk,  and 
for  twenty  years  after,  he  called  his  walking  stick  by  the 
name  of  "  Shrewsbury." 

^  With  these  comrades  Scott  now  resumed,  and  pushed 
to  a  much  greater  extent,  his  early  habits  of  wandering 
over  the  country  in  quest  of  castles  and  other  remains  of 
antiquity,  his  passion  for  which  derived  a  new  impulse 
from  the  conversation  of  the  celebrated  John  Clerk  of 
Eldin,*  the  father  of  his  friend.  William  Clerk  well  re 
members  his  father  telling  a  story  which  was  introduced 
in  due  time  in  The  Antiquary.  While  he  was  visiting 
his  grandfather,  Sir  John  Clerk,  at  Dumcrieff,  in  Dum 
fries-shire,  many  years  before  this  time,  the  old  Baronet 
carried  some  English  virtuosos  to  see  a  supposed  Roman 
camp  ;  and  on  his  exclaiming  at  a  particular  spot,  "  This 
I  take  to  have  been  the  Praetorium,"  a  herdsman,  who 
stood  by,  answered,  "  Prsetorium  here  Prsetorium  there, 
I  made  it  wi'  a  flaughter  spade."  f  Many  traits  of  the 
elder  Clerk  were,  his  son  has  no  doubt,  embroidered  on 
the  character  of  George  Constable  in  the  composition  of 
Jonathan  Oldbuck.  The  old  gentleman's  enthusiasm  for 
antiquities  was  often  played  on  by  these  young  friends, 
but  more  effectually  by  his  eldest  son,  John  Clerk  (Lord 
Eldin),  who,  having  a  great  genius  for  art,  used  to  amuse 

*  Author  of  the  famous  Essay  on  dividing  the  Line  in  Sea-fights. 
f  Compare  "The  Antiquary,"  vol.  i. 


WILLIAM    CLEKK,    ETC.  181 

himself  with  manufacturing  mutilated  heads,  which,  after 
being  buried  for  a  convenient  time  in  the  ground,  were 
accidentally  discovered  in  some  fortunate  hour,  and  re« 
ceived  by  the  laird  with  great  honour  as  valuable  acces 
sions  to  his  museum.* 

On  a  fishing  excursion  to  a  loch  near  Howgate,  among 
the  Moorfoot  Hills,  Scott,  Clerk,  Irving,  and  Abercromby 
spent  the  night  at  a  little  public-house  kept  by  one  Mrs 
Margaret  Dods.  When  St.  Ronan's  Well  was  published, 
Clerk,  meeting  Scott  in  the  street,  observed,  "  That's  an 
odd  name  ;  surely  I  have  met  with  it  somewhere  before." 
Scott  smiled,  said,  "  Don't  you  remember  Howgate  ? " 
and  passed  on.  The  name  alone,  however,  was  taken 
from  the  Howgate  hostess. 

At  one  of  their  drinking  bouts  of  those  days,  William 
Clerk,  Sir  P.  Murray,  Edmonstone,  and  Abercromby, 
being  of  the  party,  the  sitting  was  prolonged  to  a  very 
late  hour,  and  Scott  fell  asleep.  When  he  awoke,  his 
friends  succeeded  in  convincing  him  that  he  had  sung  a 
song  in  the  course  of  the  evening,  and  sung  it  extremely 
well.  How  must  these  gentlemen  have  chuckled  when 
they  read  Frank  Osbaldi  stone's  account  of  his  revels  in 
the  old  hall !  "  It  has  even  been  reported  by  maligners 
that  I  sung  a  song  while  under  this  vinous  influence ;  but 
as  I  remember  nothing  of  it,  and  never  attempted  to  turn 
a  tune  in  all  my  life,  either  before  or  since,  I  would 
willingly  hope  there  is  no  actual  foundation  for  the 
calumny."  f 

*  The  most  remarkable  of  these  antique  heads  was  so  highly  appre 
ciated  by  another  distinguished  connoisseur,  the  late  Earl  of  Buchan, 
that  he  carried  it  off  from  Mr.  Clerk's  mnseum,  and  presented  it  to  the 
Scottish  Society  of  Antiquaries  —  in  whose  collection,  no  doubt,  it  may 
Mill  be  admired. 

f  Rob  Roy  —  Waverley  Novels,  vol.  vii. 


182  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

On  one  of  his  first  long  walks  with  Clerk  and  others 
of  the  same  set,  their  pace,  being  about  four  miles  an 
hour,  was  found  rather  too  much  for  Scott,  and  he  offered 
to  contract  for  three,  which  measure  was  thenceforth 
considered  as  the  legal  one.  At  this  rate  they  often  con 
tinued  to  wander  from  five  in  the  morning  till  eight  in 
the  evening,  halting  for  such  refreshment  at  mid-day  aa 
any  village  alehouse  might  afford.  On  many  occasions, 
however,  they  had  stretched  so  far  into  the  country,  that 
they  were  obliged  to  be  absent  from  home  all  night ;  and 
though  great  was  the  alarm  which  the  first  occurrence  of 
this  sort  created  in  George's  Square,  the  family  soon  got 
accustomed  to  such  things,  and  little  notice  was  taken, 
even  though  Walter  remained  away  for  the  better  part 
of  a  week.  I  have  heard  him  laugh  heartily  over  the 
recollections  of  one  protracted  excursion,  towards  the 
close  of  which  the  party  found  themselves  a  long  day's 
walk  —  thirty  miles,  I  think  —  from  Edinburgh,  without 
a  single  sixpence  left  among  them.  "We  were  put  to 
our  shifts,"  said  he  ;  "  but  we  asked  every  now  and  then 
at  a  cottage-door  for  a  drink  of  water ;  and  one  or  two 
of  the  good-wives,  observing  our  worn-out  looks,  brought 
forth  milk  in  place  of  water  —  so  with  that,  and  hips  and 
*iaws,  we  came  in  little  the  worse."  His  father  me*  him 
with  some  impatient  questions  as  to  what  he  had  jeen 
living  on  so  long,  for  the  old  man  well  knew  how  scantily 
his  pocket  was  supplied.  "  Pretty  much  like  the  young 
ravens,"  answered  he ;  "I  only  wished  I  had  been  as 
good  a  player  on  the  flute  as  poor  George  Primrose  in 
The  Vicar  of  Wakefield.  If  I  had  his  art,  I  should  like 
nothing  better  than  to  tramp  like  him  from  cottage  to 
cottage  over  the  world."  —  "I  doubt,"  said  the  grave 
Clerk  to  the  Signet,  "  I  greatly  doubt,  sir,  you  were  born 


DEBATING    CLUBS.  183 

for  nae  better  than  a  gangrel  scrape  gut"  Some  allu 
sions  to  reproaches  of  this  kind  occur  in  the  "  Memoir  ; " 
and  we  shall  find  others  in  letters  subsequent  to  his 
admission  at  the  bar.* 

The  debating  club  formed  among  these  young  friends 
at  this  era  of  their  studies,  was  called  The  Literary 
Society  ;  and  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  more  cele 
brated  Speculative  Society,  which  Scott  did  not  join  for 
two  years  later.  At  the  Literary  he  spoke  frequently, 
and  very  amusingly  and  sensibly,  but  was  not  at  all 
numbered  among  the  most  brilliant  members.  He  had  a 
world  of  knowledge  to  produce ;  but  he  had  not  acquired 
the  art  of  arranging  it  to  the  best  advantage  in  a  con 
tinued  address ;  nor,  indeed,  did  he  ever,  I  think,  except 
under  the  influence  of  strong  personal  feeling,  even  when 
years  and  fame  had  given  him  full  confidence  in  himself, 
exhibit  upon  any  occasion  the  powers  of  oral  eloquence. 
His  antiquarian  information,  however,  supplied  many  an 
interesting  feature  in  these  evenings  of  discussion.  He 
had  already  dabbled  in  Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Norse 
Sagas :  in  his  Essay  on  Imitations  of  Popular  Poetry,  he 
alludes  to  these  studies  as  having  facilitated  his  acquisi 
tion  of  German  :  —  But  he  was  deep  especially  in  Fordun 
and  Wyntoun,  and  all  the  Scotch  chronicles;  and  his 
friends  rewarded  him  by  the  honourable  title  of  Duns 
Scotus. 

A  smaller  society,  formed  with  less  ambitious  views, 

*  After  the  cautious  father  had  had  further  opportunity  of  observing 
his  son's  proceedings,  his  wife  happened  one  night  to  express  some 
anxiety  on  thi  protracted  absence  of  Walter  and  his  brother  Thomas. 
"  My  dear  Annie,"  said  the  old  man,  "  Tom  is  with  Walter  this  time; 
and  have  you  not  yet  perceived  that  wherever  Walter  goes,  he  is  pretty 
jure  to  find  his  bread  buttered  on  both  sides?  "  —  From  Mrs. 
Scott.  - 1839. 


184  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

originated  in  a  ride  to  Penny cuik,  the  seat  of  the  head 
of  Mr.  Clerk's  family,  whose  elegant  hospitalities  are 
recorded  in  the  Memoir.  This  was  called,  by  way  of 
excellence,  The  Club,  and  I  believe  it  is  continued  under 
the  same  name  to  this  day.  Here,  too,  Walter  had  hia 
sobriquet ;  and  —  his  corduroy  breeches,  I  presume,  not 
being  as  yet  worn  out  —  it  was  Colonel  Grogg.* 

Meantime  he  had  not  broken  up  his  connexion  with 
Rosebank ;  he  appears  to  have  spent  several  weeks  in 
the  autumn,  both  of  1788  and  1789,  under  his  uncle's 
roof;  and  it  was,  I  think,  of  his  journey  thither,  in  the 
last  named  year,  that  he  used  to  tell  an  anecdote,  which  I 
shall  here  set  down  —  how  shorn,  alas  !  of  all  the  acces 
saries  that  gave  it  life  when  he  recited  it.  Calling,  before 
he  set  out,  on  one  of  the  ancient  spinsters  of  his  family, 

*  "  The  members  of  The  Club  used  to  meet  on  Friday  evenings  in  a 
room  in  Carrubber's  Close,  from  which  some  of  them  usually  adjourned 
to  sup  at  an  oyster  tavern  in  the  same  neighbourhood.  In  after  life, 
those  of  them  who  chanced  to  be  in  Edinburgh  dined  together  twice 
every  year,  at  the  close  of  the  winter  and  summer  sessions  of  the  Law 
Courts ;  and  during  thirty  years,  Sir  Walter  was  very  rarely  absent  on 
these  occasions.  It  was  also  a  rule,  that  when  any  member  received  an 
appointment  or  promotion,  he  should  give  a  dinner  to  his  old  associ 
ates  ;  and  they  had  accordingly  two  such  dinners  from  him  —  one  whec 
he  became  Sheriff  of  Selkirkshire,  and  another  when  he  was  named 
Clerk  of  Session.  The  original  members  were,  in  number,  nineteen  — 
viz.  Sir  Walter  Scott,  Mr.  William  Clerk,  Sir  A.  Fergusson,  Mr.  James 
Edmonstone,  Mr.  George  Abercromby  (Lord  Abercromby),  Mr.  D. 
Boyle  (now  Lord  Justice-Clerk),  Mr.  James  Glassford  (Advocate),  Mr. 
James  Fergusson  (Clerk  of  Session),  Mr.  David  Monypenny  (Lord 
Pitmilly),  Mr.  Eobert  Davidson  (Professor  of  Law  at  Glasgow),  Sir 
William  Rae,  Bart.,  Sir  Patrick  Murray,  Bart.,  David  Douglas  (Lord 
Reston),  Mr.  Murray  of  Simprin,  Mr.  Monteith  of  Closeburn,  Mr. 
Archibald  Miller  (son  of  Professor  Miller),  Baron  Reden,  a  Hanoverian; 
the  Honourable  Thomas  Douglas,  afterwards  Earl  of  Selkirk,  —  and 
John  Irving.  Except  the  five  whose  names  are  underlined,  these  origi 
nal  members  are  all  still  alive."  —  Letter  from  Mr.  Irving,  dated  29tf 
September  1836. 


ROSEBANK 1788.  185 

to  enquire  if  she  had  any  message  for  Kelso,  she  retired, 
and  presently  placed  in  his  hands  a  packet  of  some  bulk 
and  weight,  which  required,  she  said,  very  particular 
attention.  He  took  it  without  examining  the  address, 
and  carried  it  in  his  pocket  next  day,  not  at  all  to  the 
lightening  of  a  forty  miles'  ride  in  August.  On  his 
rrival,  it  turned  out  to  contain  one  of  the  old  lady's 
pattens,  sealed  up  for  a  particular  cobbler  in  Kelso,  and 
accompanied  with  fourpence  to  pay  for  mending  it,  and 
special  directions  that  it  might  be  brought  back  to  her  by 
the  same  economical  conveyance. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  letter,  the  earliest 
of  Scott's  writing  that  has  fallen  into  my  hands,  that  pro 
fessional  business  had  some  share  in  this  excursion  to 
Kelso  ;  but  I  consider  with  more  interest  the  brief  allu 
sion  to  a  day  at  Sandy-Knowe  :  — 

"  To  Mrs.  Scott,  George  Square,  Edinburgh. 
"  (With  a  parcel) 

"Rosebank,  5th  Sept.  1788. 

"  Dear  Mother,  —  I  was  favoured  with  your  letter,  and  send 
you  Anne's  stockings  along  with  this :  I  would  have  sent  them 
last  week,  but  had  some  expectations  of  a  private  opportunity. 
I  have  been  very  happy  for  this  fortnight ;  we  have  some  plan 
or  other  for  every  day.  Last  week  my  uncle,  my  cousin  Wil 
liam,*  and  I,  rode  to  Smailholm,  and  from  thence  walked  to 
feandy-Knowe  Craigs,  where  we  spent  the  whole  day,  and 
made  a  very  hearty  dinner  by  the  side  of  the  Orderlaw  Well, 
on  some  cold  beef  and  bread  and  cheese :  we  had  also  a  small 
case-bottle  of  rum  to  make  grog  with,  which  we  drank  to  the 
Sandy-Knowe  bairns,  and  all  their  connexions.  This  jaunt 
gave  me  much  pleasure,  and  had  I  time,  I  would  give  you  a 
more  full  account  of  it. 

*  The  present  Laird  of  Raeburn. 


186  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  The  fishing  has  been  hitherto  but  indifferent,  and  I  fear  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  accomplish  my  promise  with  regard  to  the 
wild  ducks.  I  was  out  on  Friday,  and  only  saw  three.  I  may 
probably,  however,  send  you  a  hare,  as  my  uncle  has  got  a 
present  of  two  greyhounds  from  Sir  H.  MacDougall,  and  as  he 
has  a  licence,  only  waits  till  the  corn  is  off  the  ground  to  com 
mence  coursing.  Be  it  known  to  you,  however,  I  am  not  alto 
gether  employed  in  amusements,  for  I  have  got  two  or  three 
clients  besides  my  uncle,  and  am  busy  drawing  tacks  and  con 
tracts,  —  not,  however,  of  marriage.  I  am  in  a  fair  way  of 
making  money,  if  I  stay  here  long. 

"  Here  I  have  written  a  pretty  long  letter,  and  nothing  in 
it ;  but  you  know  writing  to  one's  friends  is  the  next  thing  to 
seeing  them.  My  love  to  my  father  and  the  boys,  from,  Dear 
Mother,  your  dutiful  and  affectionate  son, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT/' 

It  appears  from  James  Ballantyne's  memoranda^  that 
having  been  very  early  bound  apprentice  to  a  solicitor  in 
Kelso,  he  had  no  intercourse  with  Scott  during  the  three 
or  four  years  that  followed  their  companionship  at  the 
school  of  Lancelot  Whale ;  but  Ballantyne  was  now  sent 
to  spend  a  winter  in  Edinburgh,  for  the  completion  of 
his  professional  education,  and  in  the  course  of  his  at 
tendance  on  the  Scots-law  class,  became  a  member  of  a 
young  Teviotdale  club,  where  Walter  Scott  seldom  failed 
to  make  his  appearance.  They  supped  together,  it 
seems,  once  a-month  ;  and  here,  as  in  the  associations 
above  mentioned,  good  fellowship  was  often  pushed  be 
yond  the  limits  of  modern  indulgence.  The  strict  inti 
macy  between  Scott  and  Ballantyne  was  not  at  this  time 
renewed  —  their  avocations  prevented  it,  —  but  the  lat 
ter  was  no  uninterested  observer  of  his  old  comrade's 
bearing  on  this  new  scene.  "  Upon  all  these  occasions," 
he  says,  "one  of  the  principal  features  of  his  character 


JAMES    BALLANTYNE.  187 

was  displayed  as  conspicuously  as  I  believe  it  ever  was 
at  any  later  period.  This  was  the  remarkable  ascen 
dency  he  never  failed  to  exhibit  among  his  young  com 
panions,  and  which  appeared  to  arise  from  their  involun 
tary  and  unconscious  submission  to  the  same  firmness  of 
understanding,  and  gentle  exercise  of  it,  which  produced 
the  same  effects  throughout  his  after  life.  Where  there 
was  always  a  good  deal  of  drinking,  there  was  of  course 
now  and  then  a  good  deal  of  quarrelling.  But  three 
words  from  Walter  Scott  never  failed  to  put  all  such 
propensities  to  quietness." 

Mr.  Ballantyne's  account  of  his  friend's  peace-making 
exertions  at  this  club  may  seem  a  little  at  variance  with 
some  preceding  details.  There  is  a  difference,  however, 
between  encouraging  quarrels  in  the  bosom  of  a  convivial 
party,  and  taking  a  fair  part  in  a  row  between  one's  own 
party  and  another.  But  Ballantyne  adds,  that  at  The 
Teviotdale,  Scott  was  always  remarkable  for  being  the 
most  temperate  of  the  set ;  and  if  the  club  consisted 
chiefly  of  persons,  like  Ballantyne  himself,  somewhat  in 
ferior  to  Scott  in  birth  and  station,  his  carefulness  both 
of  sobriety  and  decorum  at  their  meetings  was  but 
another  feature  of  his  unchanged  and  unchangeable 
character  —  qualis  ab  incepto. 

At  one  of  the  many  merry  suppers  of  this  time,  Wal 
ter  Scott  had  said  something,  of  which,  on  recollecting 
himself  next  morning,  he  was  sensible  that  his  friend 
Clerk  might  have  reason  to  complain.  He  sent  him  ac 
cordingly  ft  note  apologetical,  which  has  by  some  accident 
been  preserved,  and  which  I  am  sure  every  reader  will 
agree  with  me  in  considering  well  worthy  of  preserva 
tion.  In  it  Scott  contrives  to  make  use  of  both  his  own 
club  designations,  and  addresses  his  friend  by  another  of 


188  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  same  order,  which  Clerk  had  received  in  consequence 
of  comparing  himself  on  some  forgotten  occasion  to  Sir 
John  Brute  in  the  play.  This  characteristic  document 
is  as  follows:  — 

"  To  William  Clerk,  Esq. 

"  Dear  Baronet,  —  I  am  sorry  to  find  that  our  friend  Colo 
nel  Grogg  has  behaved  with  a  very  undue  degree  of  vehe 
mence  in  a  dispute  with  you  last  night,  occasioned  by  what  1 
am  convinced  was  a  gross  misconception  of  your  expressions. 
As  the  Colonel,  though  a  military  man,  is  not  too  haughty  to 
acknowledge  an  error,  he  has  commissioned  me  to  make  his 
apology  as  a  mutual  friend,  which  I  am  convinced  you  will 
accept  from  yours  ever, 

"  DUNS  SCOTUS." 

"  Given  at  Castle  Duns, 
"  Monday." 

I  should  perhaps  have  mentioned  sooner,  that  when 
first  Duns  Scotus  became  the  Baronets  daily  companion  — 
this  new  alliance  was  observed  with  considerable  jealousy 
by  some  of  his  former  inseparables  of  the  writing  office. 
At  the  next  annual  supper  of  the  clerks  and  apprentices, 
the  gaudy  of  the  chamber,  this  feeling  showed  itself  in 
various  ways,  and  when  the  cloth  was  drawn,  Walter 
rose  and  asked  what  was  meant.  "  "Well,"  said  one  of 
the  lads,  "  since  you  will  have  it  out,  you  are  cutting  your 
old  friends  for  the  sake  of  Clerk  and  some  more  of  these 
dons  that  look  down  on  the  like  of  us."  "  Gentlemen," 
answered  Scott,  "  I  will  never  cut  any  man  unless  I  de 
tect  him  in  scoundrelism  ;  but  I  know  not  what  right  any 
of  you  have  to  interfere  with  my  choice  of  my  company. 
If  any  one  thought  I  had  injured  him,  he  would  have 
done  well  to  ask  an  explanation  in  a  more  private  man 
ner.  As  it  is,  I  fairly  own,  that  though  I  like  many  of 


EARLY    CORRESPONDENCE.  189 

you  very  much,  and  have  long  done  so,  I  think  ^Villiam 
Clerk  well  worth  you  all  put  together."  The  senior  in 
the  chair  was  wise  enough  to  laugh,  and  the  evening 
passed  off  without  further  disturbance. 

As  one  effect  of  his  office  education,  Scott  soon  began 
to  preserve  in  regular  files  the  letters  addressed  to  him  ; 
and  from  the  style  and  tone  of  such  letters,  as  Mr. 
Southey  observes  in  his  Life  of  Cowper,  a  man's  charac 
ter  may  often  be  gathered  even  more  surely  than  from 
those  written  by  himself.  The  first  series  of  any  consid 
erable  extent  in  his  collection,  includes  letters  dated  as 
far  back  as  1786,  and  proceeds,  with  not  many  interrup 
tions,  down  beyond  the  period  when  his  fame  had  been 
established.  I  regret,  that  from  the  delicate  nature  of 
the  transactions  chiefly  dwelt  upon  in  the  earlier  of  these 
communications,  I  dare  not  make  a  free  use  of  them  ;  but 
I  feel  it  my  duty  to  record  the  strong  impression  they 
have  left  on  my  own  mind  of  high  generosity  of  affec 
tion,  coupled  with  calm  judgment,  and  perseverance  in 
well-doing,  on  the  part  of  the  stripling  Scott.  To  these 
indeed  every  line  in  the  collection  bears  pregnant  testi 
mony.  A  young  gentleman,  born  of  good  family,  and 
heir  to  a  tolerable  fortune,  is  sent  to  Edinburgh  College, 
and  is  seen  partaking,  along  with  Scott,  through  several 
apparently  happy  and  careless  years,  of  the  studies  and 
amusements  of  which  the  reader  may  by  this  time  have 
formed  an  adequate  notion.  By  degrees,  from  the  usual 
licence  of  his  equal  comrades,  he  sinks  into  habits  of  a 
looser  description  —  becomes  reckless,  contracts  debts, 
irritates  his  own  family  almost  beyond  hope  of  reconcil 
iation,  is  virtually  cast  off  by  them,  runs  away  from  Scot 
land,  forms  a  marriage  far  below  his  condition  in  a  remote 
part  of  the  sister  kingdom  —  and,  when  the  poor  girl  has 


190  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

made  him  a  father,  then  first  begins  to  open  his  eyes  to 
the  full  consequences  of  his  mad  career.  He  appeals  to 
Scott,  by  this  time  in  his  eighteenth  year,  "  as  the  truest 
and  noblest  of  friends,"  who  had  given  him  "the  earliest 
and  the  strongest  warnings,"  had  assisted  him  "  the  most 
generously  throughout  all  his  wanderings  and  distresses," 
and  will  not  now  abandon  him  in  his  "  penitent  lowliness 
of  misery,"  the  result  of  his  seeing  "  virtue  and  inno 
cence  involved  in  the  punishment  of  his  errors."  I  find 
Scott  obtaining  the  slow  and  reluctant  assistance  of  his 
own  careful  father,  —  who  had  long  before  observed  this 
youth's  wayward  disposition,  and  often  cautioned  his  son 
against  the  connexion,  —  to  intercede  with  the  unfortu 
nate  wanderer's  family,  and  procure,  if  possible,  some 
mitigation  of  their  sentence.  The  result  is,  that  he  is 
furnished  with  the  scanty  means  of  removing  himself  to 
a  distant  colony,  where  he  spends  several  years  in  the 
drudgery  of  a  very  humble  occupation,  but  by  degrees 
establishes  for  himself  a  new  character,  which  commands 
the  anxious  interest  of  strangers ;  —  and  I  find  these 
strangers,  particularly  a  benevolent  and  venerable  cler 
gyman,  addressing,  on  his  behalf,  without  his  privacy,  the 
young  person,  as  yet  unknown  to  the  world,  whom  the 
object  of  their  concern  had  painted  to  them  as  "  uniting 
the  warm  feelings  of  youth  with  the  sense  of  years  "  — 
whose  hair  he  had,  "  from  the  day  he  left  England,  worn 
aext  his  heart."  Just  at  the  time  when  this  appeal 
reached  Scott,  he  hears  that  his  exiled  friend's  father  has 
died  suddenly,  and  after  all  intestate  ;  he  has  actually 
been  taking  steps  to  ascertain  the  truth  of  the  case  at  the 
moment  when  the  American  despatch  is  laid  on  his  table 
I  leave  the  reader  to  guess  with  what  pleasure  Scott  ha& 
to  communicate  the  intelligence  that  his  repentant  and 


EARLY    CORRESPONDENCE.  191 

reformed  friend  may  return  to  take  possession  of  his  in 
heritance.  The  letters  before  me  contain  touching  pic 
tures  of  their  meeting  —  of  Walter's  first  visit  to  the 
ancient  hall,  where  a  happy  family  are  now  assembled  — 
and  of  the  affectionately  respectful  sense  which  his  friend 
retained  ever  afterwards  of  all  that  he  had  done  for  him 
in  the  season  of  his  struggles.  But  what  a  grievous  loss 
is  Scott's  part  of  this  correspondence  !  I  find  the  com 
rade  over  and  over  again  expressing  his  admiration  of 
the  letters  in  which  Scott  described  to  him  his  early  tours 
both  in  the  Highlands  and  the  Border  dales  :  I  find  him 
prophesying  from  them,  as  early  as  1789,  "  one  day  your 
pen  will  make  you  famous,"  —  and  already,  in  1790, 
urging  him  to  concentrate  his  ambition  on  a  "history 
of  the  clans."  * 

This  young  gentleman  appears  to  have  had  a  decided 
turn  for  literature  ;  and  though  in  his  earlier  epistles  he 
makes  no  allusion  to  Scott  as  ever  dabbling  in  rhyme,  he 
often  inserts  verses  of  his  own,  sorae  of  which  are  not 
without  merit.  There  is  a  long  letter  in  doggrel,  dated 
1788,  descriptive  of  a  ramble  from  Edinburgh  to  Car 
lisle  —  of  which  I  may  quote  the  opening  lines,  as  a  sam 
ple  of  the  simple  habits  of  these  young  people  :  — 

"  At  four  in  the  morning,  I  won't  be  too  sure, 
Yet,  if  right  I  remember  me,  that  was  the  hour, 
When  with  Fergusson,  Ramsay,  and  Jones,  sir,  and  you, 
From  Auld  Reekie  I  southward  my  route  did  pursue. 
But  two  of  the  dogs  (yet  God  bless  them,  I  said) 
Grew  tired,  and  but  set  me  half  way  to  Lasswade, 
While  Jones,  you,  and  I,  Wat,  went  on  without  nutter, 
And  at  Symonds's  feasted  on  good  bread  and  butter; 
Where  I,  wanting  a  sixpence,  you  lugged  out  a  shilling, 
And  paid  for  me  too,  though  I  was  most  unwilling. 

*  All  Scott's  letters  to  the  friend  he~e  alluded  to  are  said  to  have 
Derished  hi  an  accidental  fire. 


192  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

We  parted  —  be  sure  I  was  ready  to  snivel  — 
Jones  and  you  to  go  home  —  I  to  go  to  the  devil." 

In  a  letter  of  later  date,  describing  the  adventurer's 
captivation  with  the  cottage  maiden  whom  he  afterwards 
married,  there  are  some  lines  of  a  very  different  .tamp. 
This  couplet  at  least  seems  to  me  exquisite:  — 

"  Lowly  beauty,  dear  friend,  beams  with  primitive  graca, 
And  'tis  innocence  self  plays  the  rogue  in  her  face." 

I  find  in  another  letter  of  this  collection  —  and  it  is 
among  the  first  of  the  series  —  the  following  passage  :  — 
"  Your  Quixotism,  dear  Walter,  was  highly  character 
istic.  From  the  description  of  the  blooming  fair,  as  she 
appeared  when  she  lowered  her  manteau  vert,  I  am  hope 
ful  you  have  not  dropt  the  acquaintance.  At  least  I  am 
certain  some  of  our  more  rakish  friends  would  have  been 
glad  enough  of  such  an  introduction."  This  hint  I  can 
not  help  connecting  with  the  first  scene  of  The  Lady 
Green  Mantle  in  Redgauntlet ;  but  indeed  I  could  easily 
trace  many  more  coincidences  between  these  letters  and 
that  novel,  though  at  the  same  time  I  have  no  sort  of 
doubt  that  William  Clerk  was,  in  the  main,  Darsie  Lati- 
mer,  while  Scott  himself  unquestionably  sat  for  his  own 
picture  in  young  Alan  Fairford. 

The  allusion  to  "  our  more  rakish  friends  "  is  in  keep- 
jig  with  the  whole  strain  of  this  juvenile  correspondence. 
Throughout  there  occurs  no  coarse  or  even  jocular  sug 
gestion  as  to  the  conduct  of  Scott  in  that  particular,  as  to 
which  most  youths  of  his  then  age  are  so  apt  to  lay  up 
stores  of  self-reproach.  In  this  season  of  hot  and  impet 
uous  blood  he  may  not  have  escaped  quite  blameless,  but 
I  have  the  concurrent  testimony  of  all  the  most  ultimate 
Among  his  surviving  associates,  that  he  was  remarkably 


THE  LADY  GREEN  MANTLE.  193 

free  from  such  indiscretions ;  that  while  his  high  sense 
of  honour  shielded  him  from  the  remotest  dream  of  tam 
pering  with  female  innocence,  he  had  an  instinctive  deli 
cacy  about  him  which  made  him  recoil  with  utter  disgust 
from  low  and  vulgar  debaucheries.  His  friends,  I  have 
heard  more  than  one  of  them  confess,  used  often  to  rally 
him  on  the  coldness  of  his  nature.  By  degrees  they  dis 
covered  that  he  had,  from  almost  the  dawn  of  the  pas 
sions,  cherished  a  secret  attachment,  which  continued, 
through  all  the  most  perilous  stage  of  life,  to  act  as  a 
romantic  charm  in  safeguard  of  virtue.  This  —  (how 
ever  he  may  have  disguised  the  story  by  mixing  it  up  with 
the  Quixotic  adventure  of  the  damsel  in  the  Green  Man 
tle)  —  this  was  the  early  and  innocent  affection  to  which 
we  owe  the  tenderest  pages,  not  only  of  Redgauntlet,  but 
of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  and  of  Rokeby.  In  all 
of  these  works  the  heroine  has  certain  distinctive  feat 
ures,  drawn  from  one  and  the  same  haunting  dream  of 
his  manly  adolescence. 

It  was  about  1790,  according  to  Mr.  William  Clerk, 
that  Scott  was  observed  to  lay  aside  that  carelessness,  not 
to  say  slovenliness,  as  to  dress,  which  used  to  furnish  mat 
ter  for  joking  at  the  beginning  of  their  acquaintance.  He 
now  did  himself  more  justice  in  these  little  matters,  be 
came  fond  of  mixing  in  general  female  society,  and,  as 
his  friend  expresses  it,  "  began  to  set  up  for  a  squire  of 
dames." 

His  personal  appearance  at  this  time  was  not  unen- 
gaging.  A  lady  of  high  rank,  who  well  remembers  him 
in  the  Old  Assembly  Rooms,  says,  "  Young  Walter  Scott 
was  a  comely  creature/'  He  had  outgrown  the  sallowness 
of  early  ill  health,  and  had  a  fresh  brilliant  complexion. 
His  eyes  were  clear,  open,  and  well  set,  with  a  changefuJ 

VOL-  I.  13 


94  OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

radiance,  to  which  teeth  of  the  most  perfect  regularity 
and  whiteness  lent  their  assistance,  while  the  noble  ex- 
pjinse  and  elevation  of  the  brow  gave  to  the  whole  aspect 
a  dignity  far  above  the  charm  of  mere  features.  His 
smile  was  always  delightful ;  and  I  can  easily  fancy  the 
peculiar  intermixture  of  tenderness  and  gravity,  with 
playful  innocent  hilarity  and  humour  in  the  expression, 
as  being  well  calculated  to  fix  a  fair  lady's  eye.  His 
figure,  excepting  the  blemish  in  one  limb,  must  in  those 
days  have  been  eminently  handsome ;  tall,  much  above 
the  usual  standard,  it  was  cast  in  the  very  mould  of  a 
young  Hercules;  the  head  set  on  with  singular  grace, 
the  throat  and  chest  after  the  truest  model  of  the  antique, 
the  hands  delicately  finished ;  the  whole  outline  that  of 
extraordinary  vigour,  without  as  yet  a  touch  of  clumsiness. 
When  he  had  acquired  a  little  facility  of  manner,  his  con 
versation  must  have  been  such  as  could  have  dispensed 
with  any  exterior  advantages,  and  certainly  brought  swift 
forgiveness  for  the  one  unkindness  of  nature.  I  have 
heard  him,  in  talking  of  this  part  of  his  life,  say,  with  an 
arch  simplicity  of  look  and  tone  which  those  who  were 
familiar  with  him  can  fill  in  for  themselves  —  "  It  was  a 
proud  night  with  me  when  I  first  found  that  a  pretty 
young  woman  could  think  it  worth  her  while  to  sit  and 
talk  with  me,  hour  after  hour,  in  a  corner  of  the  ball 
room,  while  all  the  world  were  capering  in  our  view." 
I  believe,  however,  that  the  "pretty  young  woman" 
here  specially  alluded  to  had  occupied  his  attention  long 
before  he  ever  appeared  in  the  Edinburgh  Assembly 
Rooms,  or  any  of  his  friends  took  note  of  him  as  "  setting 
up  for  a  squire  of  dames."  I  have  been  told  that  their 
acquaintance  began  in  the  Greyfriars'  churchyard,  where 
fain  beginning  to  fall  one  Sunday  as  the  congregation 


FIRST    LOVE.  195 

were  dispersing,  Scott  happened  to  offer  his  umbrella, 
and  the  tender  being  accepted,  so  escorted  her  to  her  res 
idence,  which  proved  to  be  at  no  great  distance  from  his 
own.*  To  return  from  church  together  had,  it  seems, 
grown  into  something  like  a  custom,  before  they  met  in 
society,  Mrs.  Scott  being  of  the  party.  It  then  appeared 
that  she  and  the  lady's  mother  had  been  companions  in 
their  youth,  though,  both  living  secludedly,  they  had 
scarcely  seen  each  other  for  many  years ;  and  the  two 
matrons  now  renewed  their  former  intercourse.  But  no 
acquaintance  appears  to  have  existed  between  the  fathers 
of  the  young  people,  until  things  had  advanced  in  appear 
ance  farther  than  met  the  approbation  of  the  good  Clerk 
to  the  Signet. 

Being  aware  that  the  young  lady,  who  was  very  highly 
connected,  had  prospects  of  fortune  far  above  his  son's, 
the  upright  and  honourable  man  conceived  it  his  duty  to 
give  her  parents  warning  that  he  observed  a  degree  of 
intimacy  which,  if  allowed  to  go  on,  might  involve  the 
parties  in  future  pain  and  disappointment.  He  had  heard 
his  son  talk  of  a  contemplated  excursion  to  the  part  of  the 
country  in  which  his  neighbour's  estates  lay,  and  not 
doubting  that  Walter's  real  object  was  different  from  that 
tfhich  he  announced,  introduced  himself  with  a  frank 
statement  that  he  wished  no  such  affair  to  proceed 
without  the  express  sanction  of  those  most  interested  in 
he  happiness  of  persons  as  yet  too  young  to  calculate 
consequences  for  themselves.  The  northern  Baronet  had 
.heard  nothing  of  the  young  apprentice's  intended  excur- 

*  In  one  of  his  latest  articles  for  the  Quarterly  Keview,  Scott  ob 
serves  — kt  There  have  been  instances  of  love-tales  being  favourably 
received  in  England,  when  told  under  an  umbrella,  and  in  the  middle 
of  a  shower."  — Miscellaneous  Prose  Wo*kst  vol.  xviii. 


196  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Bion,  and  appeared  to  treat  the  whole  business  very 
lightly.  He  thanked  Mr.  Scott  for  his  scrupulous  atten 
tion  —  but  added,  that  he  believed  he  was  mistaken  ;  and 
this  paternal  interference,  which  Walter  did  not  hear  of 
till  long  afterwards,  produced  no  change  in  his  relations 
with  the  object  of  his  growing  attachment. 

I  have  neither  the  power  nor  the  wish  to  give  in  detail 
the  sequel  of  this  story.  It  is  sufficient  to  say,  that  after 
he  had  through  several  long  years  nourished  the  dream 
of  an  ultimate  union  with  this  lady,  his  hopes  terminated 
in  her  being  married  to  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  char 
acter,  to  whom  some  affectionate  allusions  occur  in  one  of 
the  greatest  of  his  works,  and  who  lived  to  act  the  part 
of  a  most  generous  friend  to  his  early  rival  throughout 
the  anxieties  and  distresses  of  1826  and  1827.  I  have 
said  enough  for  my  purpose  —  which  was  only  to  render 
intelligible  a  few  allusions  in  the  letters  which  I  shall  by 
and  by  have  to  introduce ;  but  I  may  add,  that  I  have  no 
doubt  this  unfortunate  passion,  besides  one  good  effect 
already  adverted  to,  had  a  powerful  influence  in  nerving 
Scott's  mind  for  the  sedulous  diligence  with  which  he 
pursued  his  proper  legal  studies,  as  described  in  his 
Memoir,  during  the  two  or  three  years  that  preceded 
bis  call  to  the  Bar. 


EOSEBANK.  197 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Illustrations  continued — Studies  for  the  Bar  —  Excursion  to 
Northumberland  —  Letter  on  Flodden  Field  —  Call  to  the 
Bar. 

1790-1792. 

THE  two  following  letters  may  sufficiently  illustrate 
the  writer's  everyday  existence  in  the  autumn  of  1790. 
The  first,  addressed  to  his  fidus  Achates,  has  not  a  few 
indications  of  the  vein  of  humour  from  which  he  after 
wards  drew  so  largely  in  his  novels  ;  and  indeed,  even  in 
his  last  days,  he  delighted  to  tell  the  story  of  the  Jedburgh 
bailies'  boots. 

«  To   William  Clerk,  Esq.,  at  John  Clerk's,  Esq.  of  Eldin, 
Prince's  Street,  Edinburgh. 

"  Rosebank,  6th  August  1790. 

"  Dear  William,  —  Here  am  I,  the  weather,  according  to 
your  phrase,  most  bitchiferous ;  the  Tweed,  within  twenty 
yards  of  the  window  at  which  I  am  writing,  swelled  from  bank 
to  brae,  and  roaring  like  thunder.  It  is  paying  you  but  a  poor 
compliment  to  tell  you  I  waited  for  such  a  day  to  perform  my 
promise  of  writing,  but  you  must  consider  that  it  is  the  point 
here  to  reserve  such  within-doors  employment  as  we  think 
most  agreeable  for  bad  weather,  which  in  the  country  always 
wants  something  to  help  it  away.  In  fair  weather  we  are  far 
from  wanting  amusement,  which  at  present  is  my  business ;  on 
the  contrary,  every  fair  day  has  some  plan  of  pleasure  annexed 


198  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  it,  in  so  much  that  I  can  hardly  believe  I  have  been  here 
above  two  days,  so  swiftly  does  the  time  pass  away.  You  will 
ask  how  it  is  employed  ?  Why,  negatively,  I  read  no  civil  law. 
Heineccius  and  his  fellow  worthies  have  ample  time  to  gather 
a  venerable  coat  of  dust,  which  they  merit  by  their  dulness. 
As  to  my  positive  amusements,  besides  riding,  fishing,  and  the 
other  usual  sports  of  the  country,  I  often  spend  an  hour  or  two 
in  the  evening  in  shooting  herons,  which  are  numerous  on  thia 
part  of  the  river.  To  do  this  I  have  no  farther  to  go  than  the 
bottom  of  our  garden,  which  literally  hangs  over  the  river. 
When  you  fire  at  a  bird,  she  always  crosses  the  river,  and 
when  again  shot  at  with  ball,  usually  returns  to  your  side,  and 
will  cross  in  this  way  several  times  before  she  takes  wing. 
This  furnishes  fine  sport;  nor  are  they  easily  shot,  as  you 
never  can  get  very  near  them.  The  intervals  between  their 
appearing  is  spent  very  agreeably  in  eating  gooseberries. 

"  Yesterday  was  St.  James's  Fair,  a  day  of  great  business. 
There  was  a  great  show  of  black  cattle  —  I  mean  of  ministers ; 
the  narrowness  of  their  stipends  here  obliges  many  of  them  to 
enlarge  their  incomes  by  taking  farms  and  grazing  cattle. 
This,  in  my  opinion,  diminishes  their  respectability,  nor  can 
the  farmer  be  supposed  to  entertain  any  great  reverence  for 
the  ghostly  advice  of  a  pastor  (they  literally  deserve  the 
epithet)  who  perhaps  the  day  before  overreached  him  in  a 
bargain.  I  would  not  have  you  to  suppose  there  are  no  c  x- 
ceptions  to  this  character,  but  it  would  serve  most  of  them.  I 
had  been  fishing  with  my  uncle,  Captain  Scott,  on  the  Teviot, 
and  returned  through  the  ground  where  the  Fair  is  kept.  The 
servant  was  waiting  there  with  our  horses,  as  we  were  to  ride 
he  water.  Lucky  it  was  that  it  was  so  ;  for  just  about  that 
time  the  magistrates  of  Jedburgh,  who  preside  there,  began 
their  solemn  procession  through  the  Fair.  For  the  greater 
dignity  upon  this  occasion,  they  had  a  pair  of  boots  among 
three  men  —  i.  e.,  as  they  ride  three  in  a  rank,  the  outer  legs 
of  those  personages  who  formed  the  outside,  as  it  may  be 
called,  of  the  procession,  were  each  clothed  in  a  boot.  This, 
ind  several  other  incongruous  appearances,  were  thrown  ir 


ROSEBANK  — 1790.  199 

the  teeth  of  those  cavaliers  by  the  Kelso  populace,  and,  by  the 
assistance  of  whisky,  parties  were  soon  inflamed  to  a  very 
tight  battle,  one  of  that  kind  which,  for  distinction  sake,  is 
called  royal.  It  was  not  without  great  difficulty  that  we  extri 
cated  ourselves  from  the  confusion ;  and  had  we  been  on  foot, 
we  might  have  been  trampled  down  by  these  fierce  Jed- 
burghians,  who  charged  like  so  many  troopers.  We  were 
spectators  of  the  combat  from  an  eminence,  but  peace  waa 
soon  after  restored,  which  made  the  older  warriors  regret  the 
effeminacy  of  the  age,  as,  regularly,  it  ought  to  have  lasted  till 
night.  Two  lives  were  lost,  I  mean  of  horses  ;  indeed,  had  you 
seen  them,  you  would  rather  have  wondered  that  they  were 
able  to  bear  their  masters  to  the  scene  of  action,  than  that 
they  could  not  carry  them  off.* 

"  I  am  ashamed  to  read  over  this  sheet  of  nonsense,  so 
excuse  inaccuracies.  Remember  me  to  the  lads  of  the  Liter- 
a.*y,  those  of  the  club  in  particular.  I  wrote  Irving.  Remem 
ber  my  most  respectful  compliments  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Clerk 
and  family,  particularly  James ;  when  you  write,  let  me  know 
how  he  did  when  you  heard  of  him.  Imitate  me  in  writing  a 
long  letter,  but  not  in  being  long  in  writing  it.  Direct  to  me 
at  Miss  Scott's,  Garden,  Kelso.  My  letters  lie  there  for  me, 
as  it  saves  their  being  sent  down  to  Rosebank.  The  carrier 
puts  up  at  the  Grassmarket,  and  goes  away  on  Wednesday 
forenoon.  Yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  next  letter  is  dated  from  a  house  at  which  I  have 

*  Mr.  Andrew  Shortrede  (onejof  a  family  often  mentioned  in  these 
Memoirs)  says,  in  a  letter  of  November  1838  —  "  The  joke  of  the  one 
fair  of  boots  to  three  pair  of  legs,  was  so  unpalatable  to  the  honest 
burghers  of  Jedburgh,  that  they  have  suffered  the  ancient  privilege  of 
1  riding  the  Fair,'  as  it  was  called  (during  which  ceremony  the  inhabi 
tants  of  Kelso  were  compelled  to  shut  up  their  shops  as  on  a  holiday), 
rt)  fall  into  disuse.  Huoy,  the  runaway  forger,  a  native  of  Kelso, 
availed  himself  of  the  calumny  in  a  clever  squib  on  the  subject :  — 

'  The  outside  man  had  each  a  boot, 
The  three  had  but  a  pair.' " 


200  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

often  seen  the  writer  in  his  latter  days.  Kippilaw,  situ 
ated  about  five  or  six  miles  behind  Abbotsford,  on  the 
high  ground  between  the  Tweed  and  the  Water  of  Ayle, 
is  the  seat  of  an  ancient  laird  of  the  clan  Kerr,  but  was 
at  this  time  tenanted  by  the  family  of  Walter's  brother- 
apprentice,  James  Ramsay,  who  afterwards  realized  a 
fortune  in  the  civil  service  of  Ceylon. 

"  To  William  Clerk,  Esq. 

"Kippilaw,  Sept.  3, 1790. 

"  Dear  Clerk,  —  I  am  now  writing  from  the  country  habi 
tation  of  our  friend  Ramsay,  where  I  have  been  spending  a 
week  as  pleasantly  as  ever  I  spent  one  in  my  life.  Imagine  a 
commodious  old  house,  pleasantly  situated  amongst  a  knot  of 
venerable  elms,  in  a  fine  sporting,  open  country,  and  only  two 
miles  from  an  excellent  water  for  trouts,  inhabited  by  two  of 
the  best  old  ladies  (Ramsay's  aunts),  and  three  as  pleasant 
young  ones  (his  sisters)  as  any  person  could  wish  to  converse 
with  —  and  you  will  have  some  idea  of  Kippilaw.  James  and 
I  wander  about,  fish,  or  look  for  hares,  the  whole  day,  and  at 
night  laugh,  chat,  and  play  round  games  at  cards.  Such  is  the 
fatherland  in  which  I  have  been  living  for  some  days  past,  and 
which  I  leave  to-night  or  to-morrow.  This  day  is  very  bad 
notwithstanding  which,  James  has  sallied  out  to  make  some 
calls,  as  he  soon  leaves  the  country.  I  have  a  great  mind  to 
trouble  him  with  the  care  of  this. 

"  And  now  for  your  letter,  the  receipt  of  which  I  have  itot, 
I  think,  yet  acknowledged,  though  I  am  much  obliged  to  you 
for  it.  I  dare  say  you  would  relish  your  jaunt  to  Penny cuick 
very  much,  especially  considering  the  solitary  desert  of  Edin 
burgh,  from  which  it  relieved  you.  By  the  by,  know,  O  thou 
devourer  of  grapes,  who  contemnest  the  vulgar  gooseberry, 
tfiat  thou  art  not  singular  in  thy  devouring  —  nee  tarn  aversus 
equos  sol  jungit  db  urbe  (Kelsoniana  scilicet)  —  my  uncle  being 
the  lawful  possessor  of  a  vinery  measuring  no  less  than  twenty- 


KIPPILA  W 1790.  2 

four  feet  by  twelve,  the  contents  of  which  come  often  in  my 
way  ;  and,  according  to  the  proverb,  that  enough  is  as  good  as 
a  feast,  are  equally  acceptable  as  if  they  came  out  of  the  most 
extensive  vineyard  in  France.  I  cannot,  however,  equal  your 
boast  of  breakfasting,  dining,  and  supping  on  them.  As  for 
the  civilians*  —  peace  be  with  them,  and  may  the  dust  lie 
light  upon  their  heads  —  they  deserve  this  prayer  in  return 
for  those  sweet  slumbers  which  their  benign  influence  in 
fuses  into  their  readers.  I  fear  I  shall  too  soon  be  forced  to 
disturb  them,  for  some  of  our  family  being  now  at  Kelso,  I  am 
under  the  agonies  lest  I  be  obliged  to  escort  them  into  town. 
The  only  pleasure  I  shall  reap  by  this  is  that  of  asking  you 
how  you  do,  and,  perhaps,  the  solid  advantage  of  completing 
our  studies  before  the  College  sits  down.  Employ,  therefore, 
your  mornings  in  slumber  while  you  can,  for  soon  it  will  be 
chased  from  your  eyes.  I  plume  myself  on  my  sagacity  with 
regard  to  C.  J.  Fox.f  I  always  foretold  you  would  tire  of  him 
—  a  vile  brute.  I  have  not  yet  forgot  the  narrow  escape  of 
my  fingers.  I  rejoice  at  James's  J  intimacy  with  Miss  Menzies. 
She  promised  to  turn  out  a  fine  girl,  has  a  fine  fortune,  and 
could  James  get  her,  he  might  sing,  '  I'll  go  no  more  to  sea,  to 
sea.'  Give  my  love  to  him  when  you  write.  — '  God  preserve 
us,  what  a  scrawl ! '  says  one  of  the  ladies  just  now,  in  admira 
tion  at  the  expedition  with  which  I  scribble.  Well  —  I  was 
never  able  in  my  life  to  do  any  thing  with  what  is  called 
gravity  and  deliberation. 

"  I  dined  two  days  ago  tete  a  tete  with  Lord  Buchan.  Heard 
a  history  of  all  his  ancestors  whom  he  has  hung  round  hia 
chimney-piece.  From  counting  of  pedigrees,  good  Lord  de 
liver  us !  He  is  thinking  of  erecting  a  monument  to  Thomson. 
He  frequented  Dryburgh  much  in  my  grandfather's  time.  It 
will  be  a  handsome  thing.  As  to  your  scamp  of  a  boy,  I  saw 
nothing  of  him;  but  the  face  is  enough  to  condemn  there, 

*  Books  on  Civil  Law. 

f  A  tame  fox  of  Mr.  Clerk  s,  which  he  soo&.  dismissed. 

J  Mr.  James  Clerk,  R.  N. 


202  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

I  have  seen  a  man  flogg'd  for  stealing  spirits  on  the  sole  in 
formation  of  his  nose.  Remember  me  respectfully  to  your 
family. 

"  Believe  me  yours  affectionately, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

After  his  return  from  the  scene  of  these  merry  doings, 
he  writes  as  follows  to  his  kind  uncle.  The  reader  will 
see  that,  in  the  course  of  the  preceding  year,  he  had  an 
nounced  his  early  views  of  the  origin  of  what  is  called 
the  feudal  system,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Literary 
Society.  He,  in  the  succeeding  winter,  chose  the  same 
subject  for  an  essay,  submitted  to  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart, 
whose  prelections  on  ethics  he  was  then  attending.  Some 
time  later  he  again  illustrated  the  same  opinions  more  at 
length  in  a  disquisition  before  the  Speculative  Society; 
and,  indeed,  he  always  adhered  to  them.  One  of  the  last 
historical  books  he  read,  before  leaving  Abbotsford  for 
Malta  in  1831,  was  Colonel  Tod's  interesting  account  of 
Rajasthan  ;  and  I  well  remember  the  delight  he  expressed 
on  finding  his  views  confirmed,  as  they  certainly  are  in 
a  very  striking  manner,  by  the  philosophical  soldier's 
details  of  the  structure  of  society  in  that  remote  region 
of  the  East. 

"  To  Captain  Robert  Scott,  Roselank,  Kelso. 

"  Edinburgh,  Sept.  30, 1790. 

"Dear  Uncle,  —  We  arrived  here  without  any  accident 
about  five  o'clock  on  Monday  evening.  The  good  weather 
made  our  journey  pleasant.  I  have  been  attending  to  your 
commissions  here,  and  find  that  the  last  volume  of  Dodsley's 
Annual  Register  published  is  that  for  1787,  which  I  was  about 
to  send  you;  but  the  bookseller  I  frequent  had  not  one  in 
boards,  though  he  expects  to  procure  one  for  me.  There  is  9 


ESSAY    ON    THE    FEUDAL    SYSTEM,    ETC.  203 

new  work  of  the  same  title  and  size,  on  the  same  plan,  which, 
being  published  every  year  regularly,  has  almost  cut  out  Dods- 
ley's,  so  that  this  last  is  expected  to  stop  altogether.  You  will 
let  me  know  if  you  would  wish  to  have  the  new  work,  which 
is  a  good  one,  will  join  very  well  with  those  volumes  of  Dods- 
ley's  which  you  already  have,  and  is  published  up  to  the  pres 
ent  year.  Byron's  Narrative  is  not  yet  published,  but  you 
shall  have  it  whenever  it  comes  out. 

"  Agreeable  to  your  permission,  I  send  you  the  scroll  copy 
of  an  essay  on  the  origin  of  the  feudal  system,  written  for  the 
Literary  Society  last  year.  As  you  are  kind  enough  to  inter 
est  yourself  in  my  style  and  manner  of  writing,  I  thought  you 
might  like  better  to  see  it  in  its  original  state,  than  one  on  the 
polishing  of  which  more  time  had  been  bestowed.  You  will 
see  that  the  intention  and  attempt  of  the  essay  is  principally 
to  controvert  two  propositions  laid  down  by  the  writers  on  the 
subject :  —  1st,  That  the  system  was  invented  by  the  Lom 
bards  ;  and,  2dly,  that  its  foundation  depended  on  the  king's 
being  acknowledged  the  sole  lord  of  all  the  lands  in  the  coun 
try,  which  he  afterwards  distributed  to  be  held  by  military 
tenures.  I  have  endeavoured  to  assign  it  a  more  general 
origin,  and  to  prove  that  it  proceeds  upon  principles  common 
to  all  nations  when  placed  in  a  certain  situation.  I  am  afraid 
the  matter  will  but  poorly  reward  the  trouble  you  will  find 
in  reading  some  parts.  I  hope,  however,  you  will  make  out 
enough  to  enable  you  to  favour  me  with  your  sentiments  upon 
its  faults.  There  is  none  whose  advice  I  prize  so  high,  for 
there  is  none  in  whose  judgment  I  can  so  much  confide,  or 
who  has  shown  me  so  much  kindness. 

"  I  also  send,  as  amusement  for  an  idle  half  hour,  a  copy  of 
the  regulations  of  our  Society,  some  of  which  will,  I  think,  be 
favoured  with  your  approbation. 

"  My  mother  and  sister  join  in  compliments  to  aunt  and  you, 
&nd  also  in  thanks  for  the  attentions  and  hospitality  which 
\hey  experienced  at  Kosebank.  And  I  am  ever  your  affec 
tionate  nephew,  WALTER  SCOTT. 


204  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  P.  S.  —  If  you  continue  to  want  a  mastiff,  I  think  I  can 
procure  you  one  of  a  good  breed,  and  send  him  by  the  car 
rier." 

While  attending  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart's  class,  in  the 
winter  of  1790-91,  Scott  produced,  in  compliance  with 
the  usual  custom  of  ethical  students,  several  essays  be 
sides  that  to  which  I  have  already  made  an  allusion,  and 
which  was,  I  believe,  entitled,  "  On  the  Manners  and 
Customs  of  the  Northern  Nations."  But  this  essay  it 
was  that  first  attracted,  in  any  particular  manner,  his 
Professor's  attention.  Mr.  Robert  Ainslie,*  well  known 
as  the  friend  and  fellow-traveller  of  Burns,  happened  to 
attend  Stewart  the  same  session,  and  remembers  his  say 
ing,  ex  cathedra,  "  The  author  of  this  paper  shows  much 
knowledge  of  his  subject,  and  a  great  taste  for  such  re- 
search'es."  Scott  became,  before  the  close  of  the  session, 
a  frequent  visitor  in  Mr.  Stewart's  family,  and  an  affec 
tionate  intercourse  was  maintained  between  them  through 
their  after-lives. 

Let  me  here  set  down  a  little  story  which  most  of  his 
friends  must  have  heard  him  tell  of  the  same  period. 
While  attending  Dugald  Stewart's  lectures  on  moral 
philosophy,  Scott  happened  to  sit  frequently  beside  a 
modest  and  diligent  youth,  considerably  his  senior,  and 
obviously  of  very  humble  condition.  Their  acquaintance 
soon  became  rather  intimate,  and  he  occasionally  made 
this  new  friend  the  companion  of  his  country  walks,  but 
i  s  to  his  parentage  and  place  of  residence  he  always  pre 
served  total  silence.  One  day  towards  the  end  of  the 
session,  as  Scott  was  returning  to  Edinburgh  from  a  soli 
tary  ramble,  his  eye  was  arrested  by  a  singularly  vener* 

*  Mr.  Ainslie  died  at  Edinburgh,  llth  April  1838,  in  his  73d  year. 


DUGALD  STEWART'S  CLASS.  20 

able  Bluegown,  a  beggar  of  the  Edie  Ochiltiee  order, 
who  stood  propped  on  his  stick,  with  his  hat  in  his  hand, 
but  silent  and  motionless,  at  one  of  the  outskirts  of  the 
city.  Scott  gave  the  old  man  what  trifle  he  had  in  his 
pocket,  and  passed  on  his  way.  Two  or  three  times 
afterwards  the  same  thing  happened,  and  he  had  begun 
to  consider  the  Bluegown  as  one  who  had  established  a 
claim  on  his  bounty :  when  one  day  he  fell  in  with  him 
as  he  was  walking  with  his  humble  student.  Observing 
some  confusion  in  his  companion's  manner  as  he  saluted 
his  pensioner,  and  bestowed  the  usual  benefaction,  he 
could  not  help  saying,  after  they  had  proceeded  a  few 
yards  further,  "  Do  you  know  anything  to  the  old  man's 
discredit  ?  "  Upon  which  the  youth  burst  into  tears,  and 
cried,  "  0  no,  sir,  God  forbid  !  —  but  I  am  a  poor  wretch 
to  be  ashamed  to  speak  to  him  —  he  is  my  own  father. 
He  has  enough  laid  by  to  serve  for  his  own  old  days,  but 
he  stands  bleaching  his  head  in  the  wind,  that  he  may  get 
the  means  of  paying  for  my  education."  Compassion 
ating  the  young  man's  situation,  Scott  soothed  his  weak 
ness,  and  kept  his  secret,  but  by  no  means  broke  off  the 
acquaintance.  Some  months  had  elapsed  before  he  again 
met  the  Bluegown  —  it  was  in  a  retired  place,  and  the 
old  man  begged  to  speak  a  word  with  him.  u  I  find,  sir," 
he  said,  "  that  you  have  been  very  kind  to  my  Willie- 
He  had  often  spoke  of  it  before  I  saw  you  together. 
Will  you  pardon  such  a  liberty,  and  give  me  the  honoui 
and  pleastire  of  seeing  you  under  my  poor  roof?  To 
morrow  is  Saturday  ;  will  you  come  at  two  o'clock  ?  Wil 
lie  has  not  been  very  well,  and  it  would  do  him  meikle 
good  to  see  your  face."  His  curiosity,  besides  better 
feelings,  was  touched,  and  he  accepted  this  strange  in 
vitation.  The  appointed  hour  found  him  within  sighf 


206  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  a  sequestered  little  cottage,  near  St.  Leonard's  —  the 
hamlet  where  he  has  placed  the  residence  of  his  David 
Deans.  His  fellow-student,  pale  and  emaciated  from  re 
cent  sickness,  was  seated  on  a  stone  bench  by  the  door, 
looking  out  for  his  coming,  and  introduced  him  into  a  not 
untidy  cabin,  where  the  old  man,  divested  of  his  profes 
sional  garb,  was  directing  the  last  vibrations  of  a  leg  of 
mutton  that  hung  by  a  hempen  cord  before  the  fire.  The 
mutton  was  excellent  —  so  were  the  potatoes  and  whis 
key  ;  and  Scott  returned  home  from  an  entertaining  con 
versation,  in  which,  besides  telling  many  queer  stories  of 
his  own  life  —  and  he  had  seen  service  in  his  youth  — 
the  old  man  more  than  once  used  an  expression,  which 
was  long  afterwards  put  into  the  mouth  of  Dominie 
Sampson's  mother :  —  "  Please  God,  I  may  live  to  see  my 
bairn  wag  his  head  in  a  pulpit  yet." 

Walter  could  not  help  telling  all  this  the  same  night  to 
his  mother,  and  added,  that  he  would  fain  see  his  poor 
friend  obtain  a  tutor's  place  in  some  gentleman's  family. 
"  Dinna  speak  to  your  father  about  it,"  said  the  good 
lady ;  "  if  it  had  been  a  shoulder  he  might  have  thought 
less,  but  he  will  say  the  jigot  was  a  sin.  I'll  see  what  I 
can  do."  Mrs.  Scott  made  her  inquiries  in  her  own  way 
among  the  Professors,  and  having  satisfied  herself  as  to 
the  young  man's  character,  applied  to  her  favourite  min 
ister,  Dr.  Erskine,  whose  influence  soon  procured  such  a 
situation  as  had  been  suggested  for  him,  in  the  north  of 
Scotland.  "  And  thenceforth,"  said  Sir  Waited,  "  I  lost 
sight  of  my  friend  —  bufc  let  us  hope  he  made  out  his 
curriculum  at  Aberdeen,  and  is  now  wagging  his  head 
where  the  fine  old  carle  wished  to  see  him."  * 

*  The  reader  will  find  a  story  not  unlike  this  in  the  Introduction  t* 
the  "  Antiquary,"  1830.  When  I  first  read  that  note,  I  asked  him  why 


THE    SPECULATIVE    SOCIETY.  207 

On  the  4th  January  1791,  Scott  was  admitted  a  mem 
ber  of  The  Speculative  Society,  where  it  had,  long  before, 
been  the  custom  of  those  about  to  be  called  to  the  Bar, 
and  those  who  after  assuming  the  gown  were  left  in  pos 
session  of  leisure  by  the  solicitors,  to  train  or  exercise 
themselves  in  the  arts  of  elocution  and  debate.  Fro 
time  to  time  each  member  produces  an  essay,  and  hia 
treatment  of  his  subject  is  then  discussed  by  the  conclave. 
Scott's  essays  were,  for  November  1791,  "On  the  Origin 
of  the  Feudal  System  ; "  for  the  14th  February  1792, 
"  On  the  Authenticity  of  Ossian's  Poems  ; "  and  on  the 
llth  December  of  the  same  year,  he  read  one  "On  the 
Origin  of  the  Scandinavian  Mythology."  The  selection 
of  these  subjects  shows  the  course  of  his  private  studies 
and  predilections ;  but  he  appears,  from  the  minutes,  to 
have  taken  his  fair  share  in  the  ordinary  debates  of  the 
Society,  —  and  spoke,  in  the  spring  of  1791,  on  these 
questions,  which  all  belong  to  the  established  text-book 
for  juvenile  speculation  in  Edinburgh  :  —  "  Ought  any 
permanent  support  to  be  provided  for  the  poor  ? " 
"  Ought  there  to  be  an  established  religion  ?  "  "  Is  at 
tainder  and  corruption  of  blood  ever  a  proper  punish 
ment  ?  "  "  Ought  the  public  expenses  to  be  defrayed  by 
levying  the  amount  directly  upon  the  people,  or  is  it 
expedient  to  contract  national  debt  for  that  purpose?" 
"  Was  the  execution  of  Charles  I.  justifiable  ?  "  "  Should 
the  slave-trade  be  abolished  ?  "  In  the  next  session,  pre 
vious  to  his  call  to  the  Bar,  he  spoke  in  the  debates  of 
which  these  were  the  theses :  —  u  Has  the  belief  in  a 

Ae  had  altered  so  many  circumstances  from  the  usual  oral  edition  of 
his  anecdote.  "Nay,"  said  he,  "both  stories  maybe  true,  and  why 
should  I  be  always  lugging  in  myself,  when  what  happened  to  another 
«>f  our  class  would  serve  equally  well  for  the  purpose  I  had  in  view? ' 
..  regretted  the  kg  of  mutton. 


208  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

future  state  been  of  advantage  to  mankind,  or  is  it  ever 
likely  to  be  so  ? "  "  Is  it  for  the  interest  of  Britain  to 
maintain  what  is  called  the  balance  of  Europe  ? "  — 
and  again  on  the  eternal  question  as  to  the  fate  of 
King  Charles  I.,  which,  by  the  way,  was  thus  set  up  for 
re-discussion  on  a  motion  by  Walter  Scott. 

He  took,  for  several  winters,  an  ardent  interest  in  this 
society.  Very  soon  after  his  admission  (18th  January 
1791),  he  was  elected  their  librarian  :  and  in  the  Novem 
ber  following,  he  became  also  their  secretary  and  treas 
urer  ;  all  which  appointments  indicate  the  reliance  placed 
on  his  careful  habits  of  business,  the  fruit  of  his  chamber 
education.  The  minutes  kept  in  his  handwriting  attest 
the  strict  regularity  of  his  attention  to  the  small  affairs 
literary  and  financial,  of  the  club ;  but  they  show  also, 
as  do  all  his  early  letters,  a  strange  carelessness  in  spell- 
ing.  His  constant  good  temper  softened  the  asperities 
of  debate;  while  his  multifarious  lore,  and  the  quaint 
humour  with  which  he  enlivened  its  display,  made  him 
more  a  favourite  as  a  speaker  than  some  whose  powers 
of  rhetoric  were  far  above  his. 

Lord  Jeffrey  remembers  being  struck,  the  first  night 
he  spent  at  the  Speculative,  with  the  singular  appearance 
of  the  secretary,  who  sat  gravely  at  the  bottom  of  the 
table  in  a  huge  woollen  night-cap  ;  and  when  the  presi 
dent  took  the  chair,  pleaded  a  bad  toothache  as  his  apol 
ogy  for  coming  into  that  worshipful  assembly  in  such  a 
"  portentous  machine."  He  read  that  night  an  essay  on 
ballads,  which  so  much  interested  the  new  member,  that 
he  requested  to  be  introduced  to  him.  Mr.  Jeffrey  called 
on  him  next  evening,  and  found  him  "  in  a  small  den,  on 
the  sunk  floor  of  his  father's  house  in  George's  Square, 
surrounded  with  dingy  books,"  from  which  they  ad 


BROUGHTON'S  SAUCER.  209 

journed  to  a  tavern,  and  supped  together.  Such  was 
the  commencement  of  an  acquaintance,  which  by  degrees 
ripened  into  friezidship,  between  the  two  most  distin 
guished  men  of  letters  whom  Edinburgh  produced  in 
their  time.  I  may  add  here  the  description  of  that  early 
ten,  with  which  I  am  favoured  by  a  lady  of  Scott's  fam- 
.ly :  —  "  Walter  had  soon  begun  to  collect  out-of-the-way 
things  of  all  sorts.  He  had  more  books  than  shelves  ;  a 
small  painted  cabinet,  with  Scotch  and  Roman  coins  in 
it,  and  so  forth.  A  claymore  and  Lochaber  axe,  given 
him  by  old  Invernahyle,  mounted  guard  on  a  little  print 
of  Prince  Charlie ;  and  Broughton's  Saucer  was  hooked 
up  against  the  wall  below  it."  Such  was  the  germ  of 
the  magnificent  library  and  museum  of  Abbotsford  ;  and 
such  were  the  "  new  realms "  in  which  he,  on  taking 
possession,  had  arranged  his  little  paraphernalia  about 
him  "  with  all  the  feelings  of  novelty  and  liberty." 
Since  those  days,  the  habits  of  life  in  Edinburgh,  as  else 
where,  have  undergone  many  changes  :  and  the  "  con 
venient  parlour,"  in  which  Scott  first  showed  Jeffrey 
his  collections  of  minstrelsy,  is  now,  in  all  probability, 
thought  hardly  good  enough  for  a  menial's  sleeping 
room. 

But  I  have  forgotten  to  explain  Broughton's  Saucer. 
We  read  of  Mr.  Saunders  Fairford,  that  though  "  an 
elder  of  the  kirk,  and  of  course  zealous  for  King  George 
nd  the  Government,"  yet,  having  "many  clients  and 
connexions  of  business  among  families  of  opposite  polit 
ical  tenets,  he  was  particularly  cautious  to  use  all  the 
conventional  phrases  which  the  civility  of  the  time  had 
devised  as  an  admissible  mode  of  language  betwixt  the 
two  parties :  Thus  he  spoke  sometimes  of  the  Cheva 
lier,  but  never  either  of  the  Prince,  which  would  hav«? 
VOL.  i,  14 


210  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

been  sacrificing  his  own  principles,  or  of  the  Pretender, 
which  would  have  been  offensive  to  those  of  others : 
Again,  he  usually  designated  the  Rebellion  as  the  affair 
of  1745,  and  spoke  of  any  one  engaged  in  it  as  a  person 
who  had  been  out  at  a  certain  period  —  so  that,  on  the 
whole,  he  was  much  liked  and  respected  on  all  sides,"  * 
All  this  was  true  of  Mr.  Walter  Scott,  W.  S. ;  but  I 
have  often  heard  his  son  tell  an  anecdote  of  him,  which 
he  dwelt  on  with  particular  satisfaction,  as  illustrative  of 
the  man,  and  of  the  difficult  time  through  which  he  had 
lived. 

Mrs,  Scott's  curiosity  was  strongly  excited  one  au 
tumn  by  the  regular  appearance,  at  a  certain  hour  every 
evening,  of  a  sedan  chair,  to  deposit  a  person  carefully 
muffled  up  in  a  mantle,  who  was  immediately  ushered 
into  her  husband's  private  room,  and  commonly  remained 
with  him  there  until  long  after  the  usual  bed-time  of  this 
orderly  family.  Mr.  Scott  answered  her  repeated  inqui 
ries  with  a  vagueness  which  irritated  the  lady's  feelings 
more  and  more ;  until,  at  last,  she  could  bear  the  thing 
no  longer ;  but  one  evening,  just  as  she  heard  the  bell 
ring  as  for  the  stranger's  chair  to  carry  him  off,  she  made 
her  appearance  within  the  forbidden  parlour  with  a  sal 
ver  in  her  hand,  observing,  that  she  thought  the  gentle 
men  had  sat  so  long,  they  would  be  the  better  of  a  dish 
of  tea,  and  had  ventured  accordingly  to  bring  some  for 
their  acceptance.  The  stranger,  a  person  of  distinguished 
appearance,  and  richly  dressed,  bowed  to  the  lady,  and 
accepted  a  cup  ;  but  her  husband  knit  his  brows,  and 
refused  very  coldly  to  partake  the  refreshment.  A  mo 
ment  afterwards  the  visitor  withdrew  —  and  Mr.  Scott 
lifting  up  the  window-sash,  took  the  cup,  which  he  had 
*  Redgauntlet,  vol.  i, 


BROUGHTON'S  SAUCER.  211 

left  empty  on  the  table,  and  tossed  it  out  upon  the  pave 
ment.  The  lady  exclaimed  for  her  china,  but  was  put  to 
silence  by  her  husband's  saying,  "  I  can  forgive  your 
little  curiosity,  madam,  but  you  must  pay  the  penalty.  I 
may  admit  into  my  house,  on  a  piece  of  business,  persons 
wholly  unworthy  to  be  treated  as  guests  by  my  wife. 
Neither  lip  of  me  nor  of  mine  comes  after  Mr.  Murray 
of  BroughtonV 

This  was  the  unhappy  man  who,  after  attending 
Prince  Charles  Stuart  as  his  secretary  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  his  expedition,  condescended  to  redeem 
his  own  life  and  fortune  by  bearing  evidence  against  the 
noblest  of  his  late  master's  adherents,  when 

"  Pitied  by  gentle  hearts  Kilmarnock  died — 
The  brave,  Balmerino,  were  on  thy  side." 

When  confronted  with  Sir  John  Douglas  of  Kelhead 
(ancestor  of  the  Marquess  of  Queensberry),  before  the 
Privy  Council  in  St.  James's,  the  prisoner  was  asked, 
"  Do  you  know  this  witness  ? "  "  Not  I,"  answered 
Douglas ;  "  I  once  knew  a  person  who  bore  the  designa 
tion  of  Murray  of  Broughton  —  but  that  was  a  gentle 
man  and  a  man  of  honour,  and  one  that  could  hold  up 
his  head!" 

The  saucer  belonging  to  Broughton's  tea-cup  had  been 
preserved;  and  Walter,  at  a  very  early  period,  made 
prize  of  it.  One  can  fancy  young  Alan  Fairford  point 
ing  significantly  to  the  relic,  when  Mr.  Saunders  was 
vouchsafing  him  one  of  his  customary  lectures  about 
listening  with  unseemly  sympathy  to  "  the  blawing, 
bleezing  stories  which  the  Hieland  gentlemen  told  of 
those  troublous  times.'*  * 

*  Redgauntlet,  vol  i. 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  following  letter  is  the  only  one  of  the  autumn  of 
1791  that  has  reached  my  hands.  It  must  be  read  with 
particular  interest  for  its  account  of  Scott's  first  visit  to 
Flodden  field,  destined  to  be  celebrated  seventeen  years 
afterwards  in  the  very  noblest  specimen  of  his  num 
bers  :  — 

"  To  William  Clerk,  Esq.  Prince's  Street,  Edinburgh. 

"  Northumberland,  26th  Aug.  1791. 

"  Dear  Clerk,  —  Behold  a  letter  from  the  mountains ;  for  1 
am  very  snugly  settled  here,  in  a  farmer's  house,  about  six  miles 
from  Wooler,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Cheviot  hills,  in  one 
of  the  wildest  and  most  romantic  situations  which  your  imag 
ination,  fertile  upon  the  subject  of  cottages,  ever  suggested. 
And  what  the  deuce  are  you  about  there  ?  methinks  I  hear 
you  say.  Why,  sir,  of  all  things  in  the  world  —  drinking 
goat's  whey  —  not  that  I  stand  in  the  least  need  of  it,  but  my 
uncle  having  a  slight  cold,  and  being  a  little  tired  of  home, 
asked  me  last  Sunday  evening  if  I  would  like  to  go  with  him 
to  Wooler,  and  I  answering  in  the  affirmative,  next  morning's 
sun  beheld  us  on  our  journey,  through  a  pass  in  the  Cheviots, 
upon  the  back  of  two  special  nags,  and  man  Thomas  behind 
with  a  portmanteau,  and  two  fishing-rods  fastened  across  his 
back,  much  in  the  style  of  St.  Andrew's  Cross.  Upon  reach 
ing  Wooler  we  found  the  accommodations  so  bad  that  we  were 
forced  to  use  some  interest  to  get  lodgings  here,  where  we  are 
most  delightfully  appointed  indeed.  To  add  to  my  satisfac 
tion,  we  are  amidst  places  renowned  by  the  feats  of  former 
days  ;  each  hill  is  crowned  with  a  tower,  or  camp,  or  cairn, 
and  in  no  situation  can  you  be  near  more  fields  of  battle  : 
Flodden,  Otterburn,  Chevy  Chase,  Ford  Castle,  Chillingham 
Castle,  Copland  Castle,  and  many  another  scene  of  blood,  are 
within  the  compass  of  a  forenoon's  ride.  Out  of  the  brooks 
with  which  these  hills  are  intersected,  we  pull  trouts  of  half  a 
yard  in  length,  as  fast  as  we  did  the  perches  from  the  pond  at 
Pennycuick,  and  we  are  in  the  very  country  of  muirfowl. 


LETTER    ON    FLODDEN    FIELD.  213 

"  Often  as  I  have  wished  for  your  company,  1  never  did  it 
more  earnestly  than  when  I  rode  over  Flodden  Edge.  I  know 
your  taste  for  these  things,  and  could  have  undertaken  to  de 
monstrate,  that  never  was  an  affair  more  completely  bungled 
than  that  day's  work  was.  Suppose  one  army  posted  upon 
the  face  of  a  hill,  and  secured  by  high  grounds  projecting  on 
each  flank,  with  the  river  Till  in  front,  a  deep  and  still  river, 
winding  through  a  very  extensive  valley  called  Milfield  Plain, 
and  the  only  passage  over  it  by  a  narrow  bridge,  which  the 
Scots  artillery,  from  the  hill,  could  in  a  moment  have  demol 
ished.  Add,  that  the  English  must  have  hazarded  a  battle 
while  their  troops,  which  were  tumultuously  levied,  remained 
together ;  and  that  the  Scots,  behind  whom  the  country  was 
open  to  Scotland,  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  wait  for  the  attack 
as  they  were  posted.  Yet  did  two  thirds  of  the  army,  actu 
ated  by  the  perfervidum  ingenium  Scotorum,  rush  down  and 
give  an  opportunity  to  Stanley  to  occupy  the  ground  they  had 
quitted,  by  coming  over  the  shoulder  of  the  hill,  while  the 
other  third,  under  Lord  Home,  kept  their  ground,  and  having 
seen  their  king  and  about  10,000  of  their  countrymen  cut  to 
pieces,  retired  into  Scotland  without  loss.  For  the  reason  of 
the  bridge  not  being  destroyed  while  the  English  passed,  I 
refer  you  to  Pitscottie,  who  narrates  at  large,  and  to  whom  I 
give  credit  for  a  most  accurate  and  clear  description,  agreeing 
perfectly  with  the  ground. 

"  My  uncle  drinks  the  whey  here,  as  I  do  ever  since  I  un 
derstood  it  was  brought  to  his  bedside  every  morning  at  six, 
by  a  very  pretty  dairy-maid.  So  much  for  my  residence  :  all 
the  day  we  shoot,  fish,  walk  and  ride  ;  dine  and  sup  upon  fish 
struggling  from  the  stream,  and  the  most  delicious  heath-fed 
mutton,  barn-door  fowls,  poys,*  milk-cheese,  &c.,  all  in  perfec 
tion  and  so  much  simplicity  resides  among  these  hills,  that  a 
pen,  which  could  write  at  least,  was  not  to  be  found  about  the 
house,  though  belonging  to  a  considerable  farmer,  till  I  shot 
the  crow  with  whose  quill  I  write  this  epistle.  I  wrote  to 
Irving  before  leaving  Kelso.  Poor  fellow !  I  am  sure  his  sis- 

*  Pies. 


214  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ter's  death  must  have  hurt  him  much ;  though  he  makes  no 
noise  about  feelings,  yet  still  streams  always  run  deepest.  1 
sent  a  message  by  him  to  Edie,*  poor  devil,  adding  my  mite 
of  consolation  to  him  in  his  affliction.  I  pity  poor  .******, 
who  is  more  deserving  of  compassion,  being  his  first  offence. 
Write  soon,  and  as  long  as  the  last ;  you  will  have  Perthshire 
news,  I  suppose,  soon.  Jamie's  adventure  diverted  me  much, 
I  read  it  to  my  uncle,  who  being  long  in  the  India  service,  was 
affronted.  Remember  me  to  James  when  you  write,  and  to 
all  your  family  and  friends  in  general.  I  send  this  to  Kelso  — 
you  may  address  as  usual ;  my  letters  will  be  forwarded  — 
adieu  —  au  revoir,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

With  the  exception  of  this  little  excursion,  Scott  ap 
pears  to  have  been  nailed  to  Edinburgh  during  this  au 
tumn,  by  that  course  of  legal  study,  in  company  with 
Clerk,  on  which  he  dwells  in  his  Memoir  with  more  sat 
isfaction  than  on  any  other  passage  in  his  early  life.  He 
copied  out  twice,  as  the  Fragment  tells  us,  his  notes  of 
those  lectures  of  the  eminent  Scots  Law  professor  (Mr. 
Hume),  which  he  speaks  of  in  such  a  high  strain  of  eu 
logy  ;  and  Mr.  Irving  adds,  that  the  second  copy,  being 
fairly  finished  and  bound  into  volumes,  was  presented  to 
his  father.  The  old  gentleman  was  highly  gratified  with 
this  performance,  not  only  as  a  satisfactory  proof  of  his 
son's  assiduous  attention  to  the  law  professor,  but  inas 
much  as  the  lectures  afforded  himself  "very  pleasant 
reading  for  leisure  hours." 

Mr.  Clerk  assures  me,  that  nothing  could  be  more 
exact  (excepting  as  to  a  few  petty  circumstances  intro 
duced  for  obvious  reasons)  than  the  resemblance  of  the 
Mr.  Saunders  Fairford  of  Redgauntlet  to  his  friend's 
father :  —  "  He  was  a  man  of  business  of  the  old  school 
*  Sir  A.  Fergusson. 


SCOTS    LAW    LECTURES.  215 

moderate  in  his  charges,  economical,  and  even  niggardly 
in  his  expenditure  ;  strictly  honest  in  conducting  his  own 
affairs  and  those  of  his  clients ;  but  taught  by  long  expe 
rience  to  be  wary  and  suspicious  in  observing  the  mo 
tions  of  others.  Punctual  as  the  clock  of  St.  Giles 
tolled  nine  "  (the  hour  at  which  the  Court  of  Session 
meets),  "  the  dapper  form  of  the  hale  old  gentleman  was 
seen  at  the  threshold  of  the  court  hall,  or  at  farthest,  at 
the  head  of  the  Back  Stairs  "  (the  most  convenient  ac 
cess  to  the  Parliament  House  from  George's  Square), 
"  trimly  dressed  in  a  complete  suit  of  snuff-coloured 
brown,  with  stockings  of  silk  or  woollen,  as  suited  the 
weather ;  a  bob  wig  and  a  small  cocked  hat ;  shoes 
blacked  as  Warren  would  have  blacked  them ;  silver 
shoe-buckles,  and  a  gold  stock-buckle.  His  manners 
corresponded  with  his  attire,  for  they  were  scrupulously 
civil,  and  not  a  little  formal  ....  On  the  whole,  he 
was  a  man  much  liked  and  respected,  though  his  friends 
would  not  have  been  sorry  if  he  had  given  a  dinner  more 
frequently,  as  his  little  cellar  contained  some  choice  old 
wine,  of  which,  on  such  rare,  occasions,  he  was  no  nig 
gard.  The  whole  pleasure  of  this  good  old-fashioned 
man  of  method,  besides  that  which  he  really  felt  in  the 
discharge  of  his  own  daily  business,  was  the  hope  to  see 
his  son  attain  what  in  the  father's  eyes  was  the  proudest 
of  all  distinctions  —  the  rank  and  fame  of  a  well-em 
ployed  lawyer.  Every  profession  has  its  peculiar  hon 
ours,  and  his  mind  was  constructed  upon  so  limited  and 
exclusive  a  plan,  that  he  valued  nothing  save  the  objects 
ot  ambition  which  his  own  presented.  He  would  have 
shuddered  at  his  son's  acquiring  the  renown  of  a  hero, 
and  laughed  with  scorn  at  the  equally  barren  laurels  of 
literature ;  it  was  by  the  path  of  the  Law  alone  that  he 


El 6  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

was  desirous  to  see  him  rise  to  eminence ;  and  the  prob 
abilities  of  success  or  disappointment,  were  the  thoughts 
of  his  father  by  day,  and  his  dream  by  night."  * 

It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  original  of  this  portrait;  writ 
ing  to  one  of  his  friends,  about  the  end  of  June  1792  — 
"  I  have  the  pleasure  to  tell  you  that  my  son  has  passed 
his  private  Scots-Law  examinations  with  good  approba 
tion —  a  great  relief  to  my  mind,  especially  as  worthy 
Mr.  Pest  t  told  me  in  my  ear,  there  was  no  fear  of  the 
*  callant,'  as  he  familiarly  called  him,  which  gives  me 
great  heart.  His  public  trials,  which  are  nothing  in  com 
parison,  save  a  mere  form,  are  tc  take  place,  by  order  of 
the  Honourable  Dean  of  Faculty,  j  on  Wednesday  first, 
and  on  Friday  he  puts  on  the  gown,  and  gives  a  bit 
chack  of  dinner  to  his  friends  and  acquaintances,  as  is 
the  custom.  Your  company  will  be  wished  for  there  by 
more  than  him.  —  P.  S.  His  thesis  is,  on  the  title,  '  De 
periculo  et  commodo  rei  venditce,'  and  is  a  very  pretty 
piece  of  Latinity."  § 

And  all  things  passed  in  due  order,  even  as  they  are 
figured.  The  real  Darsie  was  present  at  the  real  Alan 
Fairford's  "bit  chack  of  dinner,"  and  the  old  Clerk  of 
the  Signet  was  very  joyous  on  the  occasion.  Scott's 
thesis  was,  in  fact,  on  the  Title  of  the  Pandects,  Concern 
ing  the  disposal  of  the  dead  bodies  of  Criminals.  It  was 
dedicated,  I  doubt  not  by  the  careful  father's  advice,  to 
his  friend  and  neighbour  in  George's  Square,  the  coarsely 

*  Redgauntlet,  vol.  i. 

f  It  has  been  suggested  that  Pest  is  a  misprint  for  Peat.  Taere  was 
an  elderly  practitioner  of  the  latter  name,  with  whom  Mr.  Fairford  must 
have  been  well  acquainted  — 1839. 

J  The  situation  of  Dean  of  Faculty  was  filled  in  1792  by  the  Hon 
ourable  Henry  Erskine,  of  witty  and  benevolent  memory. 

§  Itedgauntlet,  vol.  i. 


CALL    TO    THE    BAR.  217 

humorous,  but  acute  and  able,  and  still  well-remembered, 
Macqueen  of  Braxfield,  then  Lord  Justice-Clerk  (or 
President  of  the  Supreme  Criminal  Court)  of  Scotland.* 
I  have  often  heard  both  Alan  and  Darsie  laugh  over 
their  reminiscences  of  the  important  day  when  they  "  put 
on  the  gown."  After  the  ceremony  was  completed,  and 
they  had  mingled  for  some  time  with  the  crowd  of  barris 
ters  in  the  Outer  Court,  Scott  said  to  his  comrade,  mimick 
ing  the  air  and  tone  of  a  Highland  lass  waiting  at  the 
Cross  of  Edinburgh  to  be  hired  for  the  harvest  work  — 
"  We've  stood  here  an  hour  by  the  Tron,  hinny,  and  de'il 
a  ane  has  speered  our  price."  Some  friendly  solicitor, 
however,  gave  him  a  guinea  fee  before  the  Court  rose ; 
and  as  they  walked  down  the  High  Street  together,  he 
said  to  Mr.  Clerk,  in  passing  a  hosier's  shop  —  "  This  is 
a  sort  of  a  wedding-day,  Willie  ;  I  think  I  must  go  in 
and  buy  me  a  new  night-cap."  He  did  so  accordingly ; 
perhaps  this  was  Lord  Jeffrey's  "portentous  machine." 
His  first  fee  of  any  consequence,  however,  was  expended 
on  a  silver  taper-stand  for  his  mother,  which  the  old  lady 
used  to  point  to  with  great  satisfaction,  as  it  stood  on  her 
chimney-piece  five-and-twenty  years  afterwards. 

*  An  eminent  annotator  observes  on  this  passage:  — "  The  praise  of 
Lord  Braxfield' s  capacity  and  acquirement  is  perhaps  rather  too  slight. 
He  was  a  very  good  lawyer,  and  a  man  of  extraordinary  sagacity,  and 
fci  quickness  and  sureness  of  apprehension  resembled  Lord  Kenyon,  ae 
ireN  as  in  his  ready  use  of  his  profound  knowledge  of  law."  — 1839. 


218  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

First  Expedition  into  Liddesdale  —  Study  of  German  —  Polit* 
cal  Trials,  fyc.  —  Specimen  of  Law  Papers  —  Burger's  Lenori 
translated — Disappointment  in  Love. 

1792-1796. 

SCOTT  was  called  to  the  Bar  only  the  day  before  the 
closing  of  the  session,  and  he  appears  to  have  almost  im 
mediately  escaped  to  the  country.  On  the  2d  of  August 
I  find  his  father  writing,  —  "I  have  sent  the  copies  of 
your  thesis  as  desired  ;  "  and  on  the  15th  he  addressed  to 
him  at  Rosebank  a  letter,  in  which  there  is  this  para 
graph,  an  undoubted  autograph  of  Mr.  Saunders  Fair- 
ford,  anno  cetatis  sixty-three  :  — 

"  Dear  Walter,  —  ....  I  am  glad  that  your  expedition  to 
the  west  proved  agreeable.  You  do  well  to  warn  your  mother 
against  Ashestiel.  Although  I  said  little,  yet  I  never  thought 
that  road  could  be  agreeable  ;  besides,  it  is  taking  too  wide  a 
circle.  Lord  Justice-Clerk  is  in  town  attending  the  Bills.*  He 
called  here  yesterday,  and  inquired  very  particularly  for  you. 
I  told  him  where  you  was,  and  he  expects  to  see  you  at  Jed" 
burgh  upon  the  21st.  He  is  to  be  at  Mellerstain  f  on  the  20th, 

*  The  Judges  then  attended  in  Edinburgh  in  rotation  during  the 
intervals  of  term,  to  take  care  of  various  sorts  of  business  which  could 
not  brook  delay,  bills  of  injunction,  &c. 

f  The  beautiful  seat  of  the  Baillies  of  Jerviswood,  in  Berwickshire 
»  few  miles  below  Dryburgh. 


LETTER  FROM  HIS  FATHER.  219 

and  will  be  there  all  night.  His  Lordship  said,  in  a  very  pleas 
ant  manner,  that  something  might  cast  up  at  Jedburgh  to 
give  you  an  opportunity  of  appearing,  and  that  he  would  insist 
upon  it,  and  that  in  future  he  meant  to  give  you  a  share  of  the 
criminal  business  in  this  Court,  —  all  which  is  very  kind.  I  told 
his  Lordship  that  I  had  dissuaded  you  from  appearing  at  Jed- 
burgh,  but  he  said  I  was  wrong  in  doing  so,  and  I  therefore 
leave  the  matter  to  you  and  him.  /  think  it  is  probable  he  will 
breakfast  with  Sir  H.  H.  MacDougall  on  the  2lst,  on  his  way 
to  Jedburgh."  *  *  * 

This  last  quiet  hint,  that  the  young  lawyer  might  as 
well  be  at  Makerstoun  (the  seat  of  a  relation)  when  His 
Lordship  breakfasted  there,  and  of  course  swell  the  train 
of  His  Lordship's  little  procession  into  the  county  town, 
seems  delightfully  characteristic.  I  think  I  hear  Sir 
Walter  himself  lecturing  me,  when  in  the  same  sort  of 
situation,  thirty  years  afterwards.  He  declined,  as  one 
of  the  following  letters  will  show,  the  opportunity  of 
making  his  first  appearance  on  this  occasion  at  Jedburgh. 
He  was  present,  indeed,  at  the  Court  during  the  assizes, 
but  "  durst  not  venture."  His  accounts  to  "William  Clerk 
of  his  vacation  amusements,  and  more  particularly  of  his 
second  excursion  to  Northumberland,  will,  I  am  sure,  in 
terest  every  reader :  — 

To  William  Clerk,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Prince's  Street,  Edinburgh. 

"  Eosebank,  10th  Sept.  1792. 

''  Dear  William, —  Taking  the  advantage  of  a  very  indiffer 
ent  day,  which  is  likely  to  float  away  a  good  deal  of  corn,  and 
of  my  father's  leaving  this  place,  who  will  take  charge  of  thig 
scroll,  I  sit  down  to  answer  your  favour.  I  find  you  have 
been,  like  myself,  taking  advantage  of  the  good  weather  to 
look  around  you  a  little,  and  congratulate  you  upon  the  pleas- 


220  LIFE  .OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ure  you  must  have  received  from  your  jaunt  with  Mr.  Rus 
sell.*  I  apprehend,  though  you  are  silent  on  the  subject,  that 
your  conversation  was  enlivened  by  many  curious  disquisition? 
of  the  nature  of  undulating  exhalations.  I  should. have  bowed 
before  the  venerable  grove  of  oaks  at  Hamilton  with  as  much 
respect  as  if  I  had  been  a  Druid  about  to  gather  the  sacred 
mistletoe.  I  should  hardly  have  suspected  your  host  Sir  Wil 
liam  f  of  having  been  the  occasion  of  the  scandal  brought  upon 
the  library  and  Mr.  Gibb  J  by  the  introduction  of  the  Cabinet 
des  Fees,  of  which  I  have  a  volume  or  two  here.  I  am  happy 
to  think  there  is  an  admirer  of  snug  things  in  the  administra 
tion  of  the  library.  Poor  Linton'sf  misfortune,  though  I 
cannot  say  it  surprises,  yet  heartily  grieves  me.  I  have  no 
doubt  he  will  have  many  advisers  and  animadverters  upon  the 
naughtiness  of  his  ways,  whose  admonitions  will  be  forgot  upon 
the  next  opportunity. 

"  I  am  lounging  about  the  country  here,  to  speak  sincerely, 
as  idle  as  the  day  is  long.  Two  old  companions  of  mine, 
brothers  of  Mr.  Walker  of  Wooden,  having  come  to  this  coun 
try,  we  have  renewed  a  great  intimacy.  As  they  live  directly 
upon  the  opposite  bank  of  the  river,  we  have  signals  agreed 
upon  by  which  we  concert  a  plan  of  operations  for  the  day. 
They  are  both  officers,  and  very  intelligent  young  fellows,  and 
what  is  of  some  consequence,  have  a  brace  of  fine  greyhounds. 
Yesterday  forenoon  we  killed  seven  hares,  so  you  may  see  how 
plenty  the  game  is  with  us.  I  have  turned  a  keen  duck 
shooter,  though  my  success  is  not  very  great ;  and  when  wad- 

*  Mr.  Russell,  surgeon,  afterwards  Professor  of  Clinical  Surgery  at 
Edinburgh. 

t  Sir  William  Miller  (Lord  Glenlee.) 

J  Mr.  Gibb  was  the  Librarian  of  the  Faculty  of  Advocates. 

§  Clerk,  Abercromby,  Scott,  Fergusson,  and  others,  had  occasional 
boating  excursions  from  Leith  to  Inchcolm,  Inchkeith,  &c.  On  one  of 
these  their  boat  was  neared  by  a  Newhaven  one  —  Fergusson,  at  the 
moment,  was  standing  up  talking ;  one  of  the  Newhaven  fishermen 
taking  him  for  a  brother  of  his  own  craft,  bawled  out,  "  Linton,  you 
fang  bitch,  is  that  you?  "  From  that  day  Adam  Fergusson's  cogno 
men  among  his  friends  of  The  Club  was  LINTON. 


LETTER    *Rv.5I    ROSEBANK.  221 

hig  through  the  mosses  upon  this  errand,  accoutred  with  the 
long  gun,  a  jacket,  musquito  trowsers,  and  a  rough  cap,  I 
might  well  pass  for  one  of  my  redoubted  moss-trooper  progeni 
tors,  Walter  Fire-the-Braes,*  or  rather  Willie  wi'  the  Bolt- 
Foot. 

"  For  about^doors'  amusement,  I  have  constructed  a  seat  in 
a  large  tree,  which  spreads  its  branches  horizontally  over  the 
Tweed.  This  is  a  favourite  situation  of  mine  for  reading, 
especially  in  a  day  like  this,  when  the  west  wind  rocks  the 
branches  on  which  I  am  perched,  and  the  river  rolls  its  waves 
below  me  of  a  turbid  blood  colour.  I  have,  moreover,  cut  an 
embrasure,  through  which  I  can  fire  upon  the  gulls,  herons, 
and  cormorants,  as  they  fly  screaming  past  my  nest.  To  crown 
the  whole,  I  have  carved  an  inscription  upon  it  in  the  ancient 
Roman  taste.  I  believe  I  shall  hardly  return  into  town,  bar 
ring  accidents,  sooner  than  the  middle  of  next  month,  perhaps 
not  till  November.  Next  week,  weather  permitting,  is  destined 
for  a  Northumberland  expedition,  in  which  I  shall  visit  some 
parts  of  that  country  which  I  have  not  yet  seen,  particularly 
about  Hexham.  Some  days  ago  I  had  nearly  met  with  a 
worse  accident  than  the  tramp  I  took  at  Moorfoot ;  f  for  hav 
ing  bewildered  myself  among  the  Cheviot  hills,  it  was  nearly 
nightfall  before  I  got  to  the  village  of  Hownam,  and  the  passes 
with  which  I  was  acquainted.  You  do  not  speak  of  being  in 
Perthshire  this  season,  though  I  suppose  you  intend  it.  I  sup 
pose  we,  that  is,  nous  autres,  $  are  at  present  completely  dis- 


"  Compliments  to  all  who  are  in  town,  and  best  respects  to 
your  own  family,  both  in  Prince's  Street  and  at  Eldin.  — 
Believe  me  ever  most  sincerely  yours, 

"WALTER    SCOTT." 

*  Walter  Scott  of  Synton  (elder  brother  of  Bolt-Foot,  the  first  Baron 
»f  Harden)  was  thus  designated.  He  greatly  distinguished  himself  iu 
the  battle  of  Melrose,  A.  D.  1526. 

f  This  alludes  to  being  lost  in  a  fishing  excursion. 

J  The  companions  of  The  Club. 


222  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


"  To  William  Clerk,  Esq. 

"  Rosebank,  30th  Sept.  1792. 

•'  Dear  William,  —  I  suppose  this  will  find  you  flourishing 
like  a  green  bay-tree  on  the  mountains  of  Perthshire,  and  in 
full  enjoyment  of  all  the  pleasures  of  the  country.  All  that  J 
envy  you  is  the  noctes  ccenceque  deum,  which,  I  take  it  for 
granted,  you  three  merry  men  will  be  spending  together,  while 
I  am  poring  over  Bartholine  in  the  long  evenings,  solitary 
enough ;  for,  as  for  the  lobsters,  as  you  call  them,  I  am  sep 
arated  from  them  by  the  Tweed,  which  precludes  evening 
meetings,  unless  in  fine  weather  and  full  moons.  I  have  had 
an  expedition  through  Hexham  and  the  higher  parts  of  North 
umberland,  which  would  have  delighted  the  very  cockles  of 
your  heart,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  beautiful  romantic 
appearance  of  the  country,  though  that  would  have  charmed 
you  also,  as  because  you  would  have  seen  more  Roman  inscrip 
tions  built  into  gate-posts,  barns,  &c.,  than  perhaps  are  to  be 
found  in  any  other  part  of  Britain.  These  have  been  all  dug 
up  from  the  neighbouring  Roman  wall,  which  is  still  in  many 
places  very  entire,  and  gives  a  stupendous  idea  of  the  persever 
ance  of  its  founders,  who  carried  such  an  erection  from  sea  to 
sea,  over  rocks,  mountains,  rivers,  and  morasses.  There  are 
several  lakes  among  the  mountains  above  Hexham,  well  worth 
going  many  miles  to  see,  though  their  fame  is  eclipsed  by  their 
neighbourhood  to  those  of  Cumberland.  They  are  surrounded 
by  old  towers  and  castles,  in  situations  the  most  savagely  ro 
mantic  ;  what  would  I  have  given  to  have  been  able  to  take 
effect-pieces  from  some  of  them  !  Upon  the  Tyne,  about  Hex- 
ham,  the  country  has  a  different  aspect,  presenting  much  of 
the  beautiful,  though  less  of  the  sublime.  I  was  particularly 
charmed  with  the  situation  of  Beaufront,  a  house  belonging  to 
a  mad  sort  of  genius,  whom,  I  am  sure,  I  have  told  you  some 
stories  about.  He  used  to  call  himself  the  Noble  Errington, 
but  of  late  has  assumed  the  title  of  Duke  of  Hexham.  Hard 
by  the  town  is  the  field  of  battle  where  the  forces  of  Queen 


LETTER    FROM    ROSEBANK.  223 

Margaret  were  defeated  by  those  of  the  House  of  York,  a  blow 
which  the  Red  Rose  never  recovered  during  the  civil  wars. 
The  spot  where  the  Duke  of  Somerset  and  the  northern 
nobility  of  the  Lancastrian  faction  were  executed  after  the 
battle  is  still  called  Dukesfield.  The  inhabitants  of  this  coun- 
tiy  speak  an  odd  dialect  of  the  Saxon,  approaching  nearly 
that  of  Chaucer,  and  have  retained  some  customs  peculiar  to 
themselves.  They  are  the  descendants  of  the  ancient  Danes, 
chased  into  the  fastnesses  of  Northumberland  by  the  severity 
of  William  the  Conqueror.  Their  ignorance  is  surprising  to  a 
Scotchman.  It  is  common  for  the  traders  in  cattle,  which 
business  is  carried  on  to  a  great  extent,  to  carry  all  letters 
received  in  course  of  trade  to  the  parish  church,  where  the 
clerk  reads  them  aloud  after  service,  and  answers  them  accord 
ing  to  circumstances. 

"We  intended  to  visit  the  lakes  in  Cumberland,  but  our 
jaunt  was  cut  short  by  the  bad  weather.  I  went  to  the  circuit 
at  Jedburgh,  to  make  my  bow  to  Lord  J.  Clerk,  and  might 
have  had  employment,  but  durst  not  venture.  Nine  of  the 
Dunse  rioters  were  condemned  to  banishment,  but  the  ferment 
continues  violent  in  the  Merse.  Kelso  races  afforded  little 
sport  —  Wishaw  *  lost  a  horse  which  cost  him  £500,  and 
foundered  irrecoverably  on  the  course.  At  another  time  I 
shall  quote  George  Buchanan's  adage  of  '  a  fool  and  his 
money,'  but  at  present  labour  under  a  similar  misfortune; 
my  Galloway  having  yesterday  thought  proper  (N.B.,  without 
a  rider)  to  leap  over  a  gate,  and  being  lamed  for  the  present. 
This  is  not  his  first  faux-pas,  for  he  jumped  into  a  water  with 
me  on  his  back  when  in  Northumberland,  to  the  imminent 
danger  of  my  life.  He  is,  therefore,  to  be  sold  (when  re 
covered),  and  another  purchased.  This  accident  has  occasioned 
you  the  trouble  of  reading  so  long  an  epistle,  the  day  being 
Sunday,  and  my  uncle,  the  captain,  busily  engaged  with  your 
father's  naval  tactics,  is  too  seriously  employed  to  be  an  agree- 

*  William  Hamilton  of  Wishaw,  —  who  afterwards  established  his 
claim  to  the  peerage  of  Belhaven. 


224  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCO1T. 

able  companion.  Apropos  (des  bottes)  —  I  am  sincerely  sorry 
to  hear  that  James  is  still  unemployed,  but  have  no  doubt  a 
time  will  come  round  when  his  talents  will  have  an  opportunity 
of  being  displayed  to  his  advantage.  I  have  no  prospect  of 
seeing  my  cliere  adorable  till  winter,  if  then.  As  for  you,  I 
pity  you  not,  seeing  as  how  you  have  so  good  a  succedaneum 
in  M.  G. ;  and,  on  the  contrary,  hope,  not  only  that  Edmon- 
Btone  may  roast  you,  but  that  Cupid  may  again  (as  erst)  fry 
you  on  the  gridiron  of  jealousy  for  your  infidelity.  Compli 
ments  to  our  right  trusty  and  well-beloved  Linton  and  Jean 
Jacques.*  If  you  write,  which,  by  the  way,  I  hardly  have  the 
conscience  to  expect,  direct  to  my  father's  care,  who  will  for 
ward  your  letter.  I  have  quite  given  up  duck-shooting  for  the 
season,  the  birds  being  too  old,  and  the  mosses  too  deep  and 
cold.  I  have  no  reason  to  boast  of  my  experience  or  success 
in  the  sport,  and  for  my  own  part,  should  fire  at  any  distance 
under  eighty  or  even  ninety  paces,  though  above  forty-five  I 
would  reckon  it  a  coup  dese'spere,  and  as  the  bird  is  beyond 
measure  shy,  you  may  be  sure  I  was  not  very  bloody.  Believe 
me,  deferring,  as  usual,  our  dispute  till  another  opportunity, 
always  sincerely  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT. 


"  P.S.  —  I  believe,  if  my  pony  does  not  soon  recover,  that 
misfortune,  with  the  bad  weather,  may  send  me  soon  to 
town." 

It  was  within  a  few  days  after  Scott's  return  from  his 
excursion  to  Hexham,  that,  while  attending  the  Michael 
mas  head-court,  as  an  annual  county-meeting  is  called, 
at  Jedburgh,  he  was  introduced,  by  an  old  companion, 
Charles  Kerr  of  Abbotrule,  to  Mr.  Robert  Shortreed, 
that  gentleman's  near  relation,  who  spent  the  greater 
part  of  his  life  in  the  enjoyment  of  much  respect  as 
Sheriff-substitute  of  Roxburghshire.  Scott  had  been  ex 
pressing  his  wish  to  visit  the  then  wild  and  inaccessible 
*  John  James  Edmonstone. 


LIDDESDALE.  — 1792.  22<J 

district  of  Liddesdale,  particularly  with  a  view  to  exam 
ine  the  ruins  of  the  famous  castle  of  Hermitage,  and  to 
pick  up  some  of  the  ancient  riding  ballads,  said  to  be 
still  preserved  among  the  descendants  of  the  moss-troop 
ers,  who  had  followed  the  banner  of  the  Douglasses, 
when  lords  of  that  grim  and  remote  fastness.  Mr.  Short- 
reed  had  many  connexions  in  Liddesdale,  and  knew  its 
passes  well,  and  he  was  pointed  out  as  the  very  guide  the 
young  advocate  wanted.  They  started,  accordingly,  in 
a  day  or  two  afterwards,  from  Abbotrule ;  and  the  laird 
meant  to  have  been  of  the  party ;  but  "  it  was  well  for 
him,"  said  Shortreed,  "  that  he  changed  his  mind  —  for 
he  could  never  have  done  as  we  did."  * 

During  seven  successive  years  Scott  made  a  raid,  as 
he  called  it,  into  Liddesdale,  with  Mr.  Shortreed  for  his 
guide ;  exploring  every  rivulet  to  its  source,  and  every 
ruined  peel  from  foundation  to  battlement.  At  this  time 
no  wheeled  carriage  had  ever  been  seen  in  the  district  — 
the  first,  indeed,  that  ever  appeared  there  was  a  gig, 
driven  by  Scott  himself  for  a  part  of  his  way,  when  on 
the  last  of  these  seven  excursions.  There  was  no  inn  or 
public-house  of  any  kind  in  the  whole  valley ;  the  trav 
ellers  passed  from  the  shepherd's  hut  to  the  minister's 
manse,  and  again  from  the  cheerful  hospitality  of  the 
manse  to  the  rough  and  jolly  welcome  of  the  homestead ; 
gathering,  wherever  they  went,  songs  and  tunes,  and  oc 
casionally  more  tangible  relics  of  antiquity  —  3ven  such 

*  I  am  obliged  to  Mr.  John  Elliot  Shortreed,  a  son  of  Scott's  early 
friend,  for  some  memoranda  of  his  father's  conversations  on  this  sub 
ject.  These  notes  were  written  in  1824;  and  I  shall  make  several 
quotations  from  them.  I  had,  however,  many  opportunities  of  hearing 
Mr.  Shortreed's  stories  from  his  own  lips,  having  often  been  under  his 
hospitable  roof  in  company  with  Sir  Walter,  who  to  the  last  ahvayi 
was  his  old  friend's  guest  when  business  took  him  to  Jedburgh. 

VOL.  i.  15 


226  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  a  rowth  of  auld  nicknackets  "  as  Burns  ascribes  to  Cap 
tain  Grose.  To  these  rambles  Scott  owed  much  of  the 
materials  of  his  "Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border;" 
and  not  less  of  that  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  living 
manners  of  these  unsophisticated  regions,  which  consti 
tutes  the  chief  charm  of  one  of  the  most  charming  of  his 
prose  works.  But  how  soon  he  had  any  definite  object 
before  him  in  his  researches,  seems  very  doubtful.  "  He 
was  makin'  himsell  a'  the  time,"  said  Mr.  Shortreed ; 
"  but  he  didna  ken  maybe  what  he  was  about  till  years 
had  passed  :  At  first  he  thought  o'  little,  I  dare  say,  but 
the  queerness  and  the  fun." 

"In  those  days,"  says  the  Memorandum  before  me, 
"  advocates  were  not  so  plenty  —  at  least  about  Liddes- 
dale ; "  and  the  worthy  Sheriff-substitute  goes  on  to  de 
scribe  the  sort  of  bustle,  not  unmixed  with  alarm,  pro 
duced  at  the  first  farm-house  they  visited  (Willie  Elliot's 
at  Millburnholm),  when  the  honest  man  was  informed  of 
the  quality  of  one  of  his  guests.  When  they  dismounted, 
accordingly,  he  received  Mr.  Scott  with  great  ceremony, 
and  insisted  upon  himself  leading  his  horse  to  the  stable. 
Shortreed  accompanied  Willie,  however,  and  the  latter, 
after  taking  a  deliberate  peep  at  Scott,  "  out-by  the  edge 
of  the  door-cheek,"  whispered,  "  Weel,  Robin,  I  say,  de'il 
hae  me  if  I's  be  a  bit  feared  for  him  now ;  he's  just  a 
cliield  like  ourselves,  I  think."  Half-a-dozen  dogs  of  all 
degrees  had  already  gathered  round  "  the  advocate,"  and 
his  way  of  returning  their  compliments  had  set  Willie 
Elliot  at  once  at  his  ease. 

According  to  Mr.  Shortreed,  this  good-man  of  Mill 
burnholm  was  the  great  original  of  Dandie  Dinmont. 
As  he  seems  to  have  been  the  first  of  these  upland  sheep- 
farmers  that  Scott  ever  visited,  there  can  be  little  doubt 


LIDDESDALE.  227 

that  he  sat  for  some  parts  of  that  inimitable  portraiture 
and  it  is  certain  that  the  James  Davidson,  who  carried 
the  name  of  Dandie  to  his  grave  with  him,  and  whose 
thoroughbred  deathbed  scene  is  told  in  the  Notes  to  Guy 
Mannering,  was  first  pointed  out  to  Scott  by  Mr.  Short- 
reed  himself,  several  years  after  the  novel  had  established 
the  man's  celebrity  all  over  the  Border  ;  some  accidental 
report  about  his  terriers,  and  their  odd  names,  having 
alone  been  turned  to  account  in  the  original  composition 
of  the  tale.  But  I  have  the  best  reason  to  believe  that 
the  kind  and  manly  character  of  Dandie,  the  gentle  and 
delicious  one  of  his  wife,  and  some  at  least  of  the  most 
picturesque  peculiarities  of  the  menage  at  Charlieshope, 
were  filled  up  from  Scott's  observation,  years  after  this 
period,  of  a  family,  with  one  of  whose  members  he  had, 
through  the  best  part  of  his  life,  a  close  and  affectionate 
connexion.  To  those  who  were  familiar  with  him,  I 
have  perhaps  already  sufficiently  indicated  the  early 
home  of  his  dear  friend,  William  Laidlaw,  among  "  the 
braes  of  Yarrow." 

They  dined  at  Millburnholm,  and  after  having  lingered 
over  Willie  Elliot's  punch-bowl,  until,  in  Mr.  Shortreed's 
phrase,  they  were  "  half-glowrin,"  mounted  their  steeds 
again,  and  proceeded  to  Dr.  Elliot's  at  Cleughhead, 
where  ("for,"  says  my  Memorandum,  "folk  were  na 
very  nice  in  those  days  ")  the  two  travellers  slept  in  one 
and  the  same  bed  —  as,  indeed,  seems  to  have  been  the 
case  with  them  throughout  most  of  their  excursions  in 
this  primitive  district.  This  Dr.  Elliot  had  already  a 
large  MS.  collection  of  the  ballads  Scott  was  in  quest 
of;  and  finding  how  much  his  guest  admired  his  acqui 
sitions,  thenceforth  exerted  himself,  for  several  years, 
frith  redoubled  diligence,  in  seeking  out  the  living  depos- 


8  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

itaries  of  such  lore  among  the  darker  recesses  of  the 
mountains.  "  The  Doctor,"  says  Mr.  Shortreed,  "  would 
have  gane  through  fire  and  water  for  Sir  Walter,  when 
he  ance  kenned  him." 

Next  morning  they  seem  to  have  ridden  a  long  way, 
for  the  express  purpose  of  visiting  one  "  auld  Thomas  a* 
Twizzlehope," — another  Elliot,  I  suppose,  who  was  cele 
brated  for  his  skill  on  the  Border  pipe,  and  in  particular 
for  being  in  possession  of  the  real  lilt  of  Dick  o1  the  Cow. 
Before  starting,  that  is,  at  six  o'clock,  the  ballad-hunters 
had,  "  just  to  lay  the  stomach,  a  devilled  duck  or  twae, 
and  some  London  porter."  Auld  Thomas  found  them, 
nevertheless,  well  disposed  for  "  breakfast "  on  their  ar 
rival  at  Twizzlehope ;  and  this  being  over,  he  delighted 
them  with  one  of  the  most  hideous  and  unearthly  of  all 
the  specimens  of  "riding  music,"  and,  moreover,  with 
considerable  libations  of  whisky-punch,  manufactured  in 
a  certain  wooden  vessel,  resembling  a  very  small  milk- 
pail,  which  he  called  "  Wisdom,"  because  it  "  made " 
only  a  few  spoonfuls  of  spirits  —  though  he  had  the  art 
of  replenishing  it  so  adroitly,  that  it  had  been  celebrated 
for  fifty  years  as  more  fatal  to  sobriety  than  any  bowl  in 
the  parish.  Having  done  due  honour  to  "  Wisdom," 
they  again  mounted,  and  proceeded  over  moss  and  moor 
to  some  other  equally  hospitable  master  of  the  pipe. 
"  Eh  me,"  says  Shortreed,  "  sic  an  endless  fund  o'  hu 
mour  and  drollery  as  he  then  had  wi'  him !  Never  ten 
yards  but  we  were  either  laughing  or  roaring  and  sing 
ing.  Wherever  we  stopped,  how  brawlie  he  suited  him- 
BeF  to  every  body  !  He  aye  did  as  the  lave  did  ;  never 
made  himsel'  the  great  man,  or  took  ony  airs  in  the  com 
pany.  I've  seen  him  in  a'  moods  in  these  jaunts,  grav<j 
and  gay,  daft  and  serious,  sober  and  drunk  —  (this,  how 


LIDDESDALE.  229 

ever,  even  in  our  wildest  rambles,  was  but  rare)  —  but, 
drunk  or  sober,  he  was  aye  the  gentleman.  He  looked 
excessively  heavy  and  stupid  when  he  was  fou,  but  he 
was  never  out  o'  gude-humour." 

On  reaching,  one  evening,  some  Charlieshope  or  other 
(I  forget  the  name)  among  those  wildernesses,  they  found 
a  kindly  reception  as  usual ;  but  to  their  agreeable  sur 
prise,  after  some  days  of  hard  living,  a  measured  and 
orderly  hospitality  as  respected  liquor.  Soon  after  sup 
per,  at  which  a  bottle  of  elderberry  wine  alone  had  been 
produced,  a  young  student  of  divinity,  who  happened  to 
be  in  the  house,  was  called  upon  to  take  the  "  big  ha' 
Bible,"  in  the  good  old  fashion  of  Burns's  Saturday 
Night ;  and  some  progress  had  been  already  made  in  the 
service,  when  the  goodman  of  the  farm,  whose  "  ten 
dency,"  as  Mr.  Mitchell  says,  "  was  soporific,"  scandal 
ized  his  wife  and  the  dominie  by  starting  suddenly  from 
his  knees,  and  rubbing  his  eyes,  with  a  stentorian  excla 
mation  of  "  By ,  here's  the  keg  at  last ! "  and  iu 

tumbled,  as  he  spake  the  word,  a  couple  of  sturdy  herds 
men,  whom,  on  hearing  a  day  before  of  the  advocate's 
approaching  visit,  he  had  despatched  to  a  certain  smug 
gler's  haunt,  at  some  considerable  distance,  in  quest  of  a 
supply  of  run  brandy  from  the  Solway  Frith.  The  pious 
"  exercise  "  of  the  household  was  hopelessly  interrupted. 
With  a  thousand  apologies  for  his  hitherto  shabby  enter 
tainment,  this  jolly  Elliot,  or  Armstrong,  had  the  welcome 
"keg  mounted  on  the  table  without  a  moment's  delay,  and 
gentle  and  simple,  not  forgetting  the  dominie,  continued 
carousing  about  it  until  daylight  streamed  in  upon  the 
party.  Sir  Walter  Scott  seldom  failed,  when  I  saw  him 
in  company  with  his  Liddesdale  companion,  to  mimic 
with  infinite  humour  the  sudden  outburst  of  his  old  host, 


230  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

_     .  ,  * 

on  hearing  the  clatter  of  horses'  feet,  which  he  knew  to 
indicate  the  arrival  of  the  keg  —  the  consternation  of  the 
dame  —  and  the  rueful  despair  with  which  the  young 
clergyman  closed  the  book. 

•r-  "  It  was  in  that  same  season,  I  think,"  says  Mr.  Short- 
reed,  "  that  Sir  Walter  got  from  Dr.  Elliot  the  large  old 
border  war-horn,  which  ye  may  still  see  hanging  in  the 
armoury  at  Abbotsford.  How  great  he  was  when  he  was 
made  master  o'  that!  I  believe  it  had  been  found  in 
Hermitage  Castle  —  and  one  of  the  Doctor's  servants 
had  used  it  many  a  day  as  a  grease-horn  for  his  scythe, 
before  they  discovered  its  history.  When  cleaned  out,  it 
was  never  a  hair  the  worse  —  the  original  chain,  hoop, 
and  mouth-piece  of  steel,  were  all  entire,  just  as  you  now 
see  them.  Sir  Walter  carried  it  home  all  the  way  from 
Liddesdale  to  Jedburgh,  slung  about  his  neck  like  Johnny 
Gilpin's  bottle,  while  I  was  intrusted  with  an  ancient 
bridle-bit,  which  we  had  likewise  picked  up. 

*  The  feint  o'  pride  —  na  pride  had  he  ... 
A  lang  kail-gully  hung  down  by  his  side, 
And  a  great  meikle  nowt-horn  to  rout  on  had  he,' 

and  meikle  and  sair  we  routed  on't,  and  '  hotched  and 
blew,  wi'  micht  and  main.'  O  what  pleasant  days !  And 
then  a'  the  nonsense  we  had  cost  us  naething.  We  never 
put  hand  in  pocket  for  a  week  on  end.  Toll-bars  there 
were  none  —  and  indeed  I  think  our  haill  charges  were  a 
feed  o'  corn  to  our  horses  m  the  gangin'  and  comin'  at 
Kiccartoun  mill." 

It  is  a  pity  that  we  have  no  letters  of  Scott's  describing 
this  first  raid  into  Liddesdale ;  but  as  he  must  have  left 
Kelso  for  Edinburgh  very  soon  after  its  conclusion,  he 
probably  chose  to  be  the  bearer  of  his  own  tidings.  At 
tny  rate,  the  wonder  perhaps  is,  not  that  we  should  hav» 


•NOTE-BOOKS    OF    1792.  231 

BO  few  letters  of  this  period,  as  that  any  have  been  re 
covered.  "  I  ascribe  the  preservation  of  my  little  hand 
ful,"  says  Mr.  Clerk,  '  to  a  sort  of  instinctive  prophetic 
sense  of  his  future  greatness." 

I  have  found,  however,  two  note-books,  inscribed 
"  Walter  Scott,  1792,"  containing  a  variety  of  scrap 
and  hints  which  may  help  us  to  fill  up  our  notion  of  his 
private  studies  during  that  year.  He  appears  to  have 
used  them  indiscriminately.  We  have  now  an  extract 
from  the  author  he  happened  to  be  reading ;  now  a  mem 
orandum  of  something  that  had  struck  him  in  conversa 
tion  ;  a  fragment  of  an  essay  ;  transcripts  of  favourite 
poems ;  remarks  on  curious  cases  in  the  old  records  of 
the  Justiciary  Court ;  in  short,  a  most  miscellaneous  col 
lection,  in  which  there  is  whatever  might  have  been 
looked  for,  with  perhaps  the  single  exception  of  original 
verse.  One  of  the  books  opens  with :  "  Vegtam's  Kvitha, 
or  The  Descent  of  Odin,  with  the  Latin  of  Thomas  Bar- 
tholine,  and  the  English  poetical  version  of  Mr.  Gray ; 
with  some  account  of  the  death  of  Balder,  both  as  nar 
rated  in  the  Edda,  and  as  handed  down  to  us  by  the 
Northern  historians  —  Auctore  Gualtero  Scott"  The 
Norse  original,  and  the  two  versions,  are  then  tran 
scribed;  and  the  historical  account  appended,  extending 
to  seven  closely  written  quarto  pages,  was,  I  doubt  not, 
read  before  one  or  other  of  his  debating  societies.  Next 
comes  a  page,  headed  "  Pecuniary  Distress  of  Charles  the 
First,"  and  containing  a  transcript  of  a  receipt  for  some 
plate  lent  to  the  King  in  1643.  He  then  copies  Lang- 
horne's  Owen  of  Carron ;  the  verses  of  Canute,  on  pass 
ing  Ely ;  the  lines  to  a  cuckoo,  given  by  Warton  as  the 
oldest  specimen  of  English  verse ;  a  translation  "  by  a 
gentleman,  in  Devonshire,"  of  the  death-song  of  Regner 


232  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Lodbrog;  and  the  beautiful  quatrain  omitted  in  Gray'j 
elegy,  — 

*  There  scattered  oft,  the  earliest  of  the  year,'  &c. 

After  this  we  have  an  Italian  canzonet,  on  the  praises  of 
blue  eyes  (which  were  much  in  favour  at  this  time)  ; 
several  pages  of  etymologies  from  Ducange ;  some  more 
of  notes  on  the  Morte  Arthur ;  extracts  from  the  books 
of  Adjournal,  about  Dame  Janet  Beaton,  the  Lady  of 
Branxome  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  and  her  hus 
band,  "  Sir  Walter  Scott  of  Buccleuch,  called  Wicked 
Wat ;  "  other  extracts  about  witches  and  fairies ;  various 
couplets  from  Hall's  Satires ;  a  passage  from  Albania ; 
notes  on  the  Second  Sight,  with  extracts  from  Aubrey 
and  Glanville ;  a  "  List  of  Ballads  to  be  discovered  or 
recovered ; "  extracts  from  Guerin  de  Montglave ;  and 
after  many  more  similar  entries,  a  table  of  the  Mseso- 
Gothic,  Anglo-Saxon  and  Runic  alphabets  —  with  a  fourth 
section,  headed  German,  but  left  blank.  But  enough  per 
haps  of  this  record. 

In  November  1792,  Scott  and  Clerk  began  their  reg 
ular  attendance  at  the  Parliament  House,  and  Scott,  to 
use  Mr.  Clerk's  words,  "  by  and  by  crept  into  a  tolerable 
share  of  such  business  as  may  be  expected  from  a  writer's 
connexion."  By  this  we  are  to  understand  that  he  was 
employed  from  time  to  time  by  his  father,  and  probably  a 
few  other  solicitors,  in  that  dreary  everyday  taskwork, 
chiefly  of  long  written  informations,  and  other  papers  for 
the  Court,  on  which  young  counsellors  of  the  Scotch  Bar 
were  then  expected  to  bestow  a  great  deal  of  trouble  for 
very  scanty  pecuniary  remuneration,  and  with  scarcely  a 
chance  of  finding  reserved  for  their  hands  any  matter  that 
could  elicit  the  display  of  superior  knowledge  of  under- 


THE    MOUNTAIN.  235 

standing.  He  had  also  his  part  in  the  cases  of  persons 
suing  in  forma  pauperis  ;  but  how  little  important  those 
that  came  to  his  share  were,  and  how  slender  was  the 
impression  they  had  left  on  his  mind,  we  may  gather 
from  a  note  on  Redgauntlet,  wherein  he  signifies  hia 
doubts  whether  he  really  had  ever  been  engaged  in  what 
he  has  certainly  made  the  cause  celebre  of  Poor  Peter 
Peebles. 

But  he  soon  became  as  famous  for  his  powers  of  story 
telling  among  the  lawyers  of  the  Outer-House,  as  he  had 
been  among  the  companions  of  his  High- School  days. 
The  place  where  these  idlers  mostly  congregated  was 
called,  it  seems,  by  a  name  which  sufficiently  marks  the 
date  —  it  was  the  Mountain.  Here,  as  Roger  North  says 
of  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  in  his  early  day,  "  there 
was  more  news  than  law ; "  —  here  hour  after  hour 
passed  away,  week  after  week,  month  after  month,  and 
year  after  year,  in  the  interchange  of  light-hearted  merri 
ment  among  a  circle  of  young  men,  more  than  one  of 
whom,  in  after  times,  attained  the  highest  honours  of  the 
profession.  Among  the  most  intimate  of  Scott's  daily 
associates  from  this  time,  and  during  all  his  subsequent 
attendance  at  the  Bar,  were,  besides  various  since-emi 
nent  persons  that  have  been  already  named,  the  first 
legal  antiquary  of  our  time  in  Scotland,  Mr.  Thomas 
Thomson,  and  William  Erskine,  afterwards  Lord  Kined- 
ler.  Mr.  Clerk  remembers  complaining  one  morning  on 
finding  the  group  convulsed  with  laughter,  that  Duns 
Scotus  had  been  forestalling  him  in  a  good  story,  which 
he  had  communicated  privately  the  day  before  —  adding, 
moreover,  that  his  friend  had  not  only  stolen,  but  dis 
guised  it.  "Why,"  answered  he,  skilfully  waiving  the 
main  charge,  "  this  is  always  the  way  with  the  Baro 


234  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

net.  He  is  continually  saying  that  I  change  his  stories, 
whereas  in  fact  I  only  put  a  cocked  hat  on  their  heads, 
and  stick  a  cane  into  their  hands  —  to  make  them  fit  for 
going  into  company." 

The  German  class,  of  which  we  have  an  account  in 
one  of  the  Prefaces  of  1830,  was  formed  before  the 
Christmas  of  1792,  and  it  included  almost  all  these 
loungers  of  the  Mountain.  In  the  essay  now  referred  to 
Scott  traces  the  interest  excited  in  Scotland  on  the  sub 
ject  of  German  literature  to  a  paper  read  before  the 
Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  on  the  21st  of  April  1788, 
by  the  author  of  the  Man  of  Feeling.  "The  literary 
persons  of  Edinburgh,"  he  says,  "  were  then  first  made 
aware  of  the  existence  of  works  of  genius  in  a  language 
cognate  with  the  English,  and  possessed  of  the  same 
manly  force  of  expression  ;  they  learned  at  the  same 
time  that  the  taste  which  dictated  the  German  composi 
tions  was  of  a  kind  as  nearly  allied  to  the  English  as 
their  language  :  those  who  were  from  their  youth  accus 
tomed  to  admire  Shakspeare  and  Milton,  became  ac 
quainted  for  the  first  time  with  a  race  of  poets,  who  had 
the  same  lofty  ambition  to  spurn  the  flaming  boundaries 
of  the  universe,  and  investigate  the  realms  of  Chaos  and 
Old  Night ;  and  of  dramatists,  who,  disclaiming  the  pe 
dantry  of  the  unities,  sought,  at  the  expense  of  occasional 
improbabilities  and  extravagance,  to  present  life  on  the 
stage  in  its  scenes  of  wildest  contrast,  and  in  all  its 
boundless  variety  of  character Their  fictitious  nar 
ratives,  their  ballad  poetry,  and  other  branches  of  their 
literature,  which  are  particularly  apt  to  bear  the  stamp 
of  the  extravagant  and  the  supernatural,  began  also  to 
occupy  the  attention  of  the  British  literati.  In  Edin 
burgh,  where  the  remarkable  coincidence  between  the 


GERMAN    STUDIES.  235 

German  language  and  the  Lowland  Scottish  encouraged 
young  men  to  approach  this  newly-discovered  spring  of 
literature,  a  class  was  formed  of  six  or  seven  intimate 
friends,  who  proposed  to  make  themselves  acquainted 
with  the  German  language.  They  were  in  the  habit  of 
being  much  together,  and  the  time  they  spent  in  this 
new  study  was  felt  as  a  period  of  great  amusement. 
One  source  of  this  diversion  was  the  laziness  of  one  of 
their  number,  the  present  author,  who,  averse  to  the 
necessary  toil  of  grammar,  and  the  rules,  was  in  the 
practice  of  fighting  his  way  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Ger 
man  by  his  acquaintance  with  the  Scottish  and  Anglo- 
Saxon  dialects,  and  of  course  frequently  committed  blun 
ders  which  were  not  lost  on  his  more  accurate  and  more 
studious  companions."  The  teacher,  Dr.  Willich,  a  medi 
cal  man,  is  then  described  as  striving  with  little  success 
to  make  his  pupils  sympathize  in  his  own  passion  for  the 
"  sickly  monotony  "  and  "  affected  ecstasies  "  of  Gessner's 
Death  of  Abel ;  and  the  young  students,  having  at  length 
acquired  enough  of  the  language  for  their  respective  pur 
poses,  as  selecting  for  their  private  pursuits,  some  the 
philosophical  treatises  of  Kant,  others  the  dramas  of 
Schiller  and  Goethe.  The  chief,  if  not  the  only  Kantist 
of  the  party,  was,  I  believe,  John  Macfarlan  of  Kirkton ; 
among  those  who  turned  zealously  to  the  popular  BeJles 
Lettres  of  Germany  were,  with  Scott,  his  most  intimate 
friends  of  the  period,  William  Clerk,  William  Erskine, 
and  Thomas  Thomson. 

These  studies  were  much  encouraged  by  the  example, 
and  assisted  by  the  advice,  of  an  accomplished  person, 
considerably  Scott's  superior  in  standing,  Alexander  Fra- 
aer  Tytler,  afterwards  a  Judge  of  the  Court  of  Session 
by  the  title  of  Lord  Woodhouselee.  His  version  of 


236  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Schiller's  Robbers  was  one  of  the  earliest  from  the  Ger- 
man  theatre,  and  no  doubt  stimulated  his  young  friend  to 
his  first  experiments  in  the  same  walk. 

The  contemporary  familiars  of  those  days  almost  all 
survive ;  but  one,  and  afterwards  the  most  intimate  of 
them  all,  went  before  him ;  and  I  may  therefore  hazard 
in  this  place  a  few  words  on  the  influence  which  he  exer 
cised  at  this  critical  period  on  Scott's  literary  tastes  and 
studies.  William  Erskine  was  the  son  of  an  Episcopalian 
clergyman  in  Perthshire,  of  a  good  family,  but  far  from 
wealthy.  He  had  received  his  early  education  at  Glas 
gow,  where,  while  attending  the  college  lectures,  he  was 
boarded  under  the  roof  of  Andrew  Macdonald,  the  author 
of  Vimonda,  who  then  officiated  as  minister  to  a  small 
congregation  of  Episcopalian  nonconformists.  From  this 
unfortunate  but  very  ingenious  man,  Erskine  had  de 
rived,  in  boyhood,  a  strong  passion  for  old  English  litera 
ture,  more  especially  the  Elizabethan  dramatists ;  which, 
however,  he  combined  with  a  far  livelier  relish  for  the 
classics  of  antiquity  than  either  Scott  or  his  master  ever 
possessed.  From  the  beginning,  accordingly,  Scott  had 
in  Erskine  a  monitor  who  —  entering  most  warmly  into 
his  taste  for  national  lore  —  the  life  of  the  past  —  and 
the  bold  and  picturesque  style  of  the  original  English 
school  —  was  constantly  urging  the  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  combining  with  its  varied  and  masculine 
breadth  of  delineation  such  attention  to  the  minor  graces 
of  arrangement  and  diction  as  might  conciliate  the  fastid 
iousness  of  modern  taste.  Deferring  what  I  may  have 
to  say  as  to  Erskine's  general  character  and  manners, 
until  I  shall  have  approached  the  period  when  I  myself 
had  the  pleasure  of  sharing  his  acquaintance,  I  introduct 
the  general  bearing  of  his  literary  opinions  thus  early 


WILLIAM    EKSKINE.  237 

because  I  conceive  there  is  no  doubt  that  his  companion 
ship  was,  even  in  those  days,  highly  serviceable  to  Scott 
as  a  student  of  the  German  drama  and  romance.  Di 
rected,  as  he  mainly  was  in  the  ultimate  determination 
of  his  literary  ambition,  by  the  example  of  their  great 
founders,  he  appears  to  have  run  at  first  no  trivial  hazard 
of  adopting  the  extravagances,  both  of  thought  and  lan 
guage,  which  he  found  blended  in  their  works  with  such 
a  captivating  display  of  genius,  and  genius  employed  on 
subjects  so  much  in  unison  with  the  deepest  of  his  own 
juvenile  predilections.  His  friendly  critic  wa?  just  as 
well  as  delicate ;  and  unmerciful  severity  as  to  the  min 
gled  absurdities  and  vulgarities  of  German  det;  11  com 
manded  deliberate  attention  from  one  who  admii  ed  not 
less  enthusiastically  than  himself  the  genuine  sui  limity 
and  pathos  of  his  new  favourites.  I  could,  I  b<  lieve, 
name  one  other  at  least  among  Scott's  fellow-stv  dents 
of  the  same  time,  whose  influence  was  combined  in  this 
matter  with  Erskine'?  •  but  his  was  tLa:  wiiica  continued 
to  be  exerted  the  longest,  and  always  in  the  same  direc 
tion.  That  it  was  not  accompanied  with  entire  success, 
the  readers  of  the  Doom  of  Devorgoil,  to  say  nothing  of 
minor  blemishes  in  far  better  works,  must  acknowledge. 

These  German  studies  divided  Scott's  attention  with 
the  business  of  the  courts  of  law,  on  which  he  was  at 
least  a  regular  attendant  during  the  winter  of  1792-3. 

In  March,  when  the  Court  rose,  he  proceeded  into 
Galloway)  where  he  had  not  before  been,  in  order  to 
make  himself  acquainted  with  the  persons  and  localities 
mixed  up  with  the  case  of  a  certain  Rev.  Mr.  M' Naught, 
minister  of  Girthon,  whose  trial,  on  charges  of  habitual 
irunkenness,  singing  of  lewd  and  profane  songs,  dancing 
and  toying  at  a  penny-wsdding  with  a  "  sweetie  wife  * 


238  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

(that  is,  an  itinerant  vender  of  gingerbread,  &c.),  and 
moreover  of  promoting  irregular  marriages  as  a  justice 
of  the  peace,  was  about  to  take  place  before  the  Genera* 
Assembly  of  the  Kirk. 

As  his  "  Case  for  M'Naught,"  dated  May  1793,  is  the 
first  of  his  legal  papers  that  I  have  discovered,  and  con 
tains  several  characteristic  enough  turns,  I  make  no  apol 
ogy  for  introducing  a  few  extracts :  — 

"  At  the  head  of  the  first  class  of  offences  stands  the  extraor 
dinary  assertion,  that,  being  a  Minister  of  the  Gospel,  the  re 
spondent  had  illegally  undertaken  the  office  of  a  justice  of 
peace.  It  is,  the  respondent  believes,  the  first  time  that  ever 
the  undertaking  an  office  of  such  extensive  utility  was  stated 
as'  a  crime  ;  for  he  humbly  apprehends,  that  by  conferring  the 
office  of  a  justice  of  the  peace  upon  clergymen,  their  influence 
may,  in  the  general  case,  be  rendered  more  extensive  among 
their  parishioners,  and  many  trifling  causes  be  settled  by  them, 
which  might  lead  the  litigants  to  enormous  expenses,  and  be 
come  the  subject  of  much  contention  before  other  courts.  The 
duty  being  only  occasional,  and  not  daily,  cannot  be  said  to  in 
terfere  with  those  of  their  function ;  and  their  education,  and 
presumed  character,  render  them  most  proper  for  the  office. 
It  is  indeed  alleged,  that  the  act  1584,  chap.  133,  excludes 
clergymen  from  acting  under  a  commission  of  the  peace.  This 
act,  however,  was  passed  at  a  time  when  it  was  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  Crown  to  wrench  from  the  hands  of  the 
clergy  the  power  of  administering  justice  in  civil  cases,  which 
had,  from  the  ignorance  of  the  laity,  been  enjoyed  by  them 
almost  exclusively.  During  the  whole  reign  of  James  VI.,  as 
is  well  known  to  the  Reverend  Court,  such  a  jealousy  subsisted 
betwixt  the  Church  and  the  State,  that  those  who  were  at 
the  head  of  the  latter  endeavoured,  by  every  means  in  their 
power,  to  diminish  the  influence  of  the  former.  At  present, 
when  these  dissensions  happily  no  longer  subsist,  the  law,  ai 
far  as  regards  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace,  appears  to  have 


CASE  OF  M'NAUGHT.  239 

fellen  into  disuse,  and  the  respondent  conceives  that  any  min 
ister  is  capable  of  acting  in  that,  or  any  other  judicial  capacity, 
provided  it  is  of  such  a  nature  as  not  to  withdraw  much  of  his 
time  from  what  the  statute  calls  the  comfort  and  edification  of 
the  flock  committed  to  him.  Further,  the  act  1584  is  virtually 
repealed  by  the  statute  6th  Anne,  c.  6,  sect.  2,  which  makes 
the  Scots  law  on  the  subject  of  justices  of  the  peace  the  same 
with  that  of  England,  where  the  office  is  publicly  exercised  by 
the  clergy  of  all  descriptions. 

*  *  *  *  a  Another  branch  of  the  accusation  against  the 
defender  as  a  justice  of  peace,  is  the  ratification  of  irregular 
marriages.  The  defender  must  here  also  call  the  attention 
of  his  reverend  brethren  and  judges  to  the  expediency  of  his 
conduct.  The  girls  were  usually  with  child  at  the  time  the 
application  was  made  to  the  defender.  In  this  situation,  the 
children  born  out  of  matrimony,  though  begot  under  promise 
of  marriage,  must  have  been  thrown  upon  the  parish,  or  per 
haps  murdered  in  infancy,  had  not  the  men  been  persuaded 
to  consent  to  a  solemn  declaration  of  betrothment,  or  private 
marriage,  emitted  before  the  defender  as  a  justice  of  peace. 
The  defender  himself,  commiserating  the  situation  of  such 
women,  often  endeavoured  to  persuade  their  seducers  to  do 
them  justice :  and  men  frequently  acquiesced  in  this  sort  of 
marriage,  when  they  could  by  no  means  have  been  prevailed 
upon  to  go  through  the  ceremonies  of  proclamation  of  banns, 
pr  the  expense  and  trouble  of  a  public  wedding.  The  decla- 
i  ation  of  a  previous  marriage  was  sometimes  literally  true ; 
sometimes  a  fiction  voluntarily  emitted  by  the  parties  them 
selves,  under  the  belief  that  it  was  the  most  safe  way  of  con 
stituting  a  private  marriage  de  presenti.  The  defender  had 
been  induced,  from  the  practice  of  other  justices,  to  consider 
the  receiving  these  declarations,  whether  true  or  false,  as  a 
part  of  his  duty,  which  he  could  not  decline,  even  had  he  been 
willing  to  do  so.  Finally,  the  defender  must  remind  the 
Venerable  Assembly,  that  he  acted  upon  these  occasions  as  a 
justice  of  peace,  which  brings  him  oack  to  the  point  from 
which  he  set  out,  viz.  that  the  Reverend  Court  are  utterly  in- 


240  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

competent  to  take  cognizance  of  his  conduct  in  that  character, 
which  no  sentence  that  they  can  pronounce  could  give  or  take 
away. 

"  The  second  grand  division  of  the  libel  against  the  defender 
refers  to  his  conduct  as  a  clergyman  and  a  Christian.  He  was 
charged  in  the  libel  with  the  most  gross  and  vulgar  behaviour, 
with  drunkenness,  blasphemy,  and  impiety;  yet  all  the  evi 
dence  which  the  appellants  have  been  able  to  bring  forward 
tends  only  to  convict  him  of  three  acts  of  drunkenness  during 
the  course  of  fourteen  years  :  for  even  the  Presbytery,  severe 
as  they  have  been,  acquit  him  quoad  ultra.  But  the  attention 
of  the  Reverend  Court  is  earnestly  entreated  to  the  situation  of 
the  defender  at  the  time,  the  circumstances  which  conduced 
to  his  imprudence,  and  the  share  which  some  of  those  had  in 
occasioning  his  guilt,  who  have  since  been  most  active  in  per 
secuting  and  distressing  him  on  account  of  it. 

"  The  defender  must  premise,  by  observing,  that  the  crime 
of  drunkenness  consists  not  in  a  man's  having  been  in  that 
situation  twice  or  thrice  in  his  life,  but  in  the  constant  and 
habitual  practice  of  the  vice ;  the  distinction  between  ebrius 
and  ebriosus  being  founded  in  common  sense,  and  recognised 
by  law.  A  thousand  cases  may  be  supposed,  in  which  a  man, 
without  being  aware  of  what  he  is  about,  may  be  insensibly 
led  on  to  intoxication,  especially  in  a  country  where  the  vice  is 
unfortunately  so  common,  that  upon  some  occasions  a  man 
may  go  to  excess  from  a  false  sense  of  modesty,  or  a  fear  of 
disobliging  his  entertainer.  The  defender  will  not  deny,  that 
after  losing  his  senses  upon  the  occasions,  and  in  the  manner 
to  be  afterwards  stated,  he  may  have  committed  improprieties 
arhieh  fill  him  with  sorrow  and  regret :  but  he  hopes,  that  in 
oase  he  shall  be  able  to  show  circumstances  which  abridge  and 
palliate  the  guilt  of  his  imprudent  excess,  the  Venerable  Court 
will  consider  these  improprieties  as  the  effects  of  that  excess 
Dniy,  and  not  as  arising  from  any  radical  vice  in  his  temper  or 
disposition.  When  a  man  is  bereft  of  his  judgment  by  the  in 
fluence  of  wine,  and  commits  any  crime,  he  can  only  be  said  to 
be  morally  culpable,  in  proportion  to  the  impropriety  of  the 


CASE    OF   M'NAUGHT.  241 

excess  he  has  committed,  and  not  in  proportion  to  the  magni 
tude  of  its  evil  consequences.  In  a  legal  view,  indeed,  a  man 
must  be  held  as  answerable  and  punishable  for  such  a  crime, 
precisely  as  if  he  had  been  in  a  state  of  sobriety  ;  but  his  crime 
is,  in  a  moral  light,  comprised  in  the  origo  mali,  the  drunkenness 
only.  His  senses  being  once  gone,  he  is  no  more  than  a  human 
machine,  as  insensible  of  misconduct,  in  speech  and  action,  as 
a  parrot  or  an  automaton.  This  is  more  particularly  the  case 
with  respect  to  indecorums,  such  as  the  defender  is  accused  of; 
for  a  man  can  no  more  be  held  a  common  swearer,  or  a  habit 
ual  talker  of  obscenity,  because  he  has  been  guilty  of  using  such 
expressions  when  intoxicated,  than  he  can  be  termed  an  idiot, 
because,  when  intoxicated,  he  has  spoken  nonsense.  If,  there 
fore,  the  defender  can  extenuate  the  guilt  of  his  intoxication, 
he  hopes  that  its  consequences  will  be  numbered  rather  among 
his  misfortunes  than  faults ;  and  that  his  Reverend  Brethren 
•will  consider  him,  while  in  that  state,  as  acting  from  a  mechani 
cal  impulse,  and  as  incapable  of  distinguishing  between  right 
and  wrong.  For  the  scandal  which  his  behaviour  may  have 
occasioned,  he  feels  the  most  heartfelt  sorrow,  and  will  submit 
with  penitence  and  contrition  to  the  severe  rebuke  which  the 
Presbytery  have  decreed  against  him.  But  he  cannot  think 
that  his  unfortunate  misdemeanour,  circumstanced  as  he  was, 
merits  a  severer  punishment.  He  can  show,  that  pains  were 
at  these  times  taken  to  lead  him  on,  when  bereft  of  his  senses, 
>o  subjects  which  were  likely  to  call  forth  improper  or  indecent 
expressions.  The  defender  must  further  urge,  that  not  being 
originally  educated  for  the  church,  he  may,  before  he  assumed 
the  sacred  character,  have  occasionally  permitted  himself  free- 
tbins  of  expression  which  are  reckoned  less  culpable  among  the 
laity.  Thus  he  may,  during  that  time,  have  learned  the  songs 
which  he  is  accused  of  singing,  though  rather  inconsistent  with 
his  clerical  character.  What,  then,  was  more  natural,  than 
that,  when  thrown  off  his  guard  by  the  assumed  conviviality 
and  artful  solicitations  of  those  about  hin>,  former  improper 
habits,  though  renounced  during  his  thinking  moments,  might 
VOL.  i.  16 


242  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

assume  the  reins  of  his  imagination,  when  his  situation  ren 
dered  him  utterly  insensible  of  their  impropriety  ? 

****«  The  Venerable  Court  will  now  consider  how  far 
three  instances  of  ebriety,  and  their  consequences,  should  ruin 
at  once  the  character  and  the  peace  of  mind  of  the  unfortunate 
defender,  and  reduce  him,  at  his  advanced  time  of  life,  about 
sixty  years,  together  with  his  aged  parent,  to  a  state  of  beg 
gary.  He  hopes  his  severe  sufferings  may  be  considered  as 
some  atonement  for  the  improprieties  of  which  he  may  have 
beer  guilty ;  and  that  the  Venerable  Court  will,  in  their  judg 
ment,  remember  mercy. 

"  In  respect  whereof,  &c. 

"WALTER    SCOTT." 

This  argument  (for  which  he  received  five  guineas) 
was  sustained  by  Scott  in  a  speech  of  considerable  length 
at  the  bar  of  the  Assembly.  It  was  far  the  most  impor 
tant  business  in  which  any  solicitor  had  as  yet  employed 
him,  and  The  Club  mustered  strong  in  the  gallery.  He 
began  in  a  low  voice,  but  by  degrees  gathered  more  con 
fidence  ;  and  when  it  became  necessary  for  him  to  analyse 
the  evidence  touching  a  certain  penny-wedding,  repeated 
some  very  coarse  specimens  of  his  client's  alleged  con 
versation,  in  a  tone  so  bold  and  free,  that  he  was  called 
to  order  with  great  austerity  by  one  of  the  leading  mem 
bers  of  the  Venerable  Court.  This  seemed  to  confuse 
him  not  a  little ;  so  when,  by  and  by,  he  had  to  recite  a 
etanza  of  one  of  M'Naught's  convivial  ditties,  he  breathed 
it  out  in  a  faint  and  hesitating  style  :  whereupon,  think 
ing  he  needed  encouragement,  the  allies  in  the  gallery 
astounded  the  Assembly  by  cordial  shouts  of  hear  !  hear  ! 
—  encore  !  encore  !  They  were  immediately  turned  out- 
and  Scott  got  through  the  rest  of  his  harangue  very  littlt 
to  his  own  satisfaction. 


CASE  OF  M'NAUGHT.  243 

He  believed,  in  a  word,  that  he  had  made  a  complete 
failure,  and  issued  from  the  Court  in  a  melancholy  mood. 
At  the  door  he  found  Adam  Fergusson  waiting  to  inform 
him  that  the  brethren  so  unceremoniously  extruded  from 
the  gallery  had  sought  shelter  in  a  neighbouring  tavern, 
where  they  hoped  he  would  join  them.  He  complied 
with  the  invitation,  but  seemed  for  a  long  while  incapa 
ble  of  enjoying  the  merriment  of  his  friends.  "  Come, 
Duns"  cried  the  Baronet,  —  "cheer  up,  man,  and  fill 
another  tumbler ;  here's  ******  going  to  give  us 
The  Tailor"  —  "  Ah !  "  he  answered,  with  a  groan,  "  the 
tailor  was  a  better  man  than  me,  sirs ;  for  he  didna  ven 
ture  ben  until  he  kenned  the  way"  A  certain  comical 
old  song,  which  had,  perhaps,  been  a  favourite  with  the 
minister  of  Girthon  — 

"  The  tailor  he  came  here  to  sew, 
And  weel  he  kenn'd  the  way  o't,"  &c. 

was,  however,  sung  and  chorussed ;  and  the  evening 
ended  in  the  full  jollity  of  High  Jinks. 

Mr.  M'Naught  was  deposed  from  the  ministry,  and  his 
young  advocate  has  written  out  at  the  end  of  the  printed 
papers  on  the  case  two  of  the  songs  which  had  been  al 
leged  in  the  evidence.  They  are  both  grossly  indecent. 
It  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  research  he  had  made  with 
a  view  to  pleading  this  man's  cause,  carried  him,  for  the 
first,  and  I  believe  for  the  last  time,  into  the  scenery  of 
his  Guy  Mannering ;  and  I  may  add,  that  several  of  the 
names  of  the  minor  characters  of  the  novel  (that  of 
M*  Gujffog,  for  example)  appear  in  the  list  of  witnesses 
for  and  against  his  client. 

If  the  preceding  autumn  forms  a  remarkable  point  in 
Scott's  history,  as  first  introducing  him  to  the  manners 


244  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  the  wilder  Border  country,  the  summer  which  followed 
left  traces  of  equal  importance.  He  gave  the  greater 
part  of  it  to  an  excursion  which  much  extended  his 
knowledge  of  Highland  scenery  and  character;  and  in 
particular  furnished  him  with  the  richest  stores,  which 
he  afterwards  turned  to  account  in  one  of  the  most  beau» 
tiful  of  his  great  poems,  and  in  several,  including  the 
first,  of  his  prose  romances. 

Accompanied  by  Adam  Fergusson,  he  visited  on  this 
occasion  some  of  the  finest  districts  of  Stirlingshire  and 
Perthshire;  and  not  in  the  precursory  manner  of  his 
more  boyish  expeditions,  but  taking  up  his  residence  for 
a  week  or  ten  days  in  succession  at  the  family  residences 
of  several  of  his  young  allies  of  the  Mountain,  and  from 
thence  familiarizing  himself  at  leisure  with  the  country 
and  the  people  round  about.  In  this  way  he  lingered 
some  time  at  Tullibody,  the  seat  of  the  father  of  Sir 
Ralph  Abercromby,  and  grandfather  of  his  friend  Mr. 
George  Abercromby  (now  Lord  Abercromby)  ;  and 
heard  from  the  old  gentleman's  own  lips  the  narrative 
of  a  journey  which  he  had  been  obliged  to  make,  shortly 
after  he  first  settled  in  Stirlingshire,  to  the  wild  retreat 
of  Rob  Roy.  The  venerable  laird  told  how  he  was  re 
ceived  by  the  cateran  "  with  much  courtesy,"  in  a  cavern 
exactly  such  as  that  of  Bean  Lean  ;  dined  on  collops  cut 
from  some  of  his  own  cattle,  which  he  recognised  hang« 
ing  by  their  heels  from  the  rocky  roof  beyond ;  and  re 
turned  in  all  safety,  after  concluding  a  bargain  of  black' 
mail  —  in  virtue  of  which  annual  payment  Rob  Roy 
guaranteed  the  future  security  of  his  herds  against,  not 
his  own  followers  merely,  but  all  freebooters  whatever. 
Scott  next  visited  his  friend  Edmonstone,  at  Newton,  a 
beautiful  seat  close  to  the  ruins  of  the  once  magnificent 


HIGHLAND    EXCURSION 1793.  245 

Castle  of  Doune,  and  heard  another  aged  gentleman's 
vivid  recollections  of  all  that  happened  there  when  John 
Hume,  the  author  of  Douglas,  and  other  Hanoverian 
prisoners,  escaped  from  the  Highland  garrison  in  1745.* 
Proceeding  towards  the  sources  of  the  Teith,  he  was  re 
ceived  for  the  first  time  under  a  roof  which,  in  subse 
quent  years,  he  regularly  revisited,  that  of  another  of  his 
associates,  Buchanan,  the  young  Laird  of  Cambusmore. 
It  was  thus  that  the  scenery  of  Loch  Katrine  came  to  be 
so  associated  with  "  the  recollection  of  many  a  dear 
friend  and  merry  expedition  of  former  days,"  that  to 
compose  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  was  "  a  labour  of  love, 
and  no  less  so  to  recall  the  manners  and  incidents  intro 
duced."  t  It  was  starting  from  the  same  house,  when 
the  poem  itself  had  made  some  progress,  that  he  put  to 
the  test  the  practicability  of  riding  from  the  banks  of 
Loch  Vennachar  to  the  Castle  of  Stirling  within  the 
brief  space  which  he  had  assigned  to  Fitz-James's  Grey 
Bayard,  after  the  duel  with  Roderick  Dhu ;  and  the 
principal  landmarks  in  the  description  of  that  fiery  prog 
ress  are  so  many  hospitable  mansions,  all  familiar  to  him 
at  the  same  period  —  Blairdrummond,  the  residence  of 
Lord  Kaimes ;  Ochtertyre,  that  of  John  Ramsay,  the 
scholar  and  antiquary  (now  best  remembered  for  his  kind 
and  sagacious  advice  to  Burns)  ;  and  "  the  lofty  brow  of 
ancient  Kier,"  the  splendid  seat  of  the  chief  family  of  the 
name  of  Stirling ;  from  which,  to  say  nothing  of  remoter 
objects,  the  prospect  has,  on  one  hand,  the  rock  of  "  Snow- 
don,"  and  in  front  the  field  of  Bannockburn. 

Another  resting  place  was  Craighall,  in  Perthshire, 
the  seat  of  the  Rattrays,  a  family  related  to  Mr.  Clerk, 

*  Waverley,  vol.  ii. 

t  Introduction  to  The  Lady  of  the  Lake.  — 1830. 


246  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

who  accompanied  him.  From  the  position  of  this  strik 
ing  place,  as  Mr.  Clerk  at  once  perceived,  and  as  the 
author  afterwards  confessed  to  him,  that  of  the  Tully- 
Veolan  was  very  faithfully  copied  ;  though  in  the  descrip 
tion  of  the  house  itself,  and  its  gardens,  many  features 
were  adopted  from  Bruntsfield  and  Ravelstone.*  Mr, 
Clerk  has  told  me  that  he  went  through  the  first  chapters 
of  Waverley  without  more  than  a  vague  suspicion  of  the 
new  novelist ;  but  that  when  he  read  the  arrival  at  Tully- 
Veolan,  his  suspicion  was  at  once  converted  into  certainty, 
and  he  handed  the  book  to  a  common  friend  of  his  and 
the  author's,  saying  "  This  is  Scott's  —  and  I'll  lay  a  bet 
you'll  find  such  and  such  things  in  the  next  chapter."  I 
hope  Mr.  Clerk  will  forgive  me  for  mentioning  the  par 
ticular  circumstance  that  first  flashed  the  conviction  on 
his  mind.  In  the  course  of  a  ride  from  Craighall  they 
had  both  become  considerably  fagged  and  heated,  and 
Clerk,  seeing  the  smoke  of  a  clachan  a  little  way  before 
them,  ejaculated  — "  How  agreeable  if  we  should  here 
fall  in  with  one  of  those  signposts  where  a  red  lion  pre 
dominates  over  a  punch-bowl ! "  The  phrase  happened 
to  tickle  Scott's  fancy  —  he  often  introduced  it  on  sim 
ilar  occasions  afterwards  —  and  at  the  distance  of  twenty 
years  Mr.  Clerk  was  at  no  loss  to  recognise  an  old  ac 
quaintance  in  the  "  huge  bear  "  which  "  predominates  " 
Dver  the  stone  basin  in  the  courtyard  of  Baron  Brad- 
sardine. 

I  believe  the  longest  stay  he  made  this  autumn  was  at 
Meigle  in  Forfarshire,  the  seat  of  Patrick  Murray  of 
Simprim,  a  gentleman  whose  enthusiastic  passion  for  an 
tiquities,  and  especially  military  antiquities,  had  pecu 
liarly  endeared  him  both  to  Scott  and  Clerk.  Here 
*  Waverley,  vol.  i. 


MEIGLE.  247 

Adam  Fergusson,  too,  was  of  the  party ;  and  I  have 
often  heard  them  each  and  all  dwell  on  the  thousand 
scenes  of  adventure  and  merriment  which  diversified  that 
visit.  In  the  village  churchyard,  close  beneath  Mr.  Mur 
ray's  gardens,  tradition  still  points  out  the  tomb  of  Queen 
Guenever ;  and  the  whole  district  abounds  in  objects  of 
historical  interest.  Amidst  them  they  spent  their  wan 
dering  days,  while  their  evenings  passed  in  the  joyous 
festivity  of  a  wealthy  young  bachelor's  establishment,  or 
sometimes  under  the  roofs  of  neighbours  less  refined 
than  their  host,  the  Balmawhapples  of  the  Braes  of 
Angus.  From  Meigle  they  made  a  trip  to  Dunottai 
Castle,  the  ruins  of  the  huge  old  fortress  of  the  Earls 
Marischall,  and  it  was  in  the  churchyard  of  that  place 
that  Scott  then  saw  for  the  first  and  last  time  Pe 
ter  Paterson,  the  living  Old  Mortality.  He  and  Mr. 
Walker,  the  minister  of  the  parish,  found  the  poor  man 
refreshing  the  epitaphs  on  the  tombs  of  certain  Camero- 
nians  who  had  fallen  under  the  oppressions  of  James  the 
Second's  brief  insanity.  Being  invited  into  the  manse 
after  dinner  to  take  a  glass  of  whisky  punch,  "  to  which 
he  was  supposed  to  have  no  objections,"  he  joined  the 
minister's  party  accordingly ;  but  "  he  was  in  bad  hu 
mour,"  says  Scott,  "  and,  to  use  his  own  phrase,  had  no 
freedom  for  conversation.  His  spirit  had  been  sorely 
vexed  by  hearing,  in  a  certain  Aberdonian  kirk,  the 
psalmody  directed  by  a  pitch-pipe  or  some  similar  instru 
ment,  which  was  to  Old  Mortality  the  abomination  of 
abominations." 

It  was  also  while  he  had  his  headquarters  at  Meigle  at 
Jiis  time,  that  Scott  visited  for  the  first  time  Glammis, 
tne  residence  of  the  Earls  of  Strathmore,  by  far  the 
noblest  specimen  of  the  real  feudal  castle,  entire  and 


248  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

perfect,  that  had  as  yet  come  under  his  inspection.  What 
its  aspect  was  when  he  first  saw  it,  and  how  grievously 
he  lamented  the  change  it  had  undergone  when  he  revis 
ited  it  some  years  afterwards,  he  has  recorded  in  one  of 
the  most  striking  passages  that  I  think  ever  came  from 
his  pen.  Commenting,  in  his  Essay  on  Landscape  Gar 
dening  (1828),  on  the  proper  domestic  ornaments  of  the 
Castle  Pleasaunce,  he  has  this  beautiful  burst  of  lamen 
tation  over  the  barbarous  innovations  of  the  Capability 
men :  —  "  Down  went  many  a  trophy  of  old  magnificence, 
courtyard,  ornamented  enclosure,  fosse,  avenue,  barbican, 
and  every  external  muniment  of  battled  wall  and  flank 
ing  tower,  out  of  the  midst  of  which  the  ancient  dome, 
rising  high  above  all  its  characteristic  accompaniments, 
and  seemingly  girt  round  by  its  appropriate  defences, 
which  again  circled  each  other  in  their  different  grada 
tions,  looked,  as  it  should,  the  queen  and  mistress  of  the 
surrounding  country.  It  was  thus  that  the  huge  old 
tower  of  Glammis,  '  whose  birth  tradition  notes  not,' 
once  showed  its  lordly  head  above  seven  circles  (if  I 
remember  aright)  of  defensive  boundaries,  through  which 
the  friendly  guest  was  admitted,  and  at  each  of  which  a 
suspicious  person  was  unquestionably  put  to  his  answer. 
A  disciple  of  Kent  had  the  cruelty  to  render  this  splen 
did  old  mansion  (the  more  modern  part  of  which  was  the 
work  of  Inigo  Jones)  more  parkish,  as  he  was  pleased 
to  call  it ;  to  raze  all  those  exterior  defences,  and  bring 
his  mean  and  paltry  gravel-walk  up  to  the  very  door 
from  which,  deluded  by  the  name,  one  might  have  imag 
ined  Lady  Macbeth  (with  the  form  and  features  of  Sid 
dons)  issuing  forth  to  receive  King  Duncan.  It  is  thirty 
years  and  upwards  since  I  have  seen  Glammis,  but  I 
have  not  yet  forgotten  or  forgiven  the  atrocity  which, 


GLAMMIS.  249 

jnder  pretence  of  improvement,   deprived   that   lordly 
place  of  its  appropriate  accompaniments, 

'  Leaving  an  ancient  dome  and  towers  like  these 
Beggar' d  and  outraged.'  "  * 

The  night  he  spent  at  the  yet  unprofaned  Glammis  in 
1793  was,  as  he  elsewhere  says,  one  of  the  "  two  periods 
distant  from  each  other  "  at  which  he  could  recollect  ex 
periencing  "  that  degree  of  superstitious  awe  which  his 
countrymen  call  eerie."  "The  heavy  pile,"  he  writes, 
"  contains  much  in  its  appearance,  and  in  the  traditions 
connected  with  it,  impressive  to  the  imagination.  It  was 
the  scene  of  the  murder  of  a  Scottish  King  of  great  an 
tiquity —  not  indeed  the  gracious  Duncan,  with  whom 
the  name  naturally  associates  itself,  but  Malcolm  II.  It 
contains  also  a  curious  monument  of  the  peril  of  feudal 
times,  being  a  secret  chamber,  the  entrance  of  which,  by 
the  law  or  custom  of  the  family,  must  only  be  known  to 
three  persons  at  once,  namely,  the  Earl  of  Strathmore, 
his  heir-apparent,  and  any  third  person  whom  they  may 
take  into  their  confidence.  The  extreme  antiquity  of  the 
building  is  vouched  by  the  thickness  of  the  walls,  and 
the  wild  straggling  arrangement  of  the  accommodation 
within  doors.  As  the  late  Earl  seldom  resided  at  Glam 
mis,  it  was  when  I  was  there  but  half  furnished,  and  that 
with  mov cables  of  great  antiquity,  which,  with  the  pieces 
of  chivalric  armour  hanging  on  the  walls,  greatly  con 
tributed  to  the  general  effect  of  the  wnole.  After  a  very 
hospitable  reception  from  the  late  Peter  Proctor,  senes 
chal  of  the  castle,  I  was  conducted  to  my  apartment  in  a 
distant  part  of  the  building.  I  must  own,  that  when  I 
heard  door  after  door  shut,  after  my  conductor  had  re- 
*  Wordsworth's  Sonnet  on  Neidpath  Castle. 


250  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tired,  I  began  to  consider  myself  as  too  far  from  the  liv 
ing,  and  somewhat  too  near  the  dead.  We  had  passed 
through  what  is  called  the  King's  Room,  a  vaulted  apart 
ment,  garnished  with  stag's  antlers  and  other  trophies  of 
the  chase,  and  said  by  tradition  to  be  the  spot  of  Mal 
colm's  murder,  and  I  had  an  idea  of  the  vicinity  of  the 
castl  3  chapel.  In  spite  of  the  truth  of  history,  the  whole 
nighi  scene  in  Macbeth's  Castle  rushed  at  once  upon  me, 
and  struck  my  mind  more  forcibly  than  even  when  I 
have  seen  its  terrors  represented  by  John  Kemble  and 
his  inimitable  sister.  In  a  word,  I  experienced  sensa 
tions  which,  though  not  remarkable  for  timidity  or  super 
stition,  did  not  fail  to  affect  me  to  the  point  of  being 
disagreeable,  while  they  were  mingled  at  the  same  time 
with  a  strange  and  indescribable  sort  of  pleasure,  the 
recollection  of  which  affords  me  gratification  at  this 
moment."  * 

He  alludes  here  to  the  hospitable  reception  which  had 
preceded  the  mingled  sensations  of  this  eerie  night ;  but 
one  of  his  notes  on  Waverley  touches  this  not  unimpor 
tant  part  of  the  story  more  distinctly ;  for  we  are  there 
informed,  that  the  silver  bear  of  Tully-Veolan,  "  the  po- 
culum  potatorium  of  the  valiant  baron,"  had  its  prototype 
at  Glammis  —  a  massive  beaker  of  silver,  double  gilt, 
moulded  into  the  form  of  a  lion,  the  name  and  bearing 
of  the  Earls  of  Strathmore,  and  containing  about  an 
English  pint  of  wine.  "  The  author,"  he  says,  "  ought 
perhaps  to  be  ashamed  of  recording  that  he  had  the  hon 
our  of  swallowing  the  contents  of  the  lion  ;  and  the  recol 
lection  of  the  feat  suggested  the  story  of  the  Bear  of 
Bradwardine." 

From  this  pleasant  towr,  so  rich  in  its  results,  Scot 
*  Letters  on  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,  p.  398. 


JEDBURGH    ASSIZES.  251 

returned  in  time  to  attend  the  autumnal  assizes  at  Jed- 
burgh,  on  which  occasion  he  made  his  first  appearance  as 
counsel  in  a  criminal  court ;  and  had  the  satisfaction  of 
helping  a  veteran  poacher  and  sheep-stealer  to  escape 
through  some  of  the  meshes  of  the  law.  "  You're  a 
lucky  scoundrel,"  Scott  whispered  to  his  client,  when  the 
verdict  was  pronounced.  —  "  I'm  just  o'  your  mind,"  quoth 
the  desperado,  "  and  I'll  send  ye  a  maukin  *  the  morn, 
man."  I  am  not  sure  whether  it  was  at  these  assizes  or 
the  next  in  the  same  town,  that  he  had  less  success  in 
the  case  of  a  certain  notorious  housebreaker.  The  man, 
however,  was  well  aware  that  no  skill  could  have  baffled 
the  clear  evidence  against  him,  and  was,  after  his  fashion, 
grateful  for  such  exertions  as  had  been  made  in  his  be 
half.  He  requested  the  young  advocate  to  visit  him 
once  more  before  he  left  the  place.  Scott's  curiosity  in 
duced  him  to  accept  this  invitation,  and  his  friend,  as 
soon  as  they  were  alone  together  in  the  condemned  cell, 
said  —  "I  am  very  sorry,  sir,  that  I  have  no  fee  to  offer 
you  —  so  let  me  beg  your  acceptance  of  two  bits  of  ad 
vice  which  may  be  useful  perhaps  when  you  come  to 
have  a  house  of  your  own.  I  am  done  with  practice, 
you  see,  and  here  is  my  legacy.  Never  keep  a  large 
watchdog  out  of  doors  —  we  can  always  silence  them 
cheaply  —  indeed  if  it  be  a  dog,  'tis  easier  than  whistling 
—  but  tie  a  little  tight  yelping  terrier  within  ;  and  sec 
ondly,  put  no  trust  in  nice,  clever,  gimcrack  locks  —  the 
only  thing  that  bothers  us  is  a  huge  old  heavy  one,  no 
matter  how  simple  the  construction,  —  and  the  ruder  and 
rustier  the  key,  so  much  the  better  for  the  housekeeper." 
I  remember  hearing  him  tell  this  story  some  thirty  years 
after  at  a  Judges'  dinner  at  Jedburgh,  and  he  summed  it 
*  i.  e.  a  hare- 


252  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

up  with  a  rhyme  —  "  Aj,  ay,  my  lord,"  (I  think  he  ad« 
dressed  his  friend  Lord  Meadowbank)  — 

" '  Yelping  terrier,  rusty  key, 
Was  Walter  Scott's  best  Jeddart  fee.'  " 

At  these,  or  perhaps  the  next  assizes,  he  was  also 
eounsel  in  an  appeal  case  touching  a  cow  which  his  client 
had  sold  as  sound,  but  which  the  court  below  (the  sheriff) 
had  pronounced  to  have  what  is  called  the  cliers  —  a  dis 
ease  analogous  to  glanders  in  a  horse.  In  opening  his 
case  before  Sir  David  Rae,  Lord  Eskgrove,  Scott  stoutly 
maintained  the  healthiness  of  the  cow,  who,  as  he  said, 
had  merely  a  cough.  "  Stop  there,"  quoth  the  judge ; 
"  I  have  had  plenty  of  healthy  kye  in  my  time,  but  I 
never  heard  of  ane  of  them  coughing.  A  coughin'  cow  ! 
—  that  will  never  do.  Sustain  the  sheriff's  judgment, 
and  decern." 

A  day  or  two  after  this,  Scott  and  his  old  companion 
were  again  on  their  way  into  Liddesdale,  and  "just," 
says  the  Shortreed  Memorandum,  "  as  we  were  passing 
by  Singdon,  we  saw  a  grand  herd  o'  cattle  a'  feeding  by 
the  roadside,  and  a  fine  young  bullock,  the  best  in  the 
whole  lot,  was  in  the  midst  of  them,  coughing  lustily. 
*  Ah,'  said  Scott,  '  what  a  pity  for  my  client  that  old 
Eskgrove  had  not  taken  Singdon  on  his  way  to  the  town. 
That  bonny  creature  would  have  saved  us  — 

4  A  Daniel  come  to  judgment,  yea  a  Daniel; 
0  wise  young  judge,  how  I  do  honour  thee ! '  " 

"  To  PathcJc  Murray  of  Simprim,  Esq.,  Meigle. 

"  Rosebank,  near  Kelso,  Sept.  13, 1793. 

"  Dear  Murray,  —  I  would  have  let  fly  an  epistle  at  you  long 
ere  this,  had  I  not  known  I  should  have  some  difficulty  in  hit 


ROSEBANK SEPTEMBER     1793.  253 

ting  so  active  a  traveller,  who  may  in  that  respect  be  likened 
unto  a  bird  of  passage.  Were  you  to  follow  the  simile  through 
out,  I  might  soon  expect  to  see  you  winging  your  way  to  the 
southern  climes,  instead  of  remaining  to  wait  the  approach  of 
winter  in  the  colder  regions  of  the  north.  Seriously,  I  have 
been  in  weekly  hopes  of  hearing  of  your  arrival  in  the  Merse, 
and  have  been  qualifying  myself  by  constant  excursions  to  be 
your  Border  Cicerone. 

"  As  the  facetious  Linton  will  no  doubt  make  one  of  your 
party,  I  have  got  by  heart  for  his  amusement  a  reasonabl« 
number  of  Border  ballads,  most  of  them  a  little  longer  than 
Chevy  Chase,  which  I  intend  to  throw  in  at  intervals,  just  frj 
way  of  securing  my  share  in  the  conversation.  As  for  yov , 
as  I  know  your  picturesque  turn,  I  can  be  in  this  country  »f, 
no  loss  how  to  cater  for  your  entertainment,  especially  if  you 
would  think  of  moving  before  the  fall  of  the  leaf.  I  believe 
with  respect  to  the  real  To  Kalon,  few  villages  can  surpass 
that  near  which  I  am  now  writing ;  and  as  to  your  rivers,  it  is 
part  of  my  creed  that  the  Tweed  and  Teviot  yield  to  none  in 
the  world,  nor  do  I  fear  that  even  in  your  eyes,  which  have 
been  feasted  on  classic  ground,  they  will  greatly  sink  in  com 
parison  with  the  Tiber  or  Po.  Then  for  antiquities,  it  is  true 
we  have  got  no  temples  or  heathenish  fanes  to  show ;  but  if 
substantial  old  castles  and  ruined  abbeys  will  serve  in  their 
stead,  they  are  to  be  found  in  abundance.  So  much  for  Linton 
and  you.  As  for  Mr.  Robertson,*  I  don't  know  quite  so  well 
how  to  bribe  him.  We  had  indeed  lately  a  party  of  strollers 
here,  who  might  in  some  degree  have  entertained  him, — L  e.  in 
case  he  felt  no  compassion  for  the  horrid  and  tragical  murders 
which  they  nightly  committed,  —  but  now,  Alas,  Sir  !  the  play 
ers  be  gone. 

"  I  am  at  present  very  uncertain  as  to  my  own  motions,  but 

*  Dr.  Robertson  was  tutor  to  the  Laird  of  Simprim,  and  afterwards 
minister  of  Meigle  —  a  man  of  great  worth,  and  an  excellent  scholar. 
[n  his  younger  days  he  was  fond  of  the  theatre,  and  encouraged  and 
directed  Simprim,  Grogg,  Linton  cf  Co.  in  their  histrionic  diversions.  —• 
F1839.J 


254  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

I  still  hope  to  be  northwards  again  before  the  commencement 
of  the  session,  which  (d — n  it)  is  beginning  to  draw  nigher 
than  I  could  wish.  I  would  esteem  myself  greatly  favoured  by 
a  few  lines  informing  me  of  your  motions  when  they  are  set 
tled  ;  since  visiting  you,  should  I  go  north,  or  attending  you  if 
you  come  this  way,  are  my  two  grand  plans  of  amusement. 

"  What  think  you  of  our  politics  now  ?  Had  I  been  within 
reach  of  you,  or  any  of  the  chosen,  I  suspect  the  taking  of 
Valenciennes  would  have  been  sustained  as  a  reason  for  ex 
amining  the  contents  of  t'other  bottle,  which  has  too  often 
Buffered  for  slighter  pretences.  I  have  little  doubt,  however, 
that  by  the  time  we  meet  in  glory  (terrestrial  glory,  I  mean) 
Dunkirk  will  be  an  equally  good  apology.  Adieu,  my  good 
friend;  —  remember  me  kindly  to  Mr.  Robertson,  to  Linton, 
and  to  the  Baronet.  I  understand  both  these  last  intend 
seeing  you  soon.  I  am  very  sincerely  yours, 

"WALTER    SCOTT." 

The  winter  of  1793-4  appears  to  have  been  passed 
like  the  preceding  one :  the  German  class  resumed  their 
sittings;  Scott  spoke  in  his  debating  club  on  the  ques 
tions  of  Parliamentary  Reform  and  the  Inviolability  of 
the  Person  of  the  First  Magistrate,  which  the  circum 
stances  of  the  time  had  invested  with  extraordinary  in 
terest,  and  in  both  of  which  he  no  doubt  took  the  side 
adverse  to  the  principles  of  the  English,  and  the  practice 
of  the  French  Liberals.  His  love-affair  continued  on  ex 
actly  the  same  footing  as  before ;  —  and  for  the  rest,  like 
the  young  heroes  in  Redgauntlet,  he  "  swept  the  boards 
of  the  Parliament  House  with  the  skirts  of  his  gown ; 
laughed,  and  made  others  laugh  ;  drank  claret  at  Bayle's, 
Fortune's,  and  Walker's,  and  eat  oysters  in  the  Covenant 
Close."  On  his  desk  "  the  new  novel  most  in  repute  lay 
snugly  intrenched  beneath  Stair's  Institute,  or  an  open 
rolume  of  Decisions ; "  and  his  dressing-table  was  life 


WINTER    OF   1793-4.  255 

tered  with  "old  play-bills,  letters  respecting  a  meeting 
of  the  Faculty,  Rules  of  the  Speculative,  Syllabus  of 
Lectures  —  all  the  miscellaneous  contents  of  a  young 
advocate's  pocket,  which  contains  every  thing  but  briefs 
and  bank-notes."  His  professional  occupation  was  still 
very  slender;  but  he  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  pro 
ceedings  of  the  criminal  court,  and  more  especially  in 
those  arising  out  of  the  troubled  state  of  the  public 
feeling  as  to  politics. 

In  the  spring  of  1794  I  find  him  writing  to  his  friends 
in  Roxburghshire  with  great  exultation  about  the  "  good 
spirit "  manifesting  itself  among  the  upper  classes  of  the 
citizens  of  Edinburgh,  and  above  all,  the  organization  of 
a  regiment  of  volunteers,  in  which  his  brother  Thomas, 
now  a  fine  active  young  man,  equally  handsome  and  high- 
spirited,  was  enrolled  as  a  grenadier,  while,  as  he  remarks, 
his  own  "  unfortunate  infirmity  "  condemned  him  to  be  "  a 
mere  spectator  of  the  drills."  In  the  course  of  the  same 
year,  the  plan  of  a  corps  of  volunteer  light  horse  was 
started  ;  and,  if  the  recollection  of  Mr.  Skene  be  accurate, 
the  suggestion  originally  proceeded  from  Scott  himself, 
who  certainly  had  a  principal  share  in  its  subsequent 
success.  He  writes  to  his  uncle  at  Rosebank,  requesting 
him  to  be  on  the  look-out  for  a  "  strong  gelding,  such  as 
would  suit  a  stalwart  dragoon ; "  and  intimating  his  inten 
tion  to  part  with  his  collection  of  Scottish  coins,  rather 
than  not  be  mounted  to  his  mind.  The  corps,  however, 
was  not  organized  for  some  time ;  and  in  the  meanwhile 
he  had  an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  zeal  in  a  manner 
which  Captain  Scott  by  no  means  considered  as  so  re 
spectable. 

A  party  of  Irish  medical  students  began,  towards  the 
end  of  April,  to  make  themselves  remarkable  in  the 


256  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Edinburgh  Theatre,  where  they  mustered  in  a  par  tic* 
ular  corner  of  the  pit,  and  lost  no  opportunity  of  insulting 
the  loyalists  of  the  boxes,  by  calling  for  revolutionary 
tunes,  applauding  every  speech  that  could  bear  a  seditious 
meaning,  and  drowning  the  national  anthem  in  howls  and 
hootings.  The  young  Tories  of  the  Parliament  House 
resented  this  license  warmly,  and  after  a  succession  of 
minor  disturbances,  the  quarrel  was  put  to  the  issue  of  a 
regular  trial  by  combat.  Scott  was  conspicuous  among 
the  juvenile  advocates  and  solicitors  who  on  this  grand 
night  assembled  in  front  of  the  pit,  armed  with  stout 
cudgels,  and  determined  to  have  God  save  the  King  not 
only  played  without  interruption,  but  sung  in  full  chorus 
by  both  company  and  audience.  The  Irishmen  were 
ready  at  the  first  note  of  the  anthem.  They  rose,  clap 
ped  on  their  hats,  and  brandished  their  shillelahs ;  a  stern 
battle  ensued,  and  after  many  a  head  had  been  cracked, 
the  loyalists  at  length  found  themselves  in  possession  of 
the  field.  Tn  writing  to  Simprim  a  few  days  afterwards, 
Scott  says  — "  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  affair 
of  Saturday  passed  over  without  any  worse  consequence 
to  the  Loyalists  than  that  five,  including  your  friend  and 
humble  servant  Colonel  Grogg,  have  been  bound  over  to 
the  peace,  and  obliged  to  give  bail  for  their  good  behav 
iour,  which,  you  may  believe,  was  easily  found.  The  said 
Colonel  had  no  less  than  three  broken  heads  laid  to  his 
charge  by  as  many  of  the  Democrats."  Alluding  to  Sim- 
prim's  then  recent  appointment  as  Captain  in  the  Perth 
shire  Fencibles  (Cavalry),  he  adds  —  "  Among  my  own 
military  (I  mean  mock-military)  achievements,  let  me 
not  fail  to  congratulate  you  and  the  country  on  the  real 
character  you  have  agreed  to  accept.  Remember,  in 
case  of  real  action,  I  shall  beg  the  honour  of  admission 
to  your  troop  as  a  volunteer." 


PLAYHOUSE    RIOT 1794.  257 

One  of  the  theatrical  party,  Sir  Alexander  Wood, 
tfhose  notes  lie  before  me,  says  —  "Walter  was  cer 
tainly  our  Coryphgeus,  and  signalized  himself  splendidly 
in  this  desperate  fray;  and  nothing  used  afterwards  to 
afford  him  more  delight  than  dramatizing  its  incidents. 
Some  of  the  most  efficient  of  our  allies  were  persons  pre 
viously  unknown  to  him,  and  of  several  of  these  whom 
he  had  particularly  observed,  he  never  lost  sight  after 
wards.  There  were,  I  believe,  cases  in  which  they  owed 
most  valuable  assistance  in  life  to  his  recollection  of  the 
playhouse  row"  To  this  last  part  of  Sir  Alexander's  tes 
timony  I  can  also  add  mine ;  and  I  am  sure  my  worthy 
friend,  Mr.  Donald  M'Lean,  W.  S.,  will  gratefully  con 
firm  it.  When  that  gentleman  became  candidate  for 
some  office  in  the  Exchequer,  about  1822  or  1823,  and 
Sir  Walter's  interest  was  requested  on  his  behalf, — 
"  To  be  sure ! "  said  he ;  "  did  not  he  sound  the  charge 
upon  Paddy?  Can  I  ever  forget  Donald's  Sticks  by 
G—t?"* 

On  the  9th  May  1794,  Charles  Kerr  of  Abbotrule 
writes  to  him  —  "I  was  last  night  at  Rosebank,  and  your 
uncle  told  me  he  had  been  giving  you  a  very  long  and 
very  sage  lecture  upon  the  occasion  of  these  Edinburgh 
squabbles ;  I  am  happy  to  hear  they  are  now  at  an  end. 
They  were  rather  of  the  serious  cast,  and  though  you  en 
countered  them  with  spirit  and  commendable  resolution, 
I,  with  your  uncle,  should  wish  to  see  your  abilities  con 
spicuous  on  another  theatre."  The  same  gentleman,  in 
his  next  letter  (June  3d),  congratulates  Scott  on  having 
"  seen  his  name  in  the  newspaper,"  viz.  as  counsel  for 

*  According  to  a  friendly  critic,  one  of  the  Liberals  exclaimed,  as 
the  row  was  thickening,  "  Jtfo  Blows ! "  —and  Donald,  suiting  the  ac 
tion  to  the  word,  responded,  "Plows  by ! "  — 1839. 

VOL.  i.  17 


258  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

another    Roxburghshire   laird,   by   designation    Bedruh. 
Such,  no  doubt,  was  Abbotrule's  "other  theatre." 

Scott  spent  the  long  vacation  of  this  year  chiefly  in 
Roxburghshire,  but  again  visited  Keir,  Cambusmore,  and 
others  of  his  friends  in  Perthshire,  and  came  to  Edin 
burgh,  early  in  September,  to  be  present  at  the  trials  of 
Watt  and  Downie,  on  a  charge  of  high  treason.  Watt 
seems  to  have  tendered  his  services  to  Government  as  a 
spy  upon  the  Society  of  the  Friends  of  the  People  in 
Edinburgh,  but  ultimately,  considering  himself  as  under 
paid,  to  have  embraced,  to  their  wildest  extent,  the 
schemes  he  had  become  acquainted  with  in  the  course 
of  this  worthy  occupation ;  and  he,  and  one  Downie  a 
mechanic,  were  now  arraigned  as  having  taken  a  promi 
nent  part  in  the  organizing  of  a  plot  for  a  general  rising 
in  Edinburgh,  to  seize  the  Castle,  the  Bank,  the  persons 
of  the  Judges,  and  proclaim  a  Provisional  Republican 
Government ;  all  which  was  supposed  to  have  been  ar 
ranged  in  concert  with  the  Hardies,  Thelwalls,  Holcrofts, 
and  so  forth,  who  were  a  few  weeks  later  brought  to  trial 
in  London  for  an  alleged  conspiracy  to  "  summon  dele 
gates  to  a  National  Convention,  with  a  view  to  subvert 
the  Government,  and  levy  war  upon  the  King."  The 
English  prisoners  were  acquitted,  but  Watt  and  Downie 
were  not  so  fortunate.  Scott  writes  as  follows  to  hia 
aunt,  Miss  Christian  Rutherford,  then  at  Ashestiel,  in 
Selkirkshire :  — 

"  Advocates'  Library,  5th  Sept.  1794. 

"  My  dear  Miss  Christy  will  perceive,  from  the  date  of  this 
epistb,  that  I  have  accomplished  my  purpose  of  coming  to 
town  to  be  present  at  the  trial  of  the  Edinburgh  traitors.  1 
arrr  id  here  on  Monday  evening  from  Kelso,  and  was  presen 


POLITICAL    TRIALS 1794.  259 

at  Watt's  trial  on  Wednesday,  which  displayed  to  the  public 
the  most  atrocious  and  deliberate  plan  of  villany  which  has 
occurred,  perhaps,  in  the  annals  of  Great  Britain.  I  refer  you 
for  particulars  to  the  papers,  and  shall  only  add,  that  the 
equivocations  and  perjury  of  the  witnesses  (most  of  them 
being  accomplices  in  what  they  called  the  great  plan)  set  the 
abilities  of  Mr.  Anstruther,  the  King's  counsel,  in  the  most 
striking  point  of  view.  The  patience  and  temper  with  which 
he  tried  them  on  every  side,  and  screwed  out  of  them  the  evi 
dence  they  were  so  anxious  to  conceal,  showed  much  knowl 
edge  of  human  nature ;  and  the  art  with  which  he  arranged 
the  information  he  received,  made  the  trial,  upon  the  whole, 
the  most  interesting  I  ever  was  present  at.  Downie's  trial  is 
just  now  going  forwards  over  my  head ;  but  as  the  evidence 
is  just  the  same  as  formerly  brought  against  Watt,  is  not  so 
interesting.  You  will  easily  believe  that  on  Wednesday  my 
curiosity  was  too  much  excited  to  retire  at  an  early  hour,  and, 
indeed,  I  sat  in  the  Court  from  seven  in  the  morning  till  two 
the  next  morning ;  but  as  I  had  provided  myself  with  some 
cold  meat  and  a  bottle  of  wine,  I  contrived  to  support  the 
fatigue  pretty  well.  It  strikes  me,  upon  the  whole,  that  the 
plan  of  these  miscreants  might,  from  its  very  desperate  and 
improbable  nature,  have  had  no  small  chance  of  succeeding, 
at  least  as  far  as  concerned  cutting  off  the  soldiers,  and  obtain 
ing  possession  of  the  banks,  besides  shedding  the  blood  of  the 
most  distinguished  inhabitants.  There,  I  think,  the  evil  must 
have  stopped,  unless  they  had  further  support  than  has  yet 
appeared.  Stocks  was  the  prime  mover  of  the  whole,  and 
the  person  who  supplied  the  money ;  and  our  theatrical  dis 
turbances  are  found  to  have  formed  one  link  of  the  chain. 
So,  I  have  no  doubt,  Messrs.  Stocks,  Burk,  &c.,  would  have 
found  out  a  new  way  of  paying  old  debts.  The  people  are 
perfectly  quiescent  upon  this  grand  occasion,  and  seem  to  in 
terest  themselves  very  little  in  the  fate  of  their  soi-disant 
friends.  The  Edinburgh  vomnteers  make  a  respectable  and 
formidable  appearance  already.  They  are  exercised  four 
hours  almost  every  day,  with  all  the  rigour  of  military  dis- 


260  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

cipline.      The  grenadier   company  consists   entirely  of  men 
above  six  feet.     So  much  for  public  news. 

"  As  to  home  intelligence  —  you  know  that  my  mother  anc 
Anne  had  projected,  a  jaunt  to  Inverleithen ;  fate,  however, 
had  dsstined  otherwise.  The  intended  day  of  departure  was 
ushered  in  by  a  most  complete  deluge,  to  which,  and  the  con 
sequent  disappointment,  our  proposed  travellers  did  not  submit 
with  that  Christian  meekness  which  might  have  beseemed.  In 
ghort,  both  within  and  without  doors,  it  was  a  devil  of  a  day. 
The  second  was  like  unto  it.  The  third  day  came  a  post,  a 
killing  post,*  and  in  the  shape  of  a  letter  from  this  fountain 
of  health,  informed  us  no  lodgings  were  to  be  had  there ;  so, 
whatever  be  its  virtues,  or  the  grandeur  attending  a  journey 
to  its  streams,  we  might  as  well  have  proposed  to  visit  the 
river  Jordan,  or  the  walls  of  Jericho.  Not  so  our  heroic  John ; 
he  has  been  arrived  here  for  some  time  (much  the  same  as 
when  he  went  away),  and  has  formed  the  desperate  resolution 
of  riding  out  with  me  to  Kelso  to-morrow  morning.  I  have 
stayed  a  day  longer,  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  a  pair  of  new 
boots  and  buckskin  &cs.,  in  which  the  soldier  is  to  be  equipt. 
I  ventured  to  hint  the  convenience  of  a  roll  of  diaculum  plais- 
ter,  and  a  box  of  the  most  approved  horseman-salve,  in  which 
recommendation  our  doctor  I  warmly  joined.  His  impatience 
for  the  journey  has  been  somewhat  cooled  by  some  inclination 
yesterday  displayed  by  his  charger  (a  pony  belonging  to 
Anne)  to  lay  his  warlike  rider  in  the  dust  —  a  purpose  he  had 
nearly  effected.  He  next  mounted  Queen  Mab,  who  treated 
him  with  little  more  complaisance,  and,  in  carters'  phrase, 
would  neither  hap  nor  wynd  till  she  got  rid  of  him.  Seriously, 
however,  if  Jack  has  not  returned  covered  with  laurels,  a  crop 
which  the  Rock  J  no  longer  produces,  he  has  brought  back  all 
his  own  good-nature,  and  a  manner  considerably  improved,  so 

*  "  The  third  day  comes  a  frost,  a  killing  frost." 

K.  Henry  VIII. 
t  Dr.  Rutherford. 

J  Captain  John  Scott  had  been  for  some  time  with  his  regiment  at 
Gibraltar. 


LETTER    TO    MISS    RUTHERFORD.  261 

lhat  he  is  at  times  very  agreeable  company.  Best  love  to  Misa 
R.,  Jean,  and  Anne  (I  hope  they  are  improved  at  the  battle 
dore),  and  the  boys,  not  forgetting  my  friend  Archy,  though 
least  not  last  in  my  remembrance.  Best  compliments  to  the 
Colonel.*  I  shall  remember  with  pleasure  Ashestiel  hospital 
ity,  and  not  without  a  desire  to  put  it  to  the  proof  next  year. 
Adieu,  ma  chere  amie.  When  you  write,  direct  to  Rosebank, 
and  I  shall  be  a  good  boy,  and  write  you  another  sheet  of  non 
sense  soon.  All  friends  here  well.  Ever  yours  affectionately, 

"WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  letter,  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract,  must 
have  been  written  in  October  or  November  —  Scott  hav 
ing  been  in  Liddesdale,  and  again  in  Perthshire,  during 
the  interval.  It  is  worth  quoting  for  the  little  domestic 
allusions  with  which  it  concludes,  and  which  every  one 
who  has  witnessed  the  discipline  of  a  Presbyterian  family 
of  the  old  school,  at  the  time  of  preparation  for  the  Com 
munion,  will  perfectly  understand.  Scott's  father,  though 
on  particular  occasions  he  could  permit  himself,  like 
Saunders  Fairford,  to  play  the  part  of  a  good  Amphyt- 
ryon,  was  habitually  ascetic  in  his  habits.  I  have  heard 
his  son  tell,  that  it  was  common  with  him,  if  any  one 
observed  that  the  soup  was  good,  to  taste  it  again,  and 
say,  —  "  Yes,  it  is  too  good,  bairns,"  and  dash  a  tumbler 
of  cold  water  into  his  plate.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to 
''magine  with  what  rigidity  he  must  have  enforced  the 
ultra- Catholic  severities  which  marked,  in  those  days, 
the  yearly  or  half-yearly  retreat  of  the  descendants  of 
John  Knox. 

"  To  Miss  Christian  Rutherford,  Ashestiel 

"  Previous  to  my  ramble,  I  stayed  a  single  day  in  town,  to 
mtness  the  exit  of  the  ci-devant  Jacobin,  Mr.  Watt.  It  was  a 

*  Colonel  Russell  of  Ashestiel,  married  to  a  sister  of  Scott's  mother 


262  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

very  solemn  scene,  but  the  pusillanimity  of  the  unfortunate 
victim  was  astonishing,  considering  the  boldness  of  his  nefari 
ous  plans.  It  is  matter  of  general  regret  that  his  associate 
Downie  should  have  received  a  reprieve,  which,  I  understand, 
is  now  prolonged  for  a  second  month,  I  suppose  to  wait  the 
issue  of  the  London  trials.  Our  volunteers  are  now  completely 
embodied,  and  notwithstanding  the  heaviness  of  their  dress, 
have  a  martial  and  striking  appearance.  Their  accuracy  in 
firing  and  manoeuvring  excites  the  surprise  of  military  gentle 
men,  who  are  the  best  judges  of  their  merit  in  that  way.  Tom 
is  very  proud  of  the  grenadier  company,  to  which  he  belongs, 
which  has  indisputably  carried  off  the  palm  upon  all  public 
occasions.  And  now,  give  me  leave  to  ask  you  whether  the 
approaching  winter  does  not  remind  you  of  your  snug  parlour 
in  George's  Street?  Do  you  not  feel  a  little  uncomfortable 
when  you  see 

'  how  bleak  and  bare 
He  wanders  o'er  the  heights  of  Yair  f ' 

Amidst  all  this  regard  for  your  accommodation,  don't  suppose 
I  am  devoid  of  a  little  self-interest  when  I  press  your  speedy 
return  to  Auld  Reekie,  for  I  am  really  tiring  excessively  to 
see  the  said  parlour  again  inhabited.  Besides  that,  I  want  the 
assistance  of  your  eloquence  to  convince  my  honoured  father 
that  nature  did  not  mean  me  either  for  a  vagabond  or  travel 
ling  merchant,  when  she  honoured  me  with  the  wandering  pro 
pensity  lately  so  conspicuously  displayed.  I  saw  Dr-  yesterday, 
who  is  well.  I  did  not  choose  to  intrude  upon  the  little  lady, 
this  being  sermon  week ;  for  the  same  reason  we  are  looking 
very  religious  and  very  sour  at  home.  However,  it  is  with 
some  folk  selon  les  regies,  that  in  proportion  as  they  are  pure 
themselves,  they  are  entitled  to  render  uncomfortable  those 
whom  they  consider  as  less  perfect.  Best  love  to  Miss  R., 
cousins  and  friends  in  general,  and  believe  me  ever  most  sin 
cerely  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

In  July  1795,  a  young  lad,  James  Niven  by  name 


LAW   PAPER 1795.  263 

who  had  served  for  some  time  with  excellent  character 
on  board  a  ship  of  war,  and  been  discharged  in  conse 
quence  of  a  wound  which  disabled  one  of  his  hands,  had 
the  misfortune,  in  firing  off  a  toy  cannon  in  one  of  the 
narrow  wynds  of  Edinburgh,  to  kill  on  the  spot  David 
Knox,  one  of  the  attendants  of  the  Court  of  Session ;  a 
button,  or  some  other  hard  substance,  having  been  acci 
dentally  inserted  with  his  cartridge.  Scott  was  one  of 
his  counsel  when  he  was  arraigned  for  murder,  and  had 
occasion  to  draw  up  a  written  argument  or  information 
for  the  prisoner,  from  which  I  shall  make  a  short  quota 
tion.  Considered  as  a  whole,  the  production  seems  both 
crude  and  clumsy,  but  the  following  passages  have,  I 
think,  several  traces  of  the  style  of  thought  and  language 
which  he  afterwards  made  familiar  to  the  world :  — 

"  Murder,'*  he  writes,  "  or  the  premeditated  slaughter  of  a 
citizen,  is  a  crime  of  so  deep  and  scarlet  a  dye,  that  there  is 
scarce  a  nation  to  be  found  in  which  it  has  not,  from  the  ear 
liest  period,  been  deemed  worthy  of  a  capital  punishment. 
4  He  who  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
shed,'  is  a  general  maxim  which  has  received  the  assent  of  all 
times  and  countries.  But  it  is  equally  certain,  tha*  even  the 
rude  legislators  of  former  days  soon  perceived,  that  the  death 
of  one  man  may  be  occasioned  by  another,  without  the  slayer 
himself  being  the  proper  object  of  the  lex  talionis.  Such  an 
accident  may  happen  either  by  the  carelessness  of  the  killer, 
or  through  that  excess  and  vehemence  of  passion  to  which 
humanity  is  incident.  In  either  case,  though  blameable,  h^ 
ought  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  cool  and  deliberate  assas 
sin,  and  the  species  of  criminality  attaching  it^-lf  to  those  acts 
has  been  distinguished  by  the  term  dolus,  in  opposition  to  the 
milder  term  culpa.  Again,  there  may  be  a  third  species  of 
homic:de,  in  which  the  perpetrator  being  the  innocent  and  un 
fortunate  cause  of  casual  misfortune,  becomes  rather  au  objec* 
of  compassion  than  punishment. 


264  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  Admitting  there  may  have  been  a  certain  degree  of  culpa* 
bility  in  the  panel's  conduct,  still  there  is  one  circumstance 
which  pleads  strongly  in  his  favour,  so  as  to  preclude  all 
presumption  of  dole.  This  is  the  frequent  practice,  whether 
proper  or  improper,  of  using  this  amusement  in  the  streets.  It 
is  a  matter  of  public  notoriety,  that  boys  of  all  ages  and  d^ 
Bcriptions  are,  or  at  least  till  the  late  very  proper  proclamation 
of  the  magistrates  were,  to  be  seen  every  evening  in  almost 
every  corner  of  this  city,  amusing  themselves  with  fire-arms 
and  small  cannons,  and  that  without  being  checked  or  inter 
fered  with.  When  the  panel,  a  poor  ignorant  raw  lad,  lately 
discharged  from  a  ship  of  war  —  certainly  not  the  most  proper 
school  to  learn  a  prudent  aversion  to  unlucky  or  mischievous 
practices  —  observed  the  sons  of  gentlemen  of  the  first  respect 
ability  engaged  in  such  amusements,  unchecked  by  their  par 
ents  or  by  the  magistrates,  surely  it  can  hardly  be  expected 
that  he  should  discover  that  in  imitating  them  in  so  common  a 
practice,  he  was  constituting  himself  hostis  humani  generis,  a 
wretch  the  pest  and  scourge  of  mankind. 

"  There  is,  no  doubt,  attached  to  every  even  the  most  inno 
cent  of  casual  slaughter,  a  certain  degree  of  blame,  inasmuch 
as  almost  every  tiling  of  the  kind  might  have  been  avoided  had 
the  slayer  exhibited  the  strictest  degree  of  diligence.  A  well- 
known  and  authentic  story  will  illustrate  the  proposition.  A 
young  gentleman,  just  married  to  a  young  lady  of  whom  he 
was  passionately  fond,  in  affectionate  trifling  presented  at  her 
a  pistol,  of  which  he  had  drawn  the  charge  some  days  before. 
The  lady,  entering  into  the  joke,  desired  him  to  fire :  he  did  so, 
ani  shot  her  dead ;  the  pistol  having  been  again  charged  by 
Uis  servant  without  his  knowledge.  Can  any  one  read  this 
fctory,  and  feel  any  emotion  but  that  of  sympathy  towards  the 
unhappy  husband  ?  Can  they  ever  connect  the  case  with  an 
idea  of  punishment  ?  Yet,  divesting  it  of  these  interesting 
jircumstances  which  act  upon  the  imagination,  it  is  precisely 
that  of  the  panel  at  your  Lordships'  bar ;  and  though  no  one 
will  pretend  to  say  that  such  a  homicide  is  other  than  casual, 
vet  there  is  not  the  slightest  question  but  it  might  have  been 


LAW    PAPER 1795.  265 

avoided  had  the  killer  taken  the  precaution  of  examining  his 
piece.  But  this  is  not  the  degree  of  culpa  which  can  raise  a 
misfortune  to  the  pitch  of  a  crime.  It  is  only  an  iastance  that 
no  accident  can  take  place  without  its  afterwards  being  dis 
covered  that  the  chief  actor  might  have  avoided  committing  it, 
had  he  been  gifted  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy,  or  with  such  an 
extreme  degree  of  prudence  as  is  almost  equally  rare. 

"  In  the  instance  of  shooting  at  butts,  or  at  a  bird,  the  per 
son  killed  must  have  been  somewhat  in  the  line  previous  tc 
the  discharge  of  the  shot,  otherways  it  could  never  have  come 
near  him.  The  shooter  must  therefore  have  been  guilty  culpce 
levis  sen  leoissimce  in  firing  while  the  deceased  was  in  such  a 
situation.  In  like  manner,  it  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  death 
should  happen  in  consequence  of  a  boxing  or  wrestling  match, 
without  some  excess  upon  the  part  of  the  killer.  Nay,  in  the 
exercise  of  the  martial  amusements  of  our  forefathers,  even  by 
royal  commission,  should  a  champion  be  slain  in  running  his 
barriers,  or  performing  his  tournament,  it  could  scarcely  hap 
pen  without  some  culpa  seu  levis  seu  levissima  on  the  part  of 
his  antagonist.  Yet  all  these  are  enumerated  in  the  English 
law-books  as  instances  of  casual  homicide  only  ;  and  we  may 
therefore  safely  conclude,  that  by  the  law  of  the  sister  country 
a  slight  degref  of  blame  will  not  subject  the  slayer  per  infor- 
tunium  to  the  penalties  of  culpable  homicide. 

"  Guilt,  as  an  object  of  punishment,  has  its  origin  in  the 
mind  and  intention  of  the  actor ;  and  therefore,  where  that  ia 
wanting,  there  is  no  proper  object  of  chastisement.  A  mad- 
jaan,  for  example,  can  no  more  properly  be  said  to  be  guilty 
of  murder  than  the  sword  with  which  he  commits  it,  both 
being  equally  incapable  of  intending  injury.  In  the  present 
case,  in  like  manner,  although  it  ought  no  doubt  to  be  matter 
of  deep  sorrow  and  contrition  to,the  panel  that  his  folly  should 
have  occasioned  the  loss  of  life  to  a  fellow-creature ;  yet  as 
Miat  folly  car  neither  be  termed  malice,  nor  yet  doth  amount 
to  a  gross  negligence,  he  ought  rather  to  be  pitied  than  con 
demned.  The  fact  done  can  never  be  recalled,  and  it  rests  with 
four  Lordships  to  consider  the  case  of  this  unfortunate  young 


266  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

man,  who  has  served  his  country  in  an  humble  though  useful 
station,  —  deserved  such  a  character  as  is  given  him  in  the 
letter  of  his  officers,  —  and  been  disabled  in  that  service.  You 
will  best  judge  how  (considering  he  has  suffered  a  confinement 
of  six  months)  he  can  in  humanity  be  the  object  of  further  or 
severer  punishment,  for  a  deed  of  which  his  mind  at  least,  if 
not  his  hand,  is  guiltless.  When  a  case  is  attended  with  some 
nicety,  your  Lordships  will  allow  mercy  to  incline  the  balance 
of  justice,  well  considering  with  the  legislator  of  the  east,  '  It 
ia  better  ten  guilty  should  escape  than  that  one  innocent  man 
should  perish  in  his  innocence.' " 

The  young  sailor  was  acquitted. 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  Scott's  love-affair.  I  find 
him  writing  as  follows,  in  March  1795,  to  his  cousin, 
William  Scott,  now  Laird  of  Raeburn,  who  was  then  in 
the  East  Indies :  —  "  The  lady  you  allude  to  has  been  in 
town  all  this  winter,  and  going  a  good  deal  into  public, 
which  has  not  in  the  least  altered  the  meekness  of  her 
manners.  Matters,  you  see,  stand  just  as  they  did." 

To  another  friend  he  writes  thus,  from  Rosebank,  on 
the  23d  of  August  1795  :  — 

"  It  gave  me  the  highest  satisfaction  to  find,  by  the  receipt 
of  your  letter  of  the  14th  current,  that  you  have  formed  pre 
cisely  the  same  opinion  with  me,  both  with  regard  to  the  inter 
pretation  of 's  letter  as  highly  flattering  and  favour 
able,  and  to  the  mode  of  conduct  I  ought  to  pursue — for,  after 
all,  what  she  has  pointed  out  is  the  most  prudent  line  of  con 
duct  for  us  both,  at  least  till  better  days,  which,  I  think  myself 
now  entitled  to  suppose,  she,  as  well  as  I  myself,  will  look  for 
ward  to  with  pleasure.  If  you  were  surprised  at  reading  the 
important  billet,  you  may  guess  how  agreeably  I  was  so  at 
receiving  it ;  for  I  had,  to  anticipate  disappointment,  strug 
gled  to  suppress  every  rising  gleam  of  hope ;  and  it  would 
be  very  difficult  to  describe  the  mixed  feelings  her  letter 
occasioned,  which,  entre  nous,  terminated  in  a  very  hearty  fit 


LETTER  FROM  ROSEBANK.  267 

af  crying.  I  read  over  her  epistle  about  ten  times  a-day,  and 
always  with  new  admiration  of  her  generosity  and  candour  — 
and  as  often  take  shame  to  myself  for  the  mean  suspicions, 
which,  after  knowing  her  so  long,  I  could  listen  to,  while  en 
deavouring  to  guess  how  she  would  conduct  herself.  To  tell 
you  the  truth,  I  cannot  but  confess  that  my  amour  propre, 
which  one  would  expect  should  have  been  exalted,  has  suffered 
not  a  little  upon  this  occasion,  through  a  sense  of  my  own  un- 
worthiness,  pretty  similar  to  that  which  afflicted  Linton  upon 
sitting  down  at  Keir's  table.  I  ought  perhaps  to  tell  you, 
what  indeed  you  will  perceive  from  her  letter,  that  I  was 
always  attentive,  while  consulting  with  you  upon  the  subject 
of  my  declaration,  rather  to  under  than  over-rate  the  extent 
of  our  intimacy.  By  the  way,  I  must  not  omit  mentioning 
the  respect  in  which  I  hold  your  knowledge  of  the  fair  sex, 
and  your  capacity  of  advising  in  these  matters,  since  it  cer 
tainly  is  to  your  encouragement  that  I  owe  the  present  situa 
tion  of  my  affairs.  I  wish  to  God,  that,  since  you  have  acted 
as  so  useful  an  auxiliary  during  my  attack,  which  has  suc 
ceeded  in  bringing  the  enemy  to  terms,  you  would  next  sit 
down  before  some  fortress  yourself,  and  were  it  as  impregnable 
as  the  rock  of  Gibraltar,  I  should,  notwithstanding,  have  the 
highest  expectations  of  your  final  success.  Not  a  line  from 
poor  Jack  —  What  can  he  be  doing  ?  Moping,  I  suppose, 
about  some  watering-place,  and  deluging  his  guts  with  specifics 
of  every  kind  —  or  lowering  and  snorting  in  one  corner  of  a 
post-chaise,  with  Kennedy,  as  upright  and  cold  as  a  poker, 
stuck  into  the  other.  As  for  Linton,  and  Crab,  I  anticipate 
with  pleasure  their  marvellous  adventures,  in  the  course  of 
which  Dr.  Black's  self-denying  ordinance  will  run  a  shrewd 
thance  of  being  neglected.*  They  will  be  a  source  of  fun  for 
the  winter  evening  conversations.  Methinks  I  see  the  pair 
ipon  the  mountains  of  Tipperary  —  John  with  a  beard  of 

*  Crab  was  the  nickname  of  a  friend  who  had  accompanied  Fergus- 
«on  this  summer  on  an  Irish  tour.  Dr.  Black,  celebrated  for  his  dis 
coveries  in  chemistry,  was  Adam  Fergusson's  uncle ;  and  had,  it  seems, 
given  the  young  travellers  a  strong  admonition  touching  the  danger* 
»f  Irish  hospitality. 


268  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

three  inches,  united  and  blended  with  his  shaggy  black  lock?, 
an  ellwand-looking  cane  with  a  gilt  head  in  his  hand,  an*1  a 
bundle  in  a  handkerchief  over  his  shoulder,  exciting  the  cupid 
ity  of  every  Irish  raparee  who  passes  him,  by  his  resemblance 
to  a  Jew  pedlar  who  has  sent  forward  his  pack  —  Linton,  tired 
of  trailing  his  long  legs,  exalted  in  state  upon  an  Irish  garron, 
without  stirrups,  and  a  halter  on  its  head,  tempting  every  one 

to  ask  — 

'  Who  is  that  upon  the  pony, 
So  long,  so  lean,  so  raw,  so  bony  1 '  * 

—  calculating,  as  he  moves  along,  the  expenses  of  the  salt 
horse  —  and  grinning  a  ghastly  smile,  when  the  hollow  voice 
of  his  fellow-traveller  observes  — '  God  !  Adam,  if  ye  gang  on 
at  this  rate,  the  eight  shillings  and  sevenpence  halfpenny  will 
never  carry  us  forward  to  my  uncle's  at  Lisburn.'  Enough 
of  a  thorough  Irish  expedition. 

"  We  have  a  great  marriage  towards  here  —  Scott  of  Har 
den,  and  a  daughter  of  Count  Bruhl,  the  famous  chess-player, 
a  lady  of  sixteen  quarters,  half-sister  to  the  Wyndhams.  I 
wish  they  may  come  down  soon,  as  we  shall  have  fine  racket 
ing,  of  which  I  will,  probably,  get  my  share.  I  think  of  being 
in  town  sometime  next  month,  but  whether  for  good  and  all, 
or  only  for  a  visit,  I  am  not  certain.  O  for  November  !  Our 
meeting  will  be  a  little  embarrassing  one.  How  will  she  look, 
&c.  &c.  &c.,  are  the  important  subjects  of  my  present  conjec 
tures  —  how  different  from  what  they  were  three  weeks  ago ! 
I  give  you  leave  to  laugh  when  I  tell  you  seriously,  I  had  be- 
grira  to  '  dwindle,  peak,  and  pine,'  upon  the  subject  —  but  now, 
after  the  charge  I  have  received,  it  were  a  shame  to  resemble 
Pharaoh's  lean  kine.  If  good  living  and  plenty  of  exercise 
oan  avert  that  calamity,  I  am  in  little  danger  of  disobedience, 
and  so,  to  conclude  classically, 

"  Dicite  lo  pcean,  et  lo  bis  dicite  pcean  !  — 
"  Jubeo  te  bene  valere, 

"  GUALTERUS  SCOTT.** 

*  These  lines  are  part  of  a  song  on  Little-tony — i.  e.  the  Parliamen 
tary  orator  Littleton.  They  are  quoted  in  Bos  well's  Life  of  Johnson 
originally  published  in  1791. 


TRANSLATION    OF    LENORE.  269 

I  have  had  much  hesitation  about  inserting  the  preced 
ing  letter,  but  could  not  make  up  my  mind  to  omit  what 
seems  to  me  a  most  exquisite  revelation  of  the  whole 
character  of  Scott  at  this  critical  period  of  his  history, 
both  literary  and  personal ;  —  more  especially  of  his 
habitual  effort  to  suppress,  as  far  as  words  were  con 
cerned,  the  more  tender  feelings,  which  were  in  no  heart 
deeper  than  in  his. 

It  must,  I  think,  have  been,  while  he  was  indulging  his 
vagabond  vein,  during  the  autumn  of  1795,  that  Mrs. 
Barbauld  paid  her  visit  to  Edinburgh,  and  entertained  a 
party  at  Mr.  Dugald  Stewart's,  by  reading  Mr.  William 
Taylor's  then  unpublished  version  of  Burger's  Lenore. 
In  the  essay  on  Imitation  of  Popular  Poetry,  the  reader 
nas  a  full  account  of  the  interest  with  which  Scott  heard, 
some  weeks  afterwards,  a  friend's  imperfect  recollections 
of  this  performance ;  the  anxiety  with  which  he  sought 
after  a  copy  of  the  original  German  ;  the  delight  with 
which  he  at  length  perused  it ;  and  how,  having  just  been 
reading  the  specimens  of  ballad  poetry  introduced  into 
Lewis's  Romance  of  The  Monk,  he  called  to  mind  the 
early  facility  of  versification  which  had  lain  so  long  in 
abeyance,  and  ventured  to  promise  his  friend  a  rhymed 
translation  of  Lenore  from  his  own  pen.  The  friend  in 
question  was  Miss  Cranstoun,  afterwards  Countess  of 
Purgstall,  the  sister  of  his  friend  George  Cranstoun,  late 
Lord  Corehouse.  He  began  the  task,  he  tells  us,  after 
supper,  and  did  not  retire  to  bed  until  he  had  finished  it, 
having  by  that  time  worked  himself  into  a  state  of  excite 
ment  which  set  sleep  at  defiance. 

Next  morning,  before  breakfast,  he  carried  his  MS.  to 
Miss  Cranstoun,  who  was  not  only  delighted  but  aston 
ished  at  it ;  for  I  have  seen  a  letter  of  hers  to  a  common 


270  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

friend  in  the  country,  in  which  she  says  —  "  Upon  my 
word,  Walter  Scott  is  going  to  turn  out  a  poet  —  some 
thing  of  a  cross  I  think  between  Burns  and  Gray."  The 
same  day  he  read  it  also  to  his  friend  Sir  Alexander 
Wood,  who  retains  a  vivid  recollection  of  the  high  strain 
of  enthusiasm  into  which  he  had  been  exalted  by  dwelling 
on  the  wild  unearthly  imagery  of  the  German  bard.  "  He 
read  it  over  to  me,"  says  Sir  Alexander,  "  in  a  very  slow 
and  solemn  tone,  and  after  we  had  said  a  few  words  about 
its  merits,  continued  to  look  at  the  fire  silent  and  musing 
for  some  minutes,  until  he  at  length  burst  out  with  'I 
wish  to  Heaven  I  could  get  a  skull  and  two  cross-bones/  " 
Wood  said,  that  if  Scott  would  accompany  him  to  the 
house  of  John  Bell,  the  celebrated  surgeon,  he  had  no 
doubt  this  wish  might  be  easily  gratified.  They  went 
thither  accordingly  on  the  instant ;  —  Mr.  Bell  smiled  on 
hearing  the  object  of  their  visit,  and  pointing  to  a  closet, 
at  the  corner  of  his  library,  bade  Walter  enter  and  choose. 
From  a  well-furnished  museum  of  mortality,  he  selected 
forthwith  what  seemed  to  him  the  handsomest  skull  and 
pair  of  cross-bones  it  contained,  and  wrapping  them  in 
his  handkerchief,  carried  the  formidable  bundle  home 
to  George's  Square.  The  trophies  were  immediately 
mounted  on  the  top  of  his  little  bookcase  ;  and  when 
Wood  visited  him,  after  many  years  of  absence  from  this 
country,  he  found  them  in  possession  of  a  similar  position 
n  his  dressing-room  at  Abbotsford. 

All  this  occurred  in  the  beginning  of  April  1796.  A 
few  days  afterwards,  Scott  went  to  pay  a  visit  at  a 
country  house,  where  he  expected  to  meet  the  "  lady  of 
his  love."  Jane  Anne  Cranstoun  was  in  the  secret  of  his 
attachment,  and  knew,  that  however  doubtful  might  be 
Miss 's  feeling  on  that  subject,  she  had  a  high 


KING'S  BIRTHDAY — 1796.  271 

admiration  of  Scott's  abilities,  and  often  corresponded 
with  him  on  literary  matters ;  so,  after  he  had  left  Edin 
burgh,  it  occurred  to  her  that  she  might  perhaps  forward 
his  views  in  this  quarter,  by  presenting  him  in  the  char 
acter  of  a  printed  author.  William  Erskine  being  called 
into  her  councils,  a  few  copies  of  the  ballad  were  forth 
with  thrown  off  in  the  most  elegant  style,  and  one,  richly 
bound  and  blazoned,  followed  Scott  in  the  course  of  a  few 
iays  to  the  country.  The  verses  were  read  and  approved 
of,  and  Miss  Cranstoun  at  least  flattered  herself  that  he 
had  not  made  his  first  appearance  in  types  to  no  pur 
pose.* 

I  ought  to  have  mentioned  before,  that  in  June  1795 
he  was  appointed  one  of  the  curators  of  the  Advocates' 
Library,  an  office  always  reserved  for  those  members  of 
the  Faculty  who  have  the  reputation  of  superior  zeal  in 
literary  affairs.  He  had  for  colleagues  David  Hume,  the 
Professor  of  Scots  Law,  and  Malcolm  Laing,  the  histo 
rian  ;  and  his  discharge  of  his  functions  must  have  given 
satisfaction,  for  I  find  him  further  nominated,  in  March 
1796,  together  with  Mr.  Robert  Hodgson  Cay  —  an  ac 
complished  gentleman,  afterwards  Judge  of  the  Admi 
ralty  Court  in  Scotland  —  to  "  put  the  Faculty's  cabinet 
of  medals  in  proper  arrangement." 

On  the  4th  of  June  1796  (the  birthday  of  George 
III.),  there  seems  to  have  been  a  formidable  riot  in 
Edinburgh,  and  Scott  is  found  again  in  the  front.  On 
the  5th,  he  writes  as  follows  to  his  aunt,  Christian 
Rutherford,  who  was  then  in  the  north  of  Scotland,  and 
had  meant  to  visit,  among  other  places,  the  residence  of 
the  uchere  adorable." 

*  This  story  was  told  by  the  Countess  of  Purgstall  on  her  death- bed 
lo  Captain  Basil  Hall.  See  his  Schloss  Rainfeld,  p.  333. 


272  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


"  Edinburgh,  5th  June  1796. 

"  Ma  Chere  Amie,  —  Nothing  doubting  that  your  curiosity 
will  be  upon  the  tenters  to  hear  the  wonderful  events  of  the 
long-expected  4th  of  June,  I  take  the  pen  to  inform  you  that 
not  one  worth  mentioning  has  taken  place.  Were  1  inclined 
to  prolixity,  I  might,  indeed,  narrate  at  length  how  near  a 
thousand  gentlemen  (myself  among  the  number)  offered  their 
services  to  the  magistrates  to  act  as  constables  for  the  preserva 
tion  of  the  peace  —  how  their  services  were  accepted  —  wLat 
fine  speeches  were  made  upon  the  occasion  —  how  they  were 
furnished  with  pretty  painted  brown  batons  —  how  they  were 
assembled  in  the  aisle  of  the  New  Church,  and  treated  with 
claret  and  sweetmeats  —  how  Sir  John  Whiteford  was  chased 
by  the  mob,  and  how  Tom,  Sandy  Wood,  and  I  rescued  him, 
and  dispersed  his  tormentors  a  beaux  coups  de  batons  —  how  the 
Justice-Clerk's  windows  were  broke  by  a  few  boys,  and  how  a 
large  body  of  constables  and  a  press-gang  of  near  two  hundred 
men  arrived,  and  were  much  disappointed  at  finding  the  coast 
entirely  clear ;  with  many  other  matters  of  equal  importance, 
but  of  which  you  must  be  contented  to  remain  in  ignorance 
till  you  return  to  your  castle.  Seriously,  everything,  with  the 
exception  of  the  very  trifling  circumstances  above  mentioned, 
was  perfectly  quiet  —  much  more  so  than  during  any  King's 
birthday  I  can  recollect.  That  very  stillness,  however,  shows 
that  something  is  brewing  among  our  friends  the  Democrats, 
which  they  will  take  their  own  time  of  bringing  forward.  By 
•lie  wise  precautions  of  the  magistrates,  or  rather  of  the  pro 
vost,  and  the  spirited  conduct  of  the  gentlemen,  I  hope  their 
designs  will  be  frustrated.  Our  association  meets  to-night, 
when  we  are  to  be  divided  into  districts  according  to  the  place 
of  our  abode,  places  of  rendezvous  and  captains  named ;  so  that, 
upon  the  hoisting  of  a  flag  on  the  Tron-steeple,  and  ringing  out 
all  the  large  bells,  we  can  be  on  duty  in  less  than  five  minuter 
t  am  sorry  to  say  that  the  complexion  of  the  town  seems  to 
justify  all  precautions  of  this  kind.  I  hope  we  shall  demean 
mrselves  as  quiet  and  peaceable  magistrates ;  and  intend,  fo? 


LOVE-AFFAIR.  273 

the  purpose  of  learning  the  duties  of  my  new  office,  to  con  dili 
gently  the  instructions  delivered  to  the  watch  by  our  brother 
Dogberry,  of  facetious  memory.  So  much  for  information. 
By  way  of  inquiry,  pray  let  me  know  —  that  is,  when  you  find 
any  idle  hour  —  how  you  accomplished  the  perilous  passage 
of  her  Majestie's  Ferry  without  the  assistance  and  escort  of 
your  preux-chevalier,  and  whether  you  will  receive  them  on 
your  return  —  how  Miss  R.  and  you  are  spending  your  time, 
whether  stationary  or  otherwise  —  above  all,  whether  you  have 
been  at  ******,  and  all  the  &cs.  &cs.  which  the  question 
involves.  Having  made  out  a  pretty  long  scratch,  which,  as 
Win  Jenkins  says,  will  take  you  some  time  to  decipher,  I  shall 
only  inform  you  farther,  that  I  shall  tire  excessively  till  you 
return  to  your  shop.  I  beg  to  be  remembered  to  Miss  Kerr, 
and  in  particular  to  La  Belle  Jeanne.  Best  love  to  Miss 
Rutherford ;  and  believe  me  ever,  my  dear  Miss  Christy,  sin 
cerely  and  affectionately  your  WALTER  SCOTT." 

During  the  autumn  of  1796  he  visited  again  his  fa 
vourite  haunts  in  Perthshire  and  Forfarshire.  It  was  in 
the  course  of  this  tour  that  he  spent  a  day  or  two  at 
Montrose  with  his  old  tutor  Mitchell,  and  astonished  and 
grieved  that  worthy  Presbyterian  by  his  zeal  about 
witches  and  fairies.*  The  only  letter  of  his,  written 
during  this  expedition,  that  I  have  recovered,  was  ad 
dressed  to  another  of  his  clerical  friends  —  one  by  no 
means  of  Mitchell's  stamp  —  Mr.  Walker,  the  minister 
of  Dunnottar,  and  it  is  chiefly  occupied  with  an  account 
of  his  researches  at  a  vitrified  fort,  in  Kincardineshire, 
commonly  called  Lady  FenellcCs  Castle,  and,  according 
to  tradition,  the  scene  of  the  murder  of  Kenneth  III. 
While  in  the  north,  he  visited  also  the  residence  of  the 
lady  who  had  now  for  so  many  years  been  the  object 
»f  his  attachment ;  and  that  his  reception  was  not  ade-« 

*  See  ante,  p.  5/. 
VOL.  i.  18 


274  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

quate  to  his  expectations,  may  be  gathered  pretty  clearly 
from  some  expressions  in  a  letter  addressed  to  him  when  at 
Montrose  by  his  friend  and  confidante,  Miss  Cranstoun :  — • 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Post-Office,  Montrose. 

"  Dear  Scott,  —  Far  be  it  from  me  to  affirm  that  there  are 
no  diviners  in  the  land.  The  voice  of  the  people  and  the 
voice  of  God  are  loud  in  their  testimony.  Two  years  ago, 
when  I  was  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Montrose,  we  had  re 
course  for  amusement  one  evening  to  chiromancy,  or,  as  the 
vulgar  say,  having  our  fortunes  read  ;  and  read  mine  were  in 
such  a  sort,  that  either  my  letters  must  have  been  inspected, 
or  the  devil  was  by  in  his  own  proper  person.  I  never  men 
tioned  the  circumstance  since,  for  obvious  reasons ;  but  now 
that  you  are  on  the  spot,  I  feel  it  my  bounden  duty  to  conjure 
you  not  to  put  your  shoes  rashly  from  off  your  feet,  for  you 
are  not  standing  on  holy  ground. 

"  I  bless  the  gods  for  conducting  your  poor  dear  soul  safely 
to  Perth.  When  I  consider  the  wilds,  the  forests,  the  lakes, 
the  rocks  —  and  the  spirits  in  which  you  must  have  whispered 
to  then'  startled  echoes,  it  amazeth  me  how  you  escaped.  Had 
you  but  dismissed  your  little  squire  and  Earwig,*  and  spent  a 
few  days  as  Orlando  would  have  done,  all  posterity  might  have 
profited  by  it ;  but  to  trot  quietly  away,  without  so  much  as 
one  stanza  to  despair  —  never  talk  to  me  of  love  again  — 
never,  never,  never !  I  am  dying  for  your  collection  of  ex 
ploits.  When  will  you  return  ?  In  the  meantime,  Heaven 
speed  you !  Be  sober,  and  hope  to  the  end. 

"  William  Taylor's  translation  of  your  ballad  is  published, 
and  so  inferior,  that  I  wonder  we  could  tolerate  it.  Du- 
gald  Stewart  read  yours  to  *  *  *  *  the  other  day.  When  he 
came  to  the  fetter  dance,f  he  looked  up,  and  poor  ***** 

*  A  servant-boy  and  pony. 

t  "  '  Dost  fear?  dost  fear ?  —  The  moon  shines  clear:  — 

Dost  fear  to  ride  with  me  ? 
Hurrah !  hurrah !  the  dead  can  ride ! '  — 
4  Oh,  William,  let  them  be ! ' 


LOVE-AFFAIR.  275 

was  siting  with  his  hands  nailed  to  his  knees,  and  the  big 
tears  rolling  down  his  innocent  nose  in  so  piteous  a  manner, 
that  Mr.  Stewart  could  not  help  bursting  out  a-laughing.  An 
angry  man  was  *****.  I  have  seen  another  edition,  too, 
but  it  is  below  contempt.  So  many  copies  make  the  ballad 
famous,  so  that  every  day  adds  to  your  renown. 

"  This  here  place  is  very,  very  dull.  Erskine  is  in  London ; 
my  dear  Thomson  at  Daily  ;  Macfarlan  hatching  Kant  —  and 
George  *  Fountainhall.f  I  have  nothing  more  to  tell  you,  but 
that  I  am  most  affectionately  yours.  Many  an  anxious  thought 
I  have  about  you.  Farewell.  —  J.  A.  C." 

The  affair  in  which  this  romantic  creature  took  so 
lively  an  interest,  was  now  approaching  its  end.  It  was 
known,  before  this  autumn  closed,  that  the  lady  of  his 
vows  had  finally  promised  her  hand  to  his  amiable  rival 

" '  See  there !  see  there !    What  yonder  swings 

And  creaks  'mid  whistling  rain  ? '  — 
Gibbet  and  steel,  the  accursed  wheel, 
A  murderer  in  his  chain. 

" '  Hollo !  thou  felon,  follow  here, 

To  bridal  bed  we  ride; 
And  thou  shalt  prance  a  fetter  dance 
Before  me  and  my  bride.' 

"  And  hurry,  hurry !  clash,  clash,  clash  1 

The  wasted  form  descends ; 
And  fleet  as  wind,  through  hazel  bush, 
The  wild  career  attends. 

"  Tramp,  tramp !  along  the  land  they  rode; 

Splash,  splash !  along  the  sea ; 
The  scourge  is  red,  the  spur  drops  blood, 
The  flashing  pebbles  flee." 

*  George  Cranstoun,  late  Lord  Corehonse. 
t  Decisions  by  Lord  Fountainhall. 


$76  LIFE    OF   SIR    WAXTRR   SCOTT. 

and.  when  the  fact  was  announced,  some  of  those  wlw 
anew  Scott  the  best,  appear  to  have  entertained  very 
serious  apprehensions  as  to  the  effect  which  the  disap- 
nent  might  have  upon  his  feelings.  For  example, 
one  of  those  brothers  of  tat  Ifamtaut  wrote  as  fol 
lows  to  another  of  them,  on  the  12th  October  1796 :  — 

*  Mr.  marries  Miss .     This  is  not  good  news, 

I  always  dreaded  there  was  some  self-deception  on  the 
part  of  our  romantic  friend,  and  I  now  shudder  at  the 
violence  of  his  most  irritable  and  ungovernable  mind. 
Who  is  it  that  says,  *  Men  have  died,  and  worms  have 
aatoo  them,  but  not  for  LOTK  ? '  I  hope  sincerely  it  may 
be  verified  on  this  occasion." 

Scott  had,  however,  in  all  likelihood,  digested  his 
agony  daring  the  solitary  ride  in  the  Highlands  to  which 
Miss  Cranstoun's  last  letter  alludes, 

Talking  of  this  story  with  Lord  Kinedder,  I  once 
asked  him  whether  Scott  never  made  it  the  subject  of 
verses  at  the  period.  His  own  confession,  that,  even 
during  the  time  when  he  had  laid  aside  the  habit  of  ver- 
gnrfctrrmj  btt  did  ana^Hm^  commit  u  a  sonnet  on  a  mis 
tress's  eyebrow,"  had  not  then  appeared.  Lord  Kinedder 
answered.  —  -  O  yes,  he  made  many  little  stanzas  about 
the  lady,  and  he  sometimes  showed  them  to  Cranstoun, 
Clerk,  and  myself —  but  we  really  thought  them  in  gen 
eral  very  poor.  Two  things  of  the  kind,  however,  have 
been  preserved  —  and  one  of  them  was  done  just  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  business."  He  then  took  down  a 
fnhuiie.  of  the  English  Minstrelsy,  and  pointed  out  to  me 
sane  lines  On  a  Violet,  which  had  not  at  that  time  been 
included  in  Scott's  collected  works.  Lord  Kinedder  read 
them  over  in  his  usual  impressive,  though  not  quite 
jnaffected,  manner,  and  said  —  *•  I  remember  well,  that 


LOr£r-AFT  AJE.  .  7  7 

when  I  fir*  «aw  theie,  I  told  hoi  they  were  hi*  be* 
but  lie  had  touched  them  up  afterwards." 

*  TW  riofct  in  far  p**»w0«l  tov«r, 


-    -.  • 
*  Tboogi  finr  far  gow  *T  «zve  tee 


I'r*  tees  aa 
Mote  Mreet  thnw^i 


:   .  •    .     . ,  -  -      . :    .  - 

Kie  yet  the  mm.  be  p«t  UK  MOVIT, 

.  "  • 

':'-.•-.-.  -  .  '    . 

In  tnrning  orcr  *  rohmie  of  M8u  jmMiay  I  ha^e  fbond 
•  copy  of  Tersea,  whidi,  from  the  hand,  Seott  had  evi- 
dently  written  down  within  the  last  ten  jean  of  his  fife. 
They  are  headed — "To  Time^by  a  Lady;"  bot  cer 
tain  initials  on  the  baek  fatiafy  me,  diat  the  «mthuic«i 
wa-  no  other  than  die  object  of  his  first  paaqion.*  I 
think  I  mri^t  be  paidoned  for  tran*eribin<r  the  lines  which 
had  dwelt  so  long  on  hi*  memory— -leavh!^  it  to  the 
reader's  fency  to  picture  the  mood  of  mind  in  -ariiieh  the 
fingers  of  a  grey-haired  man  may  bare  traced  such  a 
relic  of  his  yomhfal  dreams :  — 


.--•-.:  ---      - 

•.": 

V     .         •  - 


• 

.'.-.-•  •-."-,;-.-..-:•..: 

. 

-         .-         .:  :•-.:_..,.,:. 


278  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  'Tis  thine  the  wounded  soul  to  heal 

That  hopeless  bleeds  from  sorrow's  smart, 
From  stern  misfortune's  shaft  to  steal 
The  barb  that  rankles  in  the  heart. 

"  What  though  with  thee  the  roses  fly, 

And  jocund  youth's  gay  reign  is  o'er; 
Though  dimm'd  the  lustre  of  the  eye, 
And  hope's  vain  dreams  enchant  no  more? 

"  Yet  in  thy  train  come  dove-eyed  peace, 
Indifference  with  her  heart  of  snow ; 
At  her  cold  couch,  lo !  sorrows  cease, 
No  thorns  beneath  her  roses  grow. 

"  0  haste  to  grant  thy  suppliant's  prayer, 

To  me  thy  torpid  calm  impart; 
Rend  from  my  brow  youth's  garland  fair, 

But  take  the  thorn  that's  in  my  heart. 

tt  Ah !  why  do  fabling  poets  tell 

That  thy  fleet  wings  outstrip  the  wind? 
Why  feign  thy  course  of  joy  the  knell, 
And  call  thy  slowest  pace  unkind? 

'To  me  thy  tedious  feeble  pace 

Comes  laden  with  the  weight  of  years; 
With  sighs  I  view  morn's  blushing  face, 
And  hail  mild  evening  with  my  tears." 

I  venture  to  recall  here  to  the  reader's  memory  th« 
opening  of  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Peveril  of  the  Peak, 
written  twenty-six  years  after  the  date  of  this  youthful 
disappointment. 

Ah  me !  for  aught  that  ever  I  could  read; 

Could  ever  hear  by  tale  or  history, 

The  course  of  true  love  never  did  run  smooth ! 

Midsummer  NighVs  Dream. 

"  The  celebrated  passage  which  we  have  prefixed  to 
this  chapter,  has,  like  most  observations  of  the  same 


LOVE-AFFAIR.  279 

author,  its  foundation  in  real  experience.  The  period  at 
which  love  is  formed  for  the  first  time,  and  felt  most 
strongly,  is  seldom  that  at  which  there  is  much  prospect 
of  its  being  brought  to  a  happy  issue.  The  state  of  arti 
ficial  society  opposes  many  complicated  obstructions  to 
early  marriages ;  and  the  chance  is  very  great,  that  suet 
obstacles  prove  insurmountable.  In  fine,  there  are  few 
men  who  do  not  look  back  in  secret  to  some  period  of 
their  youth,  at  which  a  sincere  and  early  affection  was 
repulsed  or  betrayed,  or  became  abortive  from  opposing 
circumstances.  It  is  these  little  passages  of  secret  his 
tory,  which  leave  a  tinge  of  romance  in  every  bosom, 
scarce  permitting  us,  even  in  the  most  busy  or  the  most 
advanced  period  of  life,  to  listen  with  total  indifference  to 
a  tale  of  true  love." 


280  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

Publication  of  Ballads  after  Burger —  Scott  Quarter-Master  of 
the  Edinburgh  Light-horse  —  Excursion  to  Cumberland  — 
Gilsland  Wells  —  Miss  Carpenter  —  Marriage. 

1796-1797. 

REBELLING,  as  usual,  against  circumstances,  Scott 
seems  to  have  turned  with  renewed  ardour  to  his  lit 
erary  pursuits ;  and  in  that  same  October,  1796,  he  was 
"  prevailed  on,"  as  he  playfully  expresses  it,  "  by  the  re 
quest  of  friends,  to  indulge  his  own  vanity,  by  publishing 
the  translation  of  Lenore,  with  that  of  the  Wild  Hunts 
man,  also  from  Burger,  in  a  thin  quarto."  The  little  vol 
ume,  which  has  no  author's  name  on  the  title-page,  was 
printed  for  Manners  and  Miller  of  Edinburgh.  The  first 
named  of  these  respectable  publishers  had  been  a  fellow- 
student  in  the  German  class  of  Dr.  Willich ;  and  this 
circumstance  probably  suggested  the  negotiation.  It  was 
conducted  by  William  Erskine,  as  appears  from  his  post 
script  to  a  letter  addressed  to  Scott  by  his  sister,  who, 
before  it  reached  its  destination,  had  become  the  wife  of 
Mr.  Campbell  Colquhoun  of  Clathick  and  Killermont  — 
in  after-days  Lord  Advocate  of  Scotland.  This  was 
another  of  Scott's  dearest  female  friends.  The  humble 
home  which  she  shared  with  her  brother  during  his  early 
struggles  at  the  Bar,  had  been  the  scene  of  many  of  his 


BALLADS    FROM    BURGER.  281 

happiest  hours;  and  her  letter  affords  such  a  pleasing 
idea  of  the  warm  affectionateness  of  the  little  circle,  that 
I  cannot  forbear  inserting  it :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Rosebank,  Kelso. 

"  Monday  Evening. 

"  If  it  were  not  that  etiquette  and  I  were  constantly  at  war, 
I  should  think  myself  very  blameable  in  thus  trespassing 
against  one  of  its  laws;  but  as  it  is  long  since  I  forswore 
its  dominion,  I  have  acquired  a  prescriptive  right  to  act  as  I 
will  —  and  I  shall  accordingly  anticipate  the  station  of  a  ma 
tron  in  addressing  a  young  man. 

"  I  can  express  but  a  very,  very  little  of  what  I  feel,  and 
shall  ever  feel,  for  your  unintermitting  friendship  and  atten 
tion.  I  have  ever  considered  you  as  a  brother,  and  shall  now 
think  myself  entitled  to  make  even  larger  claims  on  your  con 
fidence.  Well  do  I  remember  the  dark  conference  we  lately 
held  together  !  The  intention  of  unfolding  my  own  future  fate 
was  often  at  my  lips. 

"  I  cannot  tell  you  my  distress  at  leaving  this  house,  wherein 
I  have  enjoyed  so  much  real  happiness,  and  giving  up  the  ser 
vice  of  so  gentle  a  master,  whose  yoke  was  indeed  easy.  I 
will  therefore  only  commend  him  to  your  care  as  the  last  be 
quest  of  Mary  Anne  Erskine,  and  conjure  you  to  continue  to 
each  other  through  all  your  pilgrimage  as  you  have  commenced 
it.  May  every  happiness  attend  you  !  Adieu  ! 

"  Your  most  sincere  friend  and  sister, 

"M.  A.  E." 

Mr.  Erskine  writes  on  the  other  page  —  "  The  poems 
are  gorgeous,  but  I  have  made  no  bargain  with  any  book 
seller.  I  have  told  M.  and  M.  that  I  won't  be  satisfied 
with  indemnity,  but  an  offer  must  be  made.  They  will 
be  out  before  the  end  of  the  week."  On  what  terms  the 
publication  really  took  place,  I  know  not. 


282  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

It  has  already  been  mentioned,  that  Scott  owed  his 
copy  of  Burger's  works  to  the  young  lady  of  Harden, 
whose  marriage  occurred  in  the  autumn  of  1795.  She 
was  daughter  of  Count  Briihl  of  Martkirchen,  long  Saxon 
ambassador  at  the  Court  of  St.  James's,  by  his  wife  Alme- 
ria,  Countess-Dowager  of  Egremont.  The  young  kins 
man  was  introduced  to  her  soon  after  her  arrival  at  Mer- 
toun,  and  his  attachment  to  German  studies  excited  her 
attention  and  interest.  Mrs.  Scott  supplied  him  with 
many  standard  German  books,  besides  Burger ;  and  the 
gift  of  an  Adelung's  dictionary  from  his  old  ally,  George 
Constable  (Jonathan  Oldbuck),  enabled  him  to  master 
their  contents  sufficiently  for  the  purposes  of  translation. 
The  ballad  of  the  Wild  Huntsman  appears  to  have  been 
executed  during  the  month  that  preceded  his  first  publi 
cation  ;  and  he  was  thenceforth  engaged  in  a  succession 
of  versions  from  the  dramas  of  Meier  and  Iffland,  several 
of  which  are  still  extant  in  his  MS.,  marked  1796  and 
1797.  These  are  all  in  prose  like  their  originals ;  but 
he  also  versified  at  the  same  time  some  lyrical  fragments 
of  Goethe,  as,  for  example,  the  Morlachian  Ballad, 

"  What  yonder  glimmers  so  white  on  the  mountain," 

and  the  song  from  Claudina  von  Villa  Bella.  He  con 
sulted  his  friend  at  Mertoun  on  all  these  essays ;  and  I 
have  often  heard  him  say,  that,  among  those  many  "  obli 
gations  of  a  distant  date  which  remained  impressed  on  his 
memory,  after  a  life  spent  in  a  constant  interchange  of 
friendship  and  kindness,"  he  counted  not  as  the  least,  the 
lady's  frankness  in  correcting  his  Scotticisms,  and  more 
especially  his  Scottish  rhymes. 

His  obligations  to  this  lady  were  indeed  various ;  but 
I  doubt,  after  all,  whether  these  were  the  most  important. 


MRS.    SCOTT    OF   HARDEN.  283 

He  used  to  say,  that  she  was  the  first  woman  of  real 
fashion  that  took  him  up  ;  that  she  used  the  privileges  of 
her  sex  and  station  in  the  truest  spirit  of  kindness ;  set 
him  right  as  to  a  thousand  little  trifles,  which  no  one  else 
would  have  ventured  to  notice ;  and,  in  short,  did  for  him 
what  no  one  but  an  elegant  woman  can  do  for  a  young 
man,  whose  early  days  have  been  spent  in  narrow  and 
provincial  circles.  "  When  I  first  saw  Sir  Walter,"  she 
writes  to  me,  "  he  was  about  four  or  five-and-twenty,  but 
looked  much  younger.  He  seemed  bashful  and  awkward ; 
but  there  were  from  the  first  such  gleams  of  superior 
sense  and  spirit  in  his  conversation,  that  I  was  hardly 
surprised  when,  after  our  acquaintance  had  ripened  a 
little,  I  felt  myself  to  be  talking  with  a  man  of  genius. 
He  was  most  modest  about  himself,  and  showed  his  little 
pieces  apparently  without  any  consciousness  that  they 
could  possess  any  claim  on  particular  attention.  Nothing 
so  easy  and  good-humoured  as  the  way  in  which  he  re 
ceived  any  hints  I  might  offer,  when  he  seemed  to  be 
tampering  with  the  King's  English.  I  remember  partic 
ularly  how  he  laughed  at  himself,  when  I  made  him  take 
notice  that  *  the  little  two  dogs,'  in  some  of  his  lines,  did 
not  please  an  English  ear  accustomed  to  '  the  two  little 
dogs/" 

Nor  was  this  the  only  person  at  Mertoun  who  took  a 
lively  interest  in  his  pursuits.  Harden  entered  into  all 
the  feelings  of  his  beautiful  bride  on  this  subject ;  and  his 
mother,  the  Lady  Diana  Scott,  daughter  of  the  last  Earl 
of  Marchmont,  did  so  no  less.  She  had  conversed,  in  her 
early  days,  with  the  brightest  ornaments  of  the  cycle  of 
Queen  Anne,  and  preserved  rich  stores  of  anecdote,  well 
calculated  to  gratify  the  curiosity  and  excite  the  ambition 
of  a  young  enthusiast  in  literature.  Lady  Diana  soon 


284  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

appreciated  the  minstrel  of  the  clan  ;  and,  surviving  to 
a  remarkable  age,  she  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  him 
at  the  height  of  his  eminence  —  the  solitary  person  who 
could  give  the  author  of  Marmion  personal  reminiscences 
of  Pope.* 

On  turning  to  James  Ballantyne's  Memorandum  (already 
quoted),  I  find  an  account  of  Scott's  journey  from  Rose- 
bank  to  Edinburgh,  in  the  November  after  the  Ballads 
from  Biirger  were  published,  which  gives  an  interesting 
notion  of  his  literary  zeal  and  opening  ambition  at  this 
remarkable  epoch  of  his  life.  Mr.  Ballantyne  had  settled 
in  Kelso  as  a  solicitor  in  1795  ;  but,  not  immediately  ob 
taining  much  professional  practice,  time  hung  heavy  on 
his  hands,  and  he  willingly  listened,  in  the  summer  of 
1796,  to  a  proposal  of  some  of  the  neighbouring  nobility 
and  gentry  respecting  the  establishment  of  a  weekly 
newspaper,  f  in  opposition  to  one  of  a  democratic  ten 
dency,  then  widely  circulated  in  Roxburghshire  and  the 
other  Border  counties.  He  undertook  the  printing  and 
editing  of  this  new  journal,  and  proceeded  to  London,  in 
order  to  engage  correspondents  and  make  other  neces 
sary  preparations.  While  thus  for  the  first  time  in  the 
metropolis,  he  happened  to  meet  with  two  authors,  whose 
reputations  were  then  in  full  bloom;  namely,  Thomas 
Holcroft  and  William  Godwin,  —  the  former,  a  popular 
dramatist  and  novelist;  the  latter,  a  novelist  of  far 
greater  merit,  but  "  still  more  importantly  distinguished," 
says  the  Memorandum  before  me,  "  by  those  moral,  legal, 
political,  and  religious  heterodoxies,  which  his  talents 

*  Mr.  Scott  of  Harden' s  right  to  the  peerage  of  Polwarth,  as  repre 
senting,  through  his  mother,  the  line  of  Marchmont,  was  allowed  bj 
the  House  of  Lords  in  1835. 

t  The  Kelso  Mail. 


JAMES    BALLANTiTNE.  285 

enabled  him  to  present  to  the  world  in  a  very  captivating 
manner.  His  Caleb  Williams  had  then  just  come  out, 
and  occupied  as  much  public  attention  as  any  work  has 
done  before  or  since."  "  Both  these  eminent  persons," 
Ballantyne  continues,  "  I  saw  pretty  frequently ;  and 
being  anxious  to  hear  whatever  I  could  tell  about  the 
literary  men  in  Scotland,  they  both  treated  me  with  re 
markable  freedom  of  communication.  They  were  both 
distinguished  by  the  clearness  of  their  elocution,  and  very 
full  of  triumphant  confidence  in  the  truth  of  their  systems. 
They  were  as  willing  to  speak,  therefore,  as  I  could  be  to 
hear ;  and  as  I  put  my  questions  with  all  the  fearlessness 
of  a  very  young  man,  the  result  was,  that  I  carried  away 
copious  and  interesting  stores  of  thought  and  information  : 
that  the  greater  part  of  what  I  heard  was  full  of  error, 
never  entered  into  my  contemplation.  Holcroft  at  this 
time  was  a  fine-looking,  lively  man,  of  green  old  age, 
somewhere  about  sixty.  Godwin,  some  twenty  years 
younger,  was  more  shy  and  reserved.  As  to  me,  my 
delight  and  enthusiasm  were  boundless." 

After  returning  home,  Ballantyne  made  another  jour- 
aey  to  Glasgow  for  the  purchase  of  types  ;  and  on  enter 
ing  the  Kelso  coach  for  this  purpose  —  "  It  would  not  be 
easy,"  says  he,  "  to  express  my  joy  on  finding  that  Mr. 
Scott  was  to  be  one  of  my  partners  in  the  carriage,  the 
only  other  passenger  being  a  fine,  stout,  muscular,  old 
Quaker.  A  very  few  miles  re-established  us  on  our 
ancient  footing.  Travelling  not  being  half  so  speedy 
then  as  it  is  now,  there  was  plenty  of  leisure  for  talk,  and 
Mr.  Scott  was  exactly  what  is  called  the  old  man.  He 
abounded,  as  in  the  days  of  boyhood,  in  legendary  lore, 
and  had  now  added  to  the  stock,  as  his  recitations  showed, 
many  of  those  fine  ballads  whi-h  afterwards  composed 


286  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  Minstrelsy.  Indeed,  I  was  more  delighted  with  him 
than  ever ;  and,  by  way  of  reprisal,  I  opened  on  him  my 
London  budget,  collected  from  Holcroft  and  Godwin.  I 
doubt  if  Boswell  ever  showed  himself  a  more  skilful 
Reporter  than  I  did  on  this  occasion.  Hour  after  hour 
passed  away,  and  found  my  borrowed  eloquence  still  flow 
ing,  and  my  companion  still  hanging  on  my  lips  with  un 
wearied  interest.  It  was  customary  in  those  days  to 
break  the  journey  (only  forty  miles)  by  dining  on  the 
road,  the  consequence  of  which  was,  that  we  both  became 
rather  oblivious ;  and  after  we  had  re-entered  the  coach, 
the  worthy  Quaker  felt  quite  vexed  and  disconcerted  with 
the  silence  which  had  succeeded  so  much  conversation. 
*  I  wish,'  said  he,  '  my  young  friends,  that  you  would 
cheer  up,  and  go  on  with  your  pleasant  songs  and  tales 
as  before:  they  entertained  me  much.'  And  so,"  says 
Ballantyne,  "  it  went  on  again  until  the  evening  found  us 
in  Edinburgh ;  and  from  that  day,  until  within  a  very 
short  time  of  his  death  —  a  period  of  not  less  than  five- 
and-thirty  years  —  I  may  venture  to  say  that  our  inter 
course  never  flagged." 

The  reception  of  the  two  ballads  had,  in  the  meantime, 
been  favourable,  in  his  own  circle  at  least.  The  many 
inaccuracies  and  awkwardnesses  of  rhyme  and  diction  to 
which  he  alludes  in  republishing  them  towards  the  close 
of  his  life,  did  not  prevent  real  lovers  of  poetry  from  see 
ing  that  no  one  but  a  poet  could  have  transfused  the 
daring  imagery  of  the  German  in  a  style  so  free,  bold, 
masculine,  and  full  of  life ;  but,  wearied  as  all  such 
readers  had  been  with  that  succession  of  feeble,  flimsy, 
lackadaisical  trash  which  followed  the  appearance  of  the 
Reliques  by  Bishop  Percy,  the  opening  of  such  a  new 
vein  of  popular  poetry  as  these  verses  revealed,  would 


BALLADS  FROM  BURGER.  287 

have  been  enough  to  produce  lenient  critics  tor  far  in 
ferior  translations.  Many,  as  we  have  seen,  sent  forth 
copies  of  the  Lenore  about  the  same  time ;  and  some  of 
these  might  be  thought  better  than  Scott's  in  particular 
passages ;  but,  on  the  whole,  it  seems  to  have  been  felt 
and  acknowledged  by  those  best  entitled  to  judge,  that  he 
deserved  the  palm.  Meantime,  we  must  not  forget  that 
Scotland  had  lost  that  very  year  the  great  poet  Burns,  — 
her  glory  and  her  shame.  It  is  at  least  to  be  hoped 
that  a  general  sentiment  of  self-reproach,  as  well  as  of 
sorrow,  had  been  excited  by  the  premature  extinction  of 
such  a  light ;  and,  at  all  events,  it  is  agreeable  to  know 
that  they  who  had  watched  his  career  with  the  most 
affectionate  concern,  were  among  the  first  to  hail  the 
promise  of  a  more  fortunate  successor.  Scott  found  on 
his  table,  when  he  reached  Edinburgh,  the  following  let 
ters  from  two  of  Burns's  kindest  and  wisest  friends :  — 


"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.  Advocate,  George's  Square. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  beg  you  will  accept  of  my  best  thanks 
for  the  favour  you  have  done  me  by  sending  me  four  copies  of 
vour  beautiful  translations.  I  shall  retain  two  of  them,  as 
Mrs.  Stewart  and  I  both  set  a  high  value  on  them  as  gifts  from 
the  author. ,  The  other  two  I  shall  take  the  earliest  opportu 
nity  of  transmitting  to  a  friend  in  England,  who,  I  hope,  may 
be  instrumental  in  making  their  merits  more  generally  known 
at  the  time  of  their  first  appearance.  In  a  few  weeks,  I  am 
fully  persuaded  they  will  engage  public  attention  to  the  utmost 
extent  of  your  wishes,  without  the  aid  of  any  recommendation 
whatever.  I  ever  am,  Dear  Sir,  yours  most  truly, 

"  DUGALD  STEWART.'* 

"Canongate,  Wednesday  Evening." 


288  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

«  To  the  Same. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  On  my  return  from  Cardross,  where  I  had 
been  for  a  week,  I  found  yours  of  the  14th,  which  had  surely 
loitered  by  the  way.  I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  your 
present.  I  meet  with  little  poetry  nowadays  that  touches  my 
heart ;  but  your  translations  excite  mingled  emotions  of  pity 
and  terror,  insomuch,  that  I  would  not  wish  any  person  of 
weaker  nerves  to  read  William  and  Helen  before  going  to  bed. 
Great  must  be  the  original,  if  it  equals  the  translation  in  en 
ergy  and  pathos.  One  would  almost  suspect  you  have  used  as 
much  liberty  with  Burger  as  Macpherson  was  suspected  of 
doing  with  Ossian.  It  is,  however,  easier  to  backspeir  you. 
Sober  reason  rejects  the  machinery  as  unnatural ;  it  reminds 
me,  however,  of  the  magic  of  Shakspeare.  Nothing  has  a 
finer  effect  than  the  repetition  of  certain  words,  that  are 
echoes  to  the  sense,  as  much  as  the  celebrated  lines  in  Homer 
about  the  rolling  up  and  falling  down  of  the  stone :  Tramp, 
tramp  !  splash,  splash  !  is  to  me  perfectly  new ;  and  much  of 
the  imagery  is  nature.  I  should  consider  this  muse  of  yours 
(if  you  carry  the  intrigue  far)  more  likely  to  steal  your  heart 
from  the  law  than  even  a  wife.  I  am,  Dear  Sir,  your  most 
obedient,  humble  servant,  Jo.  RAMSAY." 

"  Ochtertyre,  30th  Nov.  1796." 

Among  other  literary  persons  at  a  distance,  I  may 
mention  George  Chalmers,  the  celebrated  antiquary,  with 
whom  he  had  been  in  correspondence  from  the  beginning 
of  this  year,  supplying  him  with  Border  ballads  for  the 
illustration  of  his  researches  into  Scotch  history.  This 
gentleman  had  been  made  acquainted  with  Scott's  large 
eollections  in  that  way,  by  a  common  friend.  Dr.  Somer- 
ville,  minister  of  Jedburgh,  author  of  the  History  of 
Queen  Anne ;  *  and  the  numerous  MS.  copies  commu 

*  Some  extracts  from  this  venerable  person's  unpublished  Memoirs 
of  his  own  Life,  have  been  kindly  sent  to  me  by  his  son,  the  well- 


BALLADS  FROM  BURGER.  289 

oicated  to  him  in  consequence,  were  recalled  in  the 
course  of  1799,  when  the  plan  of  the  "Minstrelsy" 
began  to  take  shape.  Chalmers  writes  in  great  trans 
ports  about  Scott's  versions ;  but  weightier  encourage 
ment  came  from  Mr.  Taylor  of  Norwich,  himself  the 
first  translator  of  the  Lenore. 

"  I  need  not  tell  you,  sir,"  he  writes,  "  with  how  much  eager 
ness  I  opened  your  volume  —  with  how  much  glow  I  followed 
the  Chase  —  or  with  how  much  alarm  I  came  to  William  and 
Helen.  Of  the  latter  I  will  say  nothing ;  praise  might  seem 
hypocrisy  —  criticism  envy.  The  ghost  nowhere  makes  his 
appearance  so  well  as  with  you,  or  his  exit  so  well  as  with  Mr. 
Spenser.  I  like  very  much  the  recurrence  of 

'  The  scourge  is  red,  the  spur  drops  blood, 
The  flashing  pebbles  flee ; ' 

but  of  William  and  Helen  I  had  resolved  to  say  nothing.  Let 
me  return  to  the  Chase,  of  which  the  metric  stanza  style  pleases 
me  entirely;  yet  I  think  a  few  passages  written  in  too  ele 
vated  a  strain  for  the  general  spirit  of  the  poem.  This  age 
leans  too  much  to  the  Darwin  style.  Mr.  Percy's  Lenore  owes 
its  coldness  to  the  adoption  of  this ;  and  it  seems  peculiarly  in 
congruous  in  the  ballad  —  where  habit  has  taught  us  to  expect 
simplicity.  Among  the  passages  too  stately  and  pompous,  I 
should  reckon  — 

'  The  mountain  echoes  startling  wake  — 
And  for  devotion's  choral  swell 
Exchange  the  rude  discordant  noise  — 

k  wwn  physician  of  Chelsea  College ;  from  which  it  appears  that  the 
reverend  doctor,  and,  more  particularly  still,  his  wife,  a  lady  of  remark- 
able  talent  and  humour,  had  formed  a  high  notion  of  Scott's  future 
eminence  at  a  very  early  period  of  his  life.  Dr.  S.  survived  to  a  great 
old  age,  preserving  his  faculties  quite  entire,  and  I  have  spent  many 
pleasant  hours  under  his  hospitable  roof  in  company  with  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  We  heard  him  preach  an  excellent  circuit  sermon  when  he  was 
ipwards  of  ninety-two,  and  at  the  Judges'  dinner  afterwards  he  was 
*"nong  the  gayest  of  the  company  r 
VOL.  i.  19 


290  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Fell  Famine  marks  the  maddening  throng 
With  cold  Despair's  averted  eye,'  — 

and  perhaps  one  or  two  more.  In  the  twenty-first  stanza,  I 
prefer  Burger's  trampling  the  corn  into  chaff  and  dust,  to  youi 
more  metaphorical,  and  therefore  less  picturesque,  '  destruc 
tive  sweep  the  field  along.'  In  the  thirtieth,  '  On  whirlwind's 
pinions  swiftly  borne,'  to  me  seems  less  striking  than  the  still 
disapparition  of  the  tumult  and  bustle  —  the  earth  has  opened, 
and  he  is  sinking  with  his  evil  genius  to  the  nether  world  — 
as  he  approaches,  dump/  rauscht  es  wie  ein  femes  Meer  —  it 
should  be  rendered,  therefore,  not  by  '  Save  what  a  distant 
torrent  gave,'  but  by  some  sounds  which  shall  necessarily  ex 
cite  the  idea  of  being  hell-sprung  —  the  sound  of  simmering 
seas  of  fire  —  pinings  of  goblins  damned  —  or  some  analogous 
noise.  The  forty-seventh  stanza  is  a  very  great  improvement 
of  the  original.  The  profanest  blasphemous  speeches  need  not 
have  been  softened  down,  as  in  proportion  to  the  impiety  of 
the  provocation  increases  the  poetical  probability  of  the  final 
punishment.  I  should  not  have  ventured  upon  these  criticisms, 
if  I  did  not  think  it  required  a  microscopic  eye  to  make  any, 
and  if  I  did  not  on  the  whole  consider  the  Chase  as  a  most 
spirited  and  beautiful  translation.  I  remain  (to  borrow  in 
another  sense  a  concluding  phrase  from  the  Spectator),  your 
constant  admirer, 

"W.  TAYLOR,  Jun." 
"  Norwich,  14th  Dec.  1796." 

The  anticipations  of  these  gentlemen,  that  Scott's  ver 
sions  would  attract  general  attention  in  the  south,  were 
not  fulfilled.  He  himself  attributes  this  to  the  contempo 
raneous  appearance  of  so  many  other  translations  from 
Lenore.  "  In  a  word,"  he  says,  "  my  adventure,  where 
eo  many  pushed  off  to  sea,  proved  a  dead  loss,  and  a  great 
part  of  the  edition  was  condemned  to  the  service  of  the 
irunkmaker.  This  failure  did  not  operate  in  any  un- 


JAMES    MACKEAN.  291 

pleasant  degree  either  on  my  feelings  or  spirits.  I  was 
coldly  received  by  strangers,  but  my  reputation  began 
rather  to  increase  among  my  own  friends,  and  on  the 
whole  I  was  more  bent  to  show  the  world  that  it  had 
neglected  something  worth  notice,  than  to  be  affronted 
by  its  indifference ;  or  rather,  to  speak  candidly,  I  fecund 
pleasure  in  the  literary  labours  in  which  I  had  almost  by 
accident  become  engaged,  and  laboured  less  in  the  hope 
of  pleasing  others,  though  certainly  without  despair  of 
doing  so,  than  in  a  pursuit  of  a  new  and  agreeable 
amusement  to  myself."  * 

On  the  12th  of  December  Scott  had  the  curiosity  to 
witness  the  trial  of  one  James  Mackean,  a  shoemaker, 
for  the  murder  of  Buchanan,  a  carrier,  employed  to  con 
vey  money  weekly  from  the  Glasgow  bank  to  a  manufac 
turing  establishment  at  Lanark.  Mackean  invited  the 
carrier  to  spend  the  evening  in  his  house ;  conducted 
family  worship  in  a  style  of  much  seeming  fervour ;  and 
then,  while  his  friend  was  occupied,  came  behind  him, 
and  almost  severed  his  head  from  his  body  by  one  stroke 
of  a  razor.  I  have  heard  Scott  describe  the  sanctimoni 
ous  air  which  the  murderer  maintained  during  his  trial 
—  preserving  throughout  the  aspect  of  a  devout  person, 
who  believed  himself  to  have  been  hurried  into  his  accu 
mulation  of  crime  by  an  uncontrollable  exertion  of  dia 
bolical  influence ;  and  on  his  copy  of  the  "  Life  of  James 
Mackean,  executed  25th  January  1797,"  I  find  the  fol- 
owing  marginal  note  :  — 

"  I  went  to  see  this  wretched  man  when  under  sen 
tence  of  death,  along  with  my  friend,  Mr.  William  Clerk, 
advocate.  His  great  anxiety  was  to  convince  us  that  his 
diabolical  murder  was  committed  from  a  sudden  impulse 
*  Remarks  on  Popular  Poetry.  1830. 


292  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  revengeful  and  violent  passion,  not  from  deliberate  de 
sign  of  plunder.  But  the  contrary  was  manifest  from  the 
accurate  preparation  of  the  deadly  instrument  —  a  razor 
strongly  lashed  to  an  iron  bolt  —  and  also  from  the  evi 
dence  on  the  trial,  from  which  it  seems  he  had  invited  his 
victim  to  drink  tea  with  him  on  the  day  he  perpetrated 
the  murder,  and  that  this  was  a  reiterated  invitation. 
Mackean  was  a  good-looking  elderly  man,  having  a  thin 
face  and  clear  grey  eye  ;  such  a  man  as  may  be  ordina 
rily  seen  beside  a  collection-plate  at  a  seceding  meeting 
house,  a  post  which  the  said  Mackean  had  occupied  in  his 
day.  All  Mackean's  account  of  the  murder  is  apocryphal. 
Buchanan  was  a  powerful  man,  and  Mackean  slender.  It 
appeared  that  the  latter  had  engaged  Buchanan  in  writ 
ing,  then  suddenly  clapped  one  hand  on  his  eyes,  and 
struck  the  fatal  blow  with  the  other.  The  throat  of  the 
deceased  was  cut  through  his  handkerchief  to  the  back 
bone  of  the  neck,  against  which  the  razor  was  hacked  in 
several  places." 

In  his  pursuit  of  his  German  studies,  Scott  acquired, 
about  this  time,  a  very  important  assistant  in  Mr.  Skene 
of  Rubislaw,  in  Aberdeenshire  —  a  gentleman  considera 
bly  his  junior,  who  had  just  returned  to  Scotland  from  a 
residence  of  several  years  in  Saxony,  where  he  had  ob 
tained  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  language,  and  accu 
mulated  a  better  collection  of  German  books  than  any  to 
which  Scott  had,  as  yet,  found  access.  Shortly  after  Mr 
Skene's  arrival  in  Edinburgh,  Scott  requested  to  be  intro 
duced  to  him  by  a  mutual  friend,  Mr.  Edmonstone  of 
Newton  ;  and  their  fondness  for  the  same  literature,  with 
Scott's  eagerness  to  profit  by  his  new  acquaintance's 
superior  attainment  in  it,  thus  opened  an  intercourse 
which  general  similarity  of  tastes,  and  I  venture  to  add, 


MR.    SKENE    OF    RUBISLAW.  293 

in  many  of  the  most  important  features  of  character,  soon 
ripened  into  the  familiarity  of  a  tender  friendship  —  "  An 
intimacy,"  Mr.  Skene  says,  in  a  paper  before  me,  "of 
which  I  shall  ever  think  with  so  much  pride  —  a  friend 
ship  so  pure  and  cordial  as  to  have  been  able  to  with 
stand  all  the  vicissitudes  of  nearly  forty  years,  without 
ever  having  sustained  even  a  casual  chill  from  unkind 
thought  or  word."  Mr.  Skene  adds  — "  During  the 
whole  progress  of  his  varied  life,  to  that  eminent  station 
which  he  could  not  but  feel  he  at  length  held  in  the  esti 
mation,  not  of  his  countrymen  alone,  but  of  the  whole 
world,  I  never  could  perceive  the  slightest  shade  of  vari 
ance  from  that  simplicity  of  character  with  which  he  im 
pressed  me  on  the  first  hour  of  our  meeting." 

Among  the  common  tastes  which  served  to  knit  these 
friends  together,  was  their  love  of  horsemanship,  in 
which,  as  in  all  other  manly  exercises,  Skene  highly 
excelled ;  and  the  fears  of  a  French  invasion  becoming 
every  day  more  serious,  their  thoughts  were  turned  with 
corresponding  zeal  to  the  project  of  organizing  a  force  of 
mounted  volunteers  in  Scotland.  "  The  London  Light- 
horse  had  set  the  example,"  says  Mr.  Skene ;  "  but  in 
truth  it  was  to  Scott's  ardour  that  this  force  in  the  North 
owed  its  origin.  Unable,  by  reason  of  his  lameness,  to 
serve  amongst  his  friends  on  foot,  he  had  nothing  for  it 
but  to  rouse  the  spirit  of  the  moss-trooper,  with  which  he 
readily  inspired  all  who  possessed  the  means  of  substi 
tuting  the  sabre  for  the  musket." 

On  the  14th  February,  1797,  these  friends  and  many 
more  met  and  drew  up  an  offer  to  serve  as  a  body  of  vol 
unteer  cavalry  in  Scotland ;  which  offer  being  trans 
mitted  through  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  Mid-Lothian,  was  accepted  by  Government.  The  or- 


294  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ganization  of  the  corps  proceeded  rapidly  ;  they  extended 
their  offer  to  serve  in  any  part  of  the  island  in  case  of 
invasion  ;  and  this  also  being  accepted,  the  whole  ar 
rangement  was  shortly  completed ;  when  Charles  Mait- 
land  of  Rankeillor  was  elected  Major- Commandant ; 
(Sir)  William  Rae  of  St.  Catharine's,  Captain ;  James 
Gordon  of  Craig,  and  George  Robinson  of  Clermiston, 
Lieutenants ;  (Sir)  William  Forbes  of  Pitsligo,  and 
James  Skene  of  Rubislaw,  Cornets ;  Walter  Scott,  Pay 
master,  Quartermaster,  and  Secretary  ;  John  Adams,  Ad 
jutant.  But  the  treble  duties  thus  devolved  on  Scott 
were  found  to  interfere  too  severely  with  his  other  avoca 
tions,  and  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Portmore  relieved  him 
soon  afterwards  from  those  of  paymaster. 

"  The  part  of  quartermaster,"  says  Mr.  Skene,  "  was 
purposely  selected  for  him,  that  he  might  be  spared  the 
rough  usage  of  the  ranks ;  but,  notwithstanding  his  in 
firmity,  he  had  a  remarkably  firm  seat  on  horseback,  and 
in  all  situations  a  fearless  one :  no  fatigue  ever  seemed 
too  much  for  him,  and  his  zeal  and  animation  served  to 
sustain  the  enthusiasm  of  the  whole  corps,  while  hi* 
ready  *  mot  a  rire '  kept  up,  in  all,  a  degree  of  good- 
humour  and  relish  for  the  service,  without  which  the  toil 
and  privations  of  long  daily  drills  would  not  easily  have 
been  submitted  to  by  such  a  body  of  gentlemen.  At 
3very  interval  of  exercise,  the  order,  sit  at  ease,  was  the 
ignal  for  the  quartermaster  to  lead  the  squadron  to  mer 
riment  ;  every  eye  was  intuitively  turned  on  *  Earl  Wal 
ter,'  as  he  was  familiarly  called  by  his  associates  of 
that  date,  and  his  ready  joke  seldom  failed  to  raise  the 
ready  laugh.  He  took  his  full  share  in  all  the  labours 
and  duties  of  the  corps,  had  the  highest  pride  in  its 
progress  and  proficiency,  and  was  such  a  trooper  himself 


EDINBURGH    LIGHT-HOUSE.  2U5 

as  only  a  very  powerful  frame  of  body  and  the  warmest 
zeal  in  the  cause  could  have  enabled  any  one  to  be.  But 
his  habitual  good-humour  was  the  great  charm,  and  at  the 
daily  mess  (for  we  all  dined  together  when  in  quarters) 
that  reigned  supreme." 

Earl  Walter's  first  charger,  by  the  way,  was  a  tall  and 
powerful  animal,  named  Lenore.  These  daily  drills  ap 
pear  to  have  been  persisted  in  during  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1797 ;  the  corps  spending  moreover  some 
weeks  in  quarters  at  Musselburgh.  The  majority  of  the 
troop  having  professional  duties  to  attend  to,  the  ordinary 
hour  for  drill  was  five  in  the  morning ;  and  when  we  re 
flect,  that  after  some  hours  of  hard  work  in  this  way, 
Scott  had  to  produce  himself  regularly  in  the  Parliament 
Blouse  with  gown  and  wig,  for  the  space  of  four  or 
five  hours  at  least,  while  his  chamber  practice,  though 
still  humble,  was  on  the  increase  —  and  that  he  had 
found  a  plentiful  source  of  new  social  engagements  in  his 
troop  connexions  —  it  certainly  could  have  excited  no 
surprise  had  his  literary  studies  been  found  suffering 
total  intermission  during  this  busy  period.  That  such 
was  not  the  case,  however,  his  correspondence  and  note 
books  afford  ample  evidence. 

He  had  no  turn,  at  this  time  of  his  life,  for  early  ris 
ing  ;  so  that  the  regular  attendance  at  the  morning  drills 
was  of  itself  a  strong  evidence  of  his  military  zeal ;  but 
he  must  have,  in  spite  of  them,  and  of  all  other  circum 
stances,  persisted  in  what  was  the  usual  custom  of  all  his 
earlier  life,  namely,  the  devotion  of  the  best  hours  of  the 
night  to  solitary  study.  In  general,  both  as  a  young  man, 
and  in  more  advanced  age,  his  constitution  required  a 
good  allowance  of  sleep,  and  he,  on  principle,  indulged  in 
*tj  saying,  "he  was  but  half  a  man  if  he  had  not  full 


296  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

seven  hours  of  utter  unconsciousness ; "  but  his  whole 
mind  and  temperament  were,  at  this  period,  in  a  state 
of  most  fervent  exaltation,  and  spirit  triumphed  over 
matter.  His  translation  of  Steinberg's  Otho  of  Wit- 
telsbach.  is  marked  "  1796-7 ; "  from  which,  I  con 
clude,  it  was  finished  in  the  latter  year.  The  volume 
containing  that  of  Meier's  "  Wolfred  of  Dromberg,  a 
drama  of  Chivalry,"  is  dated  1797;  and,  I  think,  the 
reader  will  presently  see  cause  to  suspect,  that  though 
not  alluded  to  in  his  imperfect  note-book,  these  tasks 
must  have  been  accomplished  in  the  very  season  of  the 
daily  drills. 

The  letters  addressed  to  him  in  March,  April,  and 
June,  by  Kerr  of  Abbotrule,  George  Chalmers,  and  his 
uncle  at  Rosebank,  indicate  his  unabated  interest  in  the 
\/  collection  of  coins  and  ballads ;  and  I  shall  now  make  a 
few  extracts  from  his  private  note-book,  some  of  which 
will  at  all  events  amuse  the  survivors  of  the  Edinburgh 
Light-Horse :  — 

"March  15,  1797.  —  Read  Stanfield's  trial,  and  the 
conviction  appears  very  doubtful  indeed.  Surely  no  one 
could  seriously  believe,  in  1688.  that  the  body  of  the 
murdered  bleeds  at  the  touch  of  the  murderer,  and  I  see 
little  else  that  directly  touches  Philip  Stanfield.  He  was 
a  very  bad  character,  however ;  and  tradition  says,  that 
having  insulted  Welsh,  the  wild  preacher,  one  day  in  his 
early  life,  the  saint  called  from  the  pulpit  that  God  had 
revealed  to  him  that  this  blasphemous  youth  would  die  in 
the  sight  of  as  many  as  were  then  assembled.  It  was 
believed  at  the  time  that  Lady  Stanfield  had  a  hand  in 
the  assassination,  or  was  at  least  privy  to  her  son's  plans  ; 
but  I  see  nothing  inconsistent  with  the  old  gentleman  '9 


NOTE-BOOK  —  1797.  297 

having  committed  suicide.*  The  ordeal  of  touching  the 
corpse  was  observed  in  Germany.  They  call  it  iar- 
recht. 

"March  27.— 

'The  friers  of  Fail 

Gat  never  owre  hard  eggs,  or  owre  thin  kale ; 
For  they  made  their  eggs  thin  wi'  butter, 
And  their  kale  thick  wi'  bread. 
And  the  friers  of  Fail  they  made  gude  kale 
On  Fridays  when  they  fasted ; 
They  never  wanted  gear  enough 
As  lang  as  their  neighbours'  lasted.' 

"  Fairy-rings.  —  N.B.  Delrius  says  the  same  appear 
ance  occurs  wherever  the  witches  have  held  their  Sab- 
battu 

*-  J"or  the  ballad  of  *  Willie's  lady/  compare  Apuleius, 
lib.  i.  p.  33 

"  April  20.  —  The  portmanteau  to  contain  the  follow 
ing  articles:  —  2  shirts;  1  black  handkerchief;  1  night 
cap,  woollen  ;  1  pair  pantaloons,  blue  ;  1  flannel  shirt 
with  sleeves ;  1  pair  flannel  drawers ;  1  waistcoat ;  1  pair 
worsted  stockings  or  socks. 

"  In  the  slip,  in  cover  of  portmanteau,  a  case  with 
shaving-things,  combs,  and  a  knife,  fork,  and  spoon ;  a 
German  pipe  and  tobacco-bag,  flint,  and  steel ;  pipe-clay 
and  oil,  with  brush  for  laying  it  on ;  a  shoe-brush ;  a  pair 
of  shoes  or  hussar-boots  ;  a  horse-picker,  and  other  loose 
articles. 

"  Belt  with  the  flap  and  portmanteau,  currycomb,  brush, 
and  mane-comb,  with  sponge. 

"  Over  the  portmanteau,  the  blue  overalls,  and  a  spare 

*  See  particulars  of  Stanfield's  case  in  Lord  FouutainhaH's  Chrono 
logical  Notes  of  Scottish  Affairs,  1680-1701,  edited  by  Sir  Walter 
Bcott.  4to,  Edinburgh,  1822.  Pp.  233-236. 


298  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

jacket  for  stable ;  a  small  horse-sheet,  to  cover  the  horse's 
back  with,  and  a  spare  girth  or  two. 

"  In  the  cartouche-box,  screw-driver  and  picker  for 
pistol,  with  three  or  four  spare  flints. 

"The  horse-sheet  may  be  conveniently  folded  below 
the  saddle,  and  will  save  the  back  in  a  long  march  or  bad 
weather.  Besides  the  holster,  two  forefeet  shoes.* 

"  May  22.  —  Apuleius,  lib.  ii Anthony-a- 

Wood Mr.  Jenkinson's  name  (now  Lord  Liver 
pool)  being  proposed  as  a  difficult  one  to  rhyme  to,  a 
lady  present  hit  off  this  verse  extempore.  —  N.B.  Both 
father  and  son  (Lord  Hawkesbury)  have  a  peculiarity  of 

vision :  — 

'  Happy  Mr.  Jenkinson, 
Happy  Mr.  Jenkinson, 
I'm  sure  to  you 
Your  lady's  true, 
For  you  have  got  a  winking  son.' 
"  23.  —  Delrius.  .  .  . 

"  24.  — '  I,  John  Bell  of  Brackenbrig,  lies  under  this  stane ; 
Four  of  my  sons  laid  it  on  my  wame. 
I  was  man  of  my  meat,  and  master  of  my  wife, 
And  lived  in  mine  ain  house  without  meikle  strife. 

*  Some  of  Scott's  most  intimate  friends  at  the  Bar,  partly,  no  doubt, 
from  entertaining  political  opinions  of  another  caste,  were  by  no  means 
disposed  to  sympathize  with  the  demonstrations  of  his  military  enthu 
siasm  at  this  period.  For  example,  one  of  these  gentlemen  thus  writes 
to  another  in  April  1797 :  —  "By  the  way,  Scott  is  become  the  merest 
trooper  that  ever  was  begotten  by  a  drunken  dragoon  on  his  trull  in  a 
hay-loft.  Not  an  idea  crosses  his  mind,  or  a  word  his  lips,  that  hag 

not  an  allusion  to  some  d d  instrument  or  evolution  of  the  Cavalry 

— '  Draw  your  swords  —  by  single  files  to  the  right  of  front  —  to  the 
left  wheel  —  charge ! '  After  all,  he  knows  little  more  about  wheels 
and  charges  than  I  do  about  the  wheels  of  Ezekiel,  or  the  King  of 
Pelew  about  charges  of  horning  on  six  days'  date.  I  saw  them  charge 
on  Leith  Walk  a  few  days  ago,  and  I  can  assure  you  it  was  by  na 
means  orderly  proceeded.  Clerk  and  I  are  continually  obliged  to  open 
a  six-pounder  upon  him  in  self-defence,  but  in  spite  of  a  temporary 
lonfusion,  he  soon  rallies  and  returns  to  the  attack." 


NOTE-BOOK 1797.  299 

Gif  thou  be'st  a  better  man  in  thy  time  than  I  was  in  mine, 
Tak  this  stane  off  my  wame,  and  lay  it  upon  thine.' 

u  25.  —  Meric  Casaubon  on  Spirits 

a  26.  — '  There  saw  we  learned  Maroe's  golden  tombe ; 
The  way  he  cut  an  English  mile  in  length 
Thorow  a  rock  of  stone  in  one  night's  space.' 

"  Christopher  Marlowe's  Tragicall  History  of  Dr. 
Faustus  —  a  very  remarkable  thing.  Grand  subject  — 

end  grand Copied  '  Prophecy  of  Merlin '  from 

Mr.  Clerk's  MS. 

"  27.  —  Read  Everybody's  Business  is  Nobody's  Busi 
ness,  by  Andrew  Moreton.  This  was  one  of  Defoe's 
many  aliases  —  like  his  pen,  in  parts 

'  To  Cuthbert,  Car,  and  Collingwood,  to  Shafto  and  to  Hall; 
To  every  gallant  generous  heart  that  for  King  James  did  fall.' 

"28.  — ....  Anthony-a-Wood Plain  Proof  of 

the  *  True  Father  and  Mother  of  the  Pretended  Prince 
of  Wales,  by  W.  Fuller.  This  fellow  was  pilloried  for 

a  forgery  some  years  later Began  Nathan  der 

Weise. 

"  June  29.  —  Read  Introduction  to  a  Compendium  on 
Brief  Examination,  by  W.  S.  —  viz.  William  Stafford  — 
though  it  was  for  a  time  given  to  no  less  a  W.  S.  than 
William  Shakspeare.  A  curious  treatise  —  the  Politi 
cal  Economy  of  the  Elizabethan  Day  —  worth  reprint 
ing 

"  July  1.  —  Read  Discourse  of  Military  Discipline,  by 
Captain  Barry  —  a  very  curious  account  of  the  famous 
Low  Countries  armies  —  full  of  military  hints  worth 
note Anthony  Wood  again. 

"  3.  —  Nathan  der  Weise Delrius 

"5.  —  Geutenberg's  Braut  begun. 

«  6.  —  The  Bride  again.     Delrius." 


800  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  note-book  from  which  I  have  been  copying  ig 
chiefly  filled  with  extracts  from  Apuleius  and  Anthony-a- 
Wood  —  most  of  them  bearing,  in  some  way,  on  the  sub 
ject  of  popular  superstitions.  It  is  a  pity  that  many 
leaves  have  been  torn  out ;  for  if  unmutilated,  the  record 
would  probably  have  enabled  one  to  guess  whether  he 
had  already  planned  his  "  Essay  on  Fairies." 

I  have  mentioned  his  business  at  the  Bar  as  increasing 
at  the  same  time.  His  fee-book  is  now  before  me,  and  it 
shows  that  he  made  by  his  first  year's  practice  £24  3s.; 
by  the  second,  £57  15s. ;  by  the  third,  £84  4s.;  by  the 
fourth,  £90  ;  and  in  his  fifth  year  at  the  Bar  —  that  is, 
from  November  1796  to  July  1797— £144  10s.;  of 
which  £50  were  fees  from  his  father's  chamber. 

His  friend,  Charles  Kerr  of  Abbotrule,  had  been  resid 
ing  a  good  deal  about  this  time  in  Cumberland :  indeed, 
he  was  so  enraptured  with  the  scenery  of  the  lakes,  as  to 
take  a  house  in  Keswick  with  the  intention  of  spending 
half  of  all  future  years  there.  His  letters  to  Scott 
(March,  April,  1797)  abound  in  expressions  of  wonder 
that  he  should  continue  to  devote  so  much  of  his  vaca 
tions  to  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  "  with  every  crag 
and  precipice  of  which,"  says  he,  "  I  should  imagine  you 
would  be  familiar  by  this  time ;  nay,  that  the  goats  them 
selves  might  almost  claim  you  for  an  acquaintance ; ' 
while  another  district  lay  so  near  him,  at  least  as  well 
qualified  "  to  give  a  swell  to  the  fancy." 

After  the  rising  of  the  Court  of  Session  in  July,  Scott 
accordingly  set  out  on  a  tour  to  the  English  lakes,  ac 
companied  by  his  brother  John,  and  Adam  Fergusson 
Their  first  stage  was  Halyards  in  Tweeddale,  then  in 
habited  by  his  friend's  father,  the  philosopher  and  his 
torian ;  and  they  staid  there  for  a  day  or  two,  in  tha 


TOUR    TO    THE    LAKES.  30x 

course  of  which  Scott  had  his  first  and  only  interview 
with  David  Ritchie,  the  original  of  his  Black  Dwarf.* 
Proceeding  southwards,  the  tourists  visited  Carlisle,  Pen- 
rith,  —  the  vale  of  the  Earaont,  including  Mayburgh  and 
Brougham  Castle,  —  Ulswater  and  Windermore  ;  and  at 
length  fixed  their  head-quarters  at  the  then  peaceful  and 
sequestered  little  watering  place  of  Gilsland,  making  ex 
cursions  from  thence  to  the  various  scenes  of  romantic 
interest  which  are  commemorated  in  The  Bridal  of 
Triermain,  and  otherwise  leading  very  much  the  sort  of 
life  depicted  among  the  loungers  of  St.  Ronan's  Well. 
Scott  was,  on  his  first  arrival  in  Gilsland,  not  a  little 
engaged  with  the  beauty  of  one  of  the  young  ladies 
lodged  under  the  same  roof  with  him  ;  and  it  was  on 
occasion  of  a  visit  in  her  company  to  some  part  of  the 
Roman  Wall  that  he  indited  his  lines  — 

"  Take  these  flowers,  which,  purple  waving, 
On  the  ruined  rampart  grew,"  &c.  f 

But  this  was  only  a  passing  glimpse  of  flirtation.  A 
week  or  so  afterwards  commenced  a  more  serious  affair. 

Riding  one  day  with  Fergusson,  they  met,  some  miles 
from  Gilsland,  a  young  lady  taking  the  air  on  horseback, 
whom  neither  of  them  had  previously  remarked,  and 
whose  appearance  instantly  struck  both  so  much,  that 
they  kept  her  in  view  until  they  had  satisfied  themselves 
that  she  also  was  one  of  the  party  at  Gilsland.  The 
same  evening  there  was  a  ball,  at  which  Captain  Scott 
produced  himself  in  his  regimentals,  and  Fergusson  also 

*  See  the  Introduction  to  this  Novel  in  the  edition  of  1830. 

t  I  owe  this  circumstance  to  the  recollection  of  Mr.  Claud  Russell, 
accountant  in  Edinburgh,  who  was  one  of  the  party.  Previously  I 
had  always  supposed  these  verses  to  have  been  inspired  by  Miss  Car 
penter. 


302  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

thought  proper  to  be  equipped  in  the  uniform  of  the  Ed 
inburgh  Volunteers.  There  was  no  little  rivalry  among 
the  young  travellers  as  to  who  should  first  get  presented 
to  the  unknown  beauty  of  the  morning's  ride ;  but  though 
both  the  gentlemen  in  scarlet  had  the  advantage  of  being 
darling  partners,  their  friend  succeeded  in  handing  the 
fair  stranger  to  supper  —  and  such  was  his  first  introduc 
tion  to  Charlotte  Margaret  Carpenter. 

Without  the  features  of  a  regular  beauty,  she  was  rich 
in  personal  attractions ;  "  a  form  that  was  fashioned  as 
light  as  a  fay's ; "  a  complexion  of  the  clearest  and  light 
est  olive  ;  eyes  large,  deep-set  and  dazzling,  of  the  finest 
Italian  brown  ;  and  a  profusion  of  silken  tresses,  black  as 
the  raven's  wing;  her  address  hovering  between  the 
reserve  of  a  pretty  young  Englishwoman  who  has  not 
mingled  largely  in  general  society,  and  a  certain  natural 
archness  and  gaiety  that  suited  well  with  the  accompani 
ment  of  a  French  accent.  A  lovelier  vision,  as  all  who 
remember  her  in  the  bloom  of  her  days  have  assured  me, 
could  hardly  have  been  imagined;  and  from  that  hour 
the  fate  of  the  young  poet  was  fixed. 

She  was  the  daughter  of  Jean  Charpentier,  of  Lyons,  a 
devoted  royalist,  who  held  an  office  under  Government,* 
and  Charlotte  Volere,  his  wife.  She  and  her  only  brother, 
Charles  Charpentier,  had  been  educated  in  the  Protestant 
eligion  of  their  mother ;  and  when  their  father  died, 
which  occurred  in  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  Ma 
dame  Charpentier  made  her  escape  with  her  children,  first 
to  Paris,  and  then  to  England,  where  they  found  a  warm 

« 

*  In  several  deeds  which  I  have  seen,  M.  Charpentier  is  designed 
"Ecuyer  du  Roi;"  one  of  those  purchaseable  ranks  peculiar  to  th« 
latter  stages  of  the  old  French  Monarchy.  What  the  post  he  held  was* 
I  never  heard. 


GILSLAND MISS    CARPENTER.  303 

friend  and  protector  in  the  late  Marquis  of  Do  fvnshire, 
who  had,  in  the  course  of  his  travels  in  France,  formed 
an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  family,  and,  indeed, 
spent  some  time  under  their  roof.  M.  Charpentier  had, 
in  his  first  alarm  as  to  the  coming  Revolution,  invested 
£4000  in  English  securities  —  part  in  a  mortgage  upon 
Lord  Downshire's  estates.  On  the  mother's  death,  which 
occurred  soon  after  her  arrival  in  London,  this  nobleman 
took  on  himself  the  character  of  sole  guardian  to  her 
children ;  and  Charles  Charpentier  received  in  due  time, 
through  his  interest,  an  appointment  in  the  service  of  the 
East-India  Company,  in  which  he  had  by  this  time  risen 
to  the  lucrative  situation  of  commercial  resident  at  Sa 
lem.  His  sister  was  now  making  a  little  excursion,  under 
the  care  of  the  lady  who  had  superintended  her  educa 
tion,  Miss  Jane  Nicolson,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Nicolson, 
Dean  of  Exeter,  and  grand-daughter  of  William  Nic- 
olson,  Bishop  of  Carlisle,  well  known  as  the  editor  of 
"The  English  Historical  Library."  To  some  connex 
ions  which  the  learned  prelate's  family  had  ever  since  his 
time  kept  up  in  the  diocese  of  Carlisle,  Miss  Carpenter 
owed  the  direction  of  her  summer  tour. 

Scott's  father  was  now  in  a  very  feeble  state  of  health, 
which  accounts  for  his  first  announcement  of  this  affair 
being  made  in  a  letter  to  his  mother ;  it  is  undated ;  — 
but  by  this  time  the  young  lady  had  left  Gilsland  for 
Carlisle,  where  she  remained  until  her  destiny  was 
settled. 

"  To  Mrs.  Scott,  George's  Square,  Edinburgh. 

"  My  Dear  Mother,  —  I  should  very  ill  deserve  the  care  and 
affection  with  which  you  have  ever  regarded  me,  were  I  to 
neglect  my  duty  so  far  as  to  omit  consulting  my  father  and  you 


804  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

in  the  most  important  step  which  I  can  possibly  take  in  life, 
and  upon  the  success  of  which  my  future  happiness  must  de 
pend.  It  is  with  pleasure  I  think  that  I  can  avail  myself  of 
your  advice  and  instructions  in  an  affair  of  so  great  impor 
tance  as  that  which  I  have  at  present  on  my  hands.  You  will 
probably  guess  from  this  preamble,  that  I  am  engaged  in  a 
matrimonial  plan,  which  is  really  the  case.  Though  my  ac 
quaintance  with  the  young  lady  has  not  been  of  long  standing, 
this  circumstance  is  in  some  degree  counterbalanced  by  the  in 
timacy  in  which  we  have  lived,  and  by  the  opportunities  which 
that  intimacy  has  afforded  me  of  remarking  her  conduct  and 
sentiments  on  many  different  occasions,  some  of  which  were 
rather  of  a  delicate  nature,  so  that  in  fact  I  have  seen  more 
of  her  during  the  few  weeks  we  have  been  together,  than  I 
could  have  done  after  a  much  longer  acquaintance,  shackled 
by  the  common  forms  of  ordinary  life.  You  will  not  expect 
from  me  a  description  of  her  person  —  for  which  I  refer  you 
to  my  brother,  as  also  for  a  fuller  account  of  all  the  circum 
stances  attending  the  business  than  can  be  comprised  in  the 
compass  of  a  letter.  Without  flying  into  raptures,  for  I  must 
assure  you  that  my  judgment  as  well  as  my  affections  are  con 
sulted  upon  this  occasion  —  without  flying  into  raptures,  then, 
I  may  safely  assure  you,  that  her  temper  is  sweet  and  cheerful, 
her  understanding  good,  and,  what  I  know  will  give  you  pleas 
ure,  her  principles  of  religion  very  serious.  I  have  been  very 
explicit  with  her  upon  the  nature  of  my  expectations,  and  she 
thinks  she  can  accommodate  herself  to  the  situation  which  I 
should  wish  her  to  hold  in  society  as  my  wife,  which,  you  will 
easily  comprehend,  I  mean  should  neither  be  extravagant  nor 
degrading.  Her  fortune,  though  partly  dependent  upon  her 
brother,  who  is  high  in  office  at  Madras,  is  very  considerable 
• — at  present  £500  a-year.  This,  however,  we  must,  in  some 
degree,  regard  as  precarious  —  I  mean  to  the  full  extent ;  and 
indeed,  when  you  know  her,  you  will  not  be  surprised  that  I 
regard  this  circumstance  chiefly  because  it  removes  those  pru 
dential  considerations  which  would  otherwise  render  our  uniov 


MISS    CARPENTER.  305 

impossible  for  the  present.  Betwixt  her  income  and  my  own 
professional  exertions,  I  have  little  doubt  we  will  be  enabled 
to  hold  the  rank  in  society  which  my  family  and  situation 
entitle  me  to  fill. 

'•  My  dear  mother,  I  cannot  express  to  you  the  anxiety  I 
have  that  you  will  not  think  me  flighty  nor  inconsiderate  in 
his  business.  Believe  me,  that  experience,  in  one  instance  — 
you  cannot  fail  to  know  to  what  I  allude  —  is  too  recent  to 
permit  my  being  so  hasty  in  my  conclusions  as  the  warmth  of 
my  temper  might  have  otherwise  prompted.  I  am  also  most 
anxious  that  you  should  be  prepared  to  show  her  kindness, 
which  I  know  the  goodness  of  your  own  heart  will  prompt, 
more  especially  when  I  tell  you  that  she  is  an  orphan,  without 
relations,  and  almost  without  friends.  Her  guardian  is  —  J 
should  say  was,  for  she  is  of  age,  Lord  Downshire,  to  whom  I 
must  write  for  his  consent,  —  a  piece  of  respect  to  which  he 
is  entitled  for  his  care  of  her,  —  and  there  the  matter  rests  at 
present.  I  think  I  need  not  tell  you  that  if  I  assume  the  new 
character  which  I  threaten,  I  shall  be  happy  to  find  that  ia 
that  capacity  I  may  make  myself  more  useful  to  my  brothers, 
and  especially  to  Anne,  than  I  could  in  any  other.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  shall  certainly  expect  that  my  friends  will  en 
deavour  to  show  every  attention  in  their  power  to  a  woman 
who  forsakes  for  me  prospects  much  more  splendid  than  what 
I  can  offer,  and  who  comes  into  Scotland  without  a  single 
friend  but  myself.  I  find  I  could  write  a  great  deal  more 
upon  this  subject,  but  as  it  is  late,  and  as  I  must  write  to  my 
father,  I  shall  restrain  myself.  I  think  (but  you  are  best 
judge)  that  in  the  circumstances  in  which  I  stand,  you  should 
write  to  her,  Miss  Carpenter,  under  cover  to  me  at  Carlisle. 

"  Write  to  me  very  fully  upon  this  important  subject  — 
send  me  your  opinion,  your  advice,  and  above  all,  your  bless- 
ing ;  you  will  see  the  necessity  of  not  delaying  a  minute  in 
doing  so,  and  in  keeping  this  business  strictly  private,  till  you 
hear  farther  from  me,  since  you  are  not  ignorant  that  even 
it  this  advanced  period,  an  objection  on  the  part  of  Lord 


806  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Downshire,  or  many  other  accidents,  may  intervene ;  in  which 
case,  I  should  little  wish  my  disappointment  to  be  public. 
"  Believe  me,  my  Dear  Mother, 

"  Ever  your  dutiful  and  affectionate  son, 
"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Scott  remained  in  Cumberland  until  the  Jedburgh  as 
sizes  recalled  him  to  his  legal  duties.  On  arriving  ia 
that  town,  he  immediately  sent  for  his  friend  Shortreed, 
whose  memorandum  records  that  the  evening  of  the  30th 
September  1797  was  one  of  the  most  joyous  he  ever 
spent.  "  Scott,"  he  says,  "  was  sair  beside  himself  about 
Miss  Carpenter;  —  we  toasted  her  twenty  times  over  — 
and  sat  together,  he  raving  about  her,  until  it  was  one  in 
the  morning."  He  soon  returned  to  Cumberland;  and 
the  following  letters  will  throw  light  on  the  character 
and  conduct  of  the  parties,  and  on  the  nature  of  the 
difficulties  which  were  presented  by  the  prudence  and 
prejudices  of  the  young  advocate's  family  connexions. 
It  appears,  that  at  one  stage  of  the  business,  Scott  had 
seriously  contemplated  leaving  the  Bar  at  Edinburgh, 
and  establishing  himself  with  his  bride  (I  know  not  in 
what  capacity)  in  one  of  the  colonies. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

"  Carlisle,  October  4, 1797. 

"  It  is  only  an  hour  since  I  received  Lord  Downshire's  let 
ter.  You  will  say,  I  hope,  that  I  am  indeed  very  good  to 
write  so  soon,  but  I  almost  fear  that  all  my  goodness  can  never 
carry  me  through  all  this  plaguy  writing.  Lord  Downshire 
will  be  happy  to  hear  from  you.  He  is  the  very  best  mar 
on  earth  —  his  letter  is  kind  and  affectionate,  and  full  of  ad 
vice,  much  in  the  style  of  your  last.  I  am  to  consult  most 
carefully  my  heart.  Do  you  believe  I  did  not  do  it  when  1 


MISS    CARPENTER.  307 

gave  you  my  consent  ?  It  is  true,  I  don't  like  to  reflect  on 
that  subject.  I  am  afraid.  It  is  very  awful  to  think  it  is  for 
life.  How  can  I  ever  laugh  after  such  tremendous  thoughts  ? 
I  believe  never  more.  I  am  hurt  to  find  that  your  friends 
don't  think  the  match  a  prudent  one.  If  it  is  not  agreeable 
to  them  all,  you  must  then  forget  me,  for  I  have  too  much 
pride  to  think  of  connecting  myself  in  a  family  were  I  not 
equal  to  them.  Pray,  my  dear  sir,  write  to  Lord  D.  immedi 
ately  —  explain  yourself  to  him  as  you  would  to  me,  and  he 
will,  I  am  sure,  do  all  he  can  to  serve  us.  If  you  really  love 
me,  you  must  love  him,  and  write  to  him  as  you  would  to  a 
friend. 

"  Adieu,  —  au  plaisir  de  vous  revoir  bientot. 

«  C.  C." 

"  To  Rolert  Shortreed,  Esq.,  Sheriff-substitute,  Jedburgh. 

"  Selkirk,  8th  October,  1797. 

"  Dear  Bob,  —  This  day  a  long  train  of  anxieties  was  put 
an  end  to  by  a  letter  from  Lord  Downshire,  couched  in  the 
most  flattering  terms,  giving  his  consent  to  my  marriage  with 
ois  ward.  I  am  thus  far  on  my  way  to  Carlisle  —  only  for  a 
visit  —  because,  betwixt  her  reluctance  to  an  immediate  mar 
riage,  and  the  imminent  approach  of  the  session,  I  am  afraid 
I  shall  be  thrown  back  to  the  Christmas  holidays.  I  shall  be 
home  in  about  eight  days. 

"  Ever  yours,  sincerely, 

"  W.  SCOTT." 

"  To  Miss  Christian  Rutherford,  Ashestiel,  by  Selkirk. 

u  Has  it  never  happened  to  you,  my  dear  Miss  Christy,  in 
the  course  of  your  domestic  economy,  to  meet  with  a  drawer 
stuffed  so  very,  so  extremely  full,  that  it  was  very  difficult  to 
pull  it  open,  however  desirous  you  might  be  to  exhibit  its 
contents  ?  In  case  this  miraculous  event  has  ever  taken 
place,  you  may  somewhat  conceive  from  thence  the  cause  of 
.my  silence,  which  has  really  proceeded  from  my  having  a 


308  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

very  great  deal  to  communicate ;  so  much  so,  that  1  really 
hardly  know  how  to  begin.  As  for  my  affection  and  friend« 
Bhip  for  you,  believe  me  sincerely,  they  neither  slumber  DOT 
sleep,  and  it  is  only  your  suspicions  of  their  drowsiness  which 
incline  me  to  write  at  this  period  of  a  business  highly  inter 
esting  to  me,  rather  than  when  I  could  have  done  so  with 
something  like  certainty  —  Hem  !  Hem  !  It  must  come  out  at 
once  —  I  am  in  a  very  fair  way  of  being  married  to  a  very  ami 
able  young  woman,  with  whom  I  formed  an  attachment  in  the 
course  of  my  tour.  She  was  born  in  France  —  her  parents 
were  of  English  extraction  —  the  name  Carpenter.  She  was 
left  an  orphan  early  in  life,  and  educated  in  England,  and  is 
at  present  under  the  care  of  a  Miss  Nicolson,  a  daughter  of 
the  late  Dean  of  Exeter,  who  was  on  a  visit  to  her  relations 
in  Cumberland.  Miss  Carpenter  is  of  age,  but  as  she  lies 
under  great  obligations  to  the  Marquis  of  Downshire,  who  was 
her  guardian,  she  cannot  take  a  step  of  such  importance  with 
out  his  consent  —  and  I  daily  expect  his  final  answer  upon 
the  subject.  Her  fortune  is  dependent,  in  a  great  measure, 
upon  an  only  and  very  affectionate  brother.  He  is  Commer 
cial  Resident  at  Salem  in  India,  and  has  settled  upon  her  an 
annuity  of  £500.  Of  her  personal  accomplishments  I  shall 
only  say,  that  she  possesses  very  good  sense,  with  uncommon 
good  temper,  which  I  have  seen  put  to  most  severe  trials.  I 
must  bespeak  your  kindness  and  friendship  for  her.  You  may 
easily  believe  I  shall  rest  very  much  both  upon  Miss  K  and 
you  for  giving  her  the  carte  de  pays,  when  she  comes  to  Edin 
burgh.  I  may  give  you  a  hint  that  there  is  no  romance  in  her 
composition  —  and  that,  though  born  in  France,  she  has  the 
sentiments  and  manners  of  an  Englishwoman,  and  does  not 
like  to  be  thought  otherwise.  A  very  slight  tinge  in  her  pro 
nunciation  is  all  which  marks  the  foreigner.  She  is  at  present 
at  Carlisle,  where  I  shall  join  her  as  soon  as  our  arrangements 
are  finally  made.  Some  difficulties  have  occurred  in  settling 
matters  with  my  father,  owing  to  certain  prepossessions  which 
you  can  easily  conceive  his  adopting.  One  main  article  wa» 
the  uncertainty  of  her  provision,  which  has  been  in  part  re- 


MISS    CARPENTER.  309 

moved  by  the  safe  arrival  of  her  remittances  for  this  year, 
with  assurances  of  their  being  regular  and  even  larger  in 
future,  her  brother's  situation  being  extremely  lucrative. 
Another  objection  was  her  birth  :  "  Can  any  good  thing 
come  out  of  Nazareth  ?  "  but  as  it  was  birth  merely  and  solely, 
this  has  been  abandoned.  You  will  be  more  interested  about 
other  points  regarding  her,  and  I  can  only  say  that  —  though 
our  acquaintance  was  shorter  than  ever  I  could  have  thought 
of  forming  such  a  connexion  upon  —  it  was  exceedingly  close, 
and  gave  me  full  opportunities  for  observation  —  and  if  I  had 
parted  with  her,  it  must  have  been  for  ever,  which  both  par 
ties  began  to  think  would  be  a  disagreeable  thing.  She  has 
conducted  herself  through  the  whole  business  with  so  much 
propriety  as  to  make  a  strong  impression  in  her  favour  upon 
the  minds  of  my  father  and  mother,  prejudiced  as  they  were 
against  her,  from  the  circumstances  I  have  mentioned.  We 
shall  be  your  neighbours  in  the  New  Town,  and  intend  to 
live  very  quietly ;  Charlotte  will  need  many  lessons  from 
Miss  R.  in  housewifery.  Pray  show  this  letter  to  Miss  R. 
with  my  very  best  compliments.  Nothing  can  now  stand  in 
the  way  except  Lord  Down  shire,  who  may  not  think  the 
match  a  prudent  one  for  Miss  C. ;  but  he  will  surely  think 
her  entitled  to  judge  for  herself  at  her  age,  in  what  she  would 
wish  to  place  her  happiness.  She  is  not  a  beauty,  by  any 
means,  but  her  person  and  face  are  very  engaging.  She  is 
a  brunette ;  her  manners  are  lively,  but  when  necessary,  she 
can  be  very  serious.  She  was  baptized  and  educated  a  Prot 
estant  of  the  Church  of  England.  I  think  I  have  now  said 
enough  upon  this  subject.  Do  not  write  till  you  hear  from 
me  again,  which  will  be  when  all  is  settled.  I  wish  this  im 
portant  event  may  hasten  your  return  to  town.  I  send  a 
goblin  story,  with  best  compliments  to  the  misses,  and  ever 
*m,  yours  affectionately,  WALTER  SCOTT." 


510  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


"  THE  ERL-KING.* 

The  Erl-King  is  a  goblin  that  haunts  the  Black  Forest  in  Thuringia.  • 
To  be  read  by  a  candle  particularly  long  in  the  snuff.) 

0,  who  rides  by  night  thro'  the  woodland  so  wild  ? 
It  is  the  fond  father  embracing  his  child; 
And  close  the  boy  nestles  within  his  loved  arm, 
To  hold  himself  fast,  and  to  keep  himself  warm. 

*  0  father,  see  yonder !  see  yonder ! '  he  says ; 

*  My  boy,  upon  what  dost  thou  fearfully  gaze  ? '  — 

*  O,  'tis  the  Erl-King  with  his  crown  and  his  shroud.'  — 
'  No,  my  son,  it  is  but  a  dark  wreath  of  the  cloud.' 

C  The  Erl-King  speaks.) 

'  0,  come  and  go  with  me,  thou  loveliest  child ; 
By  many  a  gay  sport  shall  thy  time  be  beguiled; 
My  mother  keeps  for  thee  full  many  a  fair  toy, 
And  many  a  fine  flower  shall  she  pluck  for  my  boy.' 

*  0,  father,  my  father,  and  did  you  not  hear 
The  Erl-King  whisper  so  low  in  my  ear  ? ' 

*  Be  still,  my  heart's  darling  —  my  child,  be  at  ease ; 
It  was  but  the  wild  blast  as  it  sung  thro'  the  trees.' 

Erl-King. 

'  0  wilt  thou  go  with  me,  thou  loveliest  boy  ? 
My  daughter  shall  tend  thee  with  care  and  with  joy; 
She  shall  bear  thee  so  lightly  thro'  wet  and  thro'  wild, 
And  press  thee,  and  kiss  thee,  and  sing  to  my  child.' 

'  0  father,  my  father,  and  saw  you  not  plain 

The  Erl-King's  pale  daughter  glide  past  thro'  the  rain?  *  — 

'  0  yes,  my  loved  treasure,  I  knew  it  full  soon ; 

It  was  the  grey  willow  that  danced  to  the  moon.' 

Erl-King. 

*  Oh  come  and  go  with  me,  no  longer  delay, 
Or  else,  silly  child,  I  will  drag  thee  away.'  — 

*  Oh  father  I  Oh  father !  now,  now  keep  your  hold, 
The  Erl-King  has  seized  me  —  his  grasp  is  so  cold!  * 

*  From  the  German  of  Goethe. 


MISS    CARPENTER.  311 

Sore  trembled  the  father;  he  spurr'd  thro'  the  wild, 
Clasping  close  to  his  bosom  his  shuddering  child ; 
He  reaches  his  dwelling  in  doubt  and  in  dread, 
But,  clasp' d  to  his  bosom,  the  infant  was  dead!  " 

"  You  see  I  have  not  altogether  lost  Vhe  faculty  of  rhyming, 
£  assure  you,  there  is  no  small  impudence  in  attempting  a  ver- 
rion  of  that  ballad,  as  it  has  been  translated  by  Lewis.  —  All 
good  things  be  with  you.  W.  S." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  'Esq.,  Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

"  London,  October  15, 1797. 

"  Sir,  —  I  received  your  letter  with  pleasure,  instead  of  con 
sidering  it  as  an  intrusion.  One  thing  more  being  fully  stated, 
would  have  made  it  perfectly  satisfactory,  —  namely,  the  sort  of 
income  you  immediately  possess,  and  the  sort  of  maintenance 
Miss  Carpenter,  in  case  of  your  demise,  might  reasonably  ex 
pect.  Though  she  is  of  an  age  to  judge  for  herself  in  the 
choice  of  an  object  that  she  would  like  to  run  the  race  of  life 
with,  she  has  referred  the  subject  to  me.  As  her  friend  and 
guardian,  I  in  duty  must  try  to  secure  her  happiness,  by  en 
deavouring  to  keep  her  comfortable  immediately,  and  to  pre 
vent  her  being  left  destitute,  in  casB  of  any  unhappy  contin 
gency.  Her  good  sense  and  good  education  are  her  chief 
fortune ;  therefore,  in  the  worldly  way  of  talking,  she  is  not 
entitled  to  much.  Her  brother,  who  was  also  left  under  my 
care  at  an  early  period,  is  excessively  fond  of  her  ;  he  has  no 
person  to  think  of  but  her  as  yet ;  and  will  certainly  be  ena 
bled  to  make  her  very  handsome  presents,  as  he  is  doing  very 
well  in  India,  where  I  sent  him  some  years  ago,  and  where  he 
bears  a  very  high  character,  I  am  happy  to  say.  I  do  not 
throw  out  this  to  induce  you  to  make  any  proposal  beyond 
what  prudence  and  discretion  recommend ;  but  I  hope  I  shall 
hear  from  you  by  return  of  post,  as  1  may  be  shortly  called  out 
of  town  to  some  distance.  As  children  are  in  general  the  con 
sequence  of  an  happy  union,  I  should  wish  to  know  what  may 
be  your  thoughts  or  wishes  upon  that  subject.  I  trust  you 


312  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

will  not  think  me  too  particular ;  indeed  I  am  sure  you  will 
not,  when  you  consider  that  I  am  endeavouring  to  secure  the 
happiness  and  welfare  of  an  estimable  young  woman  whom 
you  admire  and  profess  to  be  partial  and  attached  to,  and  for 
whom  I  have  the  highest  regard,  esteem,  and  respect. 
"  I  am,  Sir,  your  obedient  humble  servant, 

"  DOWNSHIRE." 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  Carlisle,  Oct.  22. 

"  Your  last  letter,  my  dear  sir,  contains  a  very  fine  train  of 
perhaps,  and  of  so  many  pretty  conjectures,  that  it  is  not  flat 
tering  you  to  say  you  excel  in  the  art  of  tormenting  yourself. 
As  it  happens,  you  are  quite  wrong  in  all  your  suppositions.  I 
have  been  waiting  for  Lord  D.'s  answer  to  your  letter,  to  give 
a  full  answer  to  your  very  proper  inquiries  about  my  family. 
Miss  Nicolson  says,  that  when  she  did  offer  to  give  you  some 
information,  you  refused  it  —  and  advises  me  now  to  wait  for 
Lord  D.'s  letter.  Don't  believe  I  have  been  idle ;  I  have  been 
writing  very  long  letters  to  him,  and  all  about  you.  How  can 
you  think  that  I  will  give  an  answer  about  the  house  until  I 
hear  from  London  ?  —  that  is  quite  impossible  ;  and  I  believe 
you  are  a  little  out  of  your  senses  to  imagine  I  can  be  in  Edin 
burgh  before  the  twelfth  of  next  month.  O,  my  dear  sir,  no 
—  you  must  not  think  of  it  this  great  while.  I  am  much  flat 
tered  by  your  mother's  remembrance ;  present  my  respectful 
compliments  to  her.  You  don't  mention  your  father  in  your 
last  anxious  letter  —  I  hope  he  is  better.  1  am  expecting 
every  day  to  hear  from  my  brother.  You  may  tell  your  uncle 
he  is  commercial  resident  at  Salem.  He  will  find  the  name 
of  Charles  C.  in  his  India  list.  My  compliments  to  Captain 
Scott.  Sans  adieu,  C.  C." 

"  To  the  Same. 

"Carlisle,  Oct.  25. 

"  Indeed,  Mr.  Scott,  I  am  by  no  means  pleased  with  all  this 
writing.  I  have  told  you  how  much  I  dislike  it,  and  yet  you 


MISS    CARPENTER.  313 

ttill  persist  in  asking  me  to  write,  and  that  by  return  of  post. 
O,  you  really  are  quite  out  of  your  senses.  I  should  not  have 
Indulged  you  in  that  whim  of  yours,  had  you  not  given  me 
that  hint  that  my  silence  gives  an  air  of  mystery.  I  have  no 
reason  that  can  detain  me  in  acquainting  you  that  my  father 
and  mother  were  French,  of  the  name  of  Charpentier  ;  he  had 
a  place  under  government;  their  residence  was  at  Lyons, 
where  you  would  find  on  inquiries  that  they  lived  in  good  re 
pute  and  in  very  good  style.  I  had  the  misfortune  of  losing 
my  father  before  I  could  know  the  value  of  such  a  parent. 
At  his  death  we  were  left  to  the  care  of  Lord  D.,  who  was  his 
very  great  friend ;  and  very  soon  after  I  had  the  affliction  of 
losing  my  mother.  Our  taking  the  name  of  Carpenter  was  on 
my  brother's  going  to  India,  to  prevent  any  little  difficulties 
that  might  have  occurred.  I  hope  now  you  are  pleased. 
Lord  D.  could -have  given  you  every  information,  as  he  has 
been  acquainted  with  all  my  family.  You  say  you  almost 
love  him;  but  until  your  almost  comes  to  a  quite,  I  cannot 
love  you.  Before  I  conclude  this  famous  epistle,  I  will 
give  you  a  little  hint  —  that  is,  not  to  put  so  many  must  in 
your  letters  —  it  is  beginning  rather  too  soon;  and  another 
thing  is,  that  I  take  the  liberty  not  to  mind  them  much,  but  I 
expect  you  mind  me.  You  must  take  care  of  yourself;  you 
must  think  of  me,  and  believe  me  yours  sincerely,  C.  C." 


"  To  the  Same. 

Carlisle,  Oct.  26. 

"  I  have  only  a  minute  before  the  post  goes,  to  assure  you, 
iny  dear  sir,  of  the  welcome  reception  of  the  stranger.*  The 
very  great  likeness  to  a  friend  of  mine  will  endear  him  to  me ; 
he  shall  be  my  constant  companion,  but  I  wish  he  could  give 
me  an  answer  to  a  thousand  questions  I  have  to  make  —  one 
in  particular,  what  reason  have  you  for  so  many  fears  you 
express  ?  Have  your  friends  changed  ?  Pray  let  me  know 

*  A  miniature  of  Scott. 


314  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  truth  —  they  perhaps  don't  like  me  being  French.  Do 
write  immediately  —  let  it  be  in  better  spirits.  Et  croyez- 
moi  toujours  votre  sincere  C.  C." 


"  To  the  Same. 

"  October  31st. 

"  .  .  .  .  All  your  apprehensions  about  your  friends  make  me 
very  uneasy.  At  your  father's  age,  prejudices  are  not  easily 
overcome  —  old  people  have,  you  know,  so  much  more  wisdom 
and  experience,  that  we  must  be  guided  by  them.  If  he  has 
an  objection  on  my  being  French,  I  excuse  him  with  all  my 
heart,  as  I  don't  love  them  myself.  O  how  all  these  things 
plague  me  !  —  when  will  it  end  ?  And  to  complete  the  mat 
ter,  you  talk  of  going  to  the  West  Indies.  I  am  certain  your 
father  and  uncle  say  you  are  a  hot  heady  young  man,  quite 
mad,  and  I  assure  you  I  join  with  them ;  and  I  must  believe, 
that  when  you  have  such  an  idea,  you  have  then  determined 
to  think  no  more  of  me.  I  begin  to  repent  of  having  accepted 
your  picture.  I  will  send  it  back  again,  if  you  ever  think 
again  about  the  West  Indies.  Your  family  then  would  love  me 
very  much  —  to  forsake  them  for  a  stranger,  a  person  who  does 
not  possess  half  the  charms  and  good  qualities  that  you  imagine. 
I  think  I  hear  your  uncle  calling  you  a  hot  heady  young  man. 
I  am  certain  of  it,  and  I  am  generally  right  in  my  conjectures. 
What  does  your  sister  say  about  it  ?  I  suspect  that  she  thinks 
on  the  matter  as  I  should  do,  with  fears  and  anxieties  for  thr 
happiness  of  her  brother.  If  it  be  proper,  and  you  think  it 
would  be  acceptable,  present  my  best  compliments  to  your 
mother ;  and  to  my  old  acquaintance  Captain  Scott  I  beg  to 
be  remembered.  This  evening  is  the  first  ball  —  don't  you 
wish  to  be  of  our  party  ?  I  guess  your  answer  —  it  would 
give  me  infinite  pleasure.  En  attendant  le  plaisir  de  voui 
revoir,  je  suis  toujours  votre  constante 

"  CHARLOTTE." 


MISS    CARPENTER.  315 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  The  Castle,  Hartford,  October  29, 1797. 

1  Sir,  —  I  received  the  favour  of  your  letter.  It  was  so 
manly,  honourable,  candid,  and  so  full  of  good  sense,  that  I 
think  Miss  Carpenter's  friends  cannot  in  any  way  object  to  the 
union  you  propose.  Its  taking  place,  when  or  where,  will  de 
pend  upon  herself,  as  I  shall  write  to  her  by  this  night's  post. 
Any  provision  that  may  be  given  to  her  by  her  brother,  you 
will  have  settled  upon  her  and  her  children ;  and  I  hope,  with 
all  my  heart,  that  every  earthly  happiness  may  attend  you 
both.  I  shall  be  always  happy  to  hear  it,  and  to  subscribe 
myself  your  faithful  friend  and  obedient  humble  servant, 

"  DOWNSHIRE." 

(On  the  same  sheet.) 

"Carlisle,  Nov.  4. 

"Last  night  I  received  the  enclosed  for  you  from  Lord 
Downshire.  If  it  has  your  approbation,  I  shall  be  very  glad 
to  see  you  as  soon  as  will  be  convenient.  I  have  a  thousand 
things  to  tell  you ;  but  let  me  beg  of  you  not  to  think  for  some 
time  of  a  house.  I  am  sure  I  can  convince  you  of  the  propri 
ety  and  prudence  of  waiting  until  your  father  will  settle  things 
more  to  your  satisfaction,  and  until  I  have  heard  from  my 
brother.  You  must  be  of  my  way  of  thinking.  —  Adieu. 

"  C.  C." 

Scott  obeyed  this  summons,  and  I  suppose  remained  in  Car 
lisle  until  the  Court  of  Session  met,  which  is  always  on  the 
12th  of  November. 

«  To  W.  Scott,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

11  Carlisle,  Nov.  14th. 

"  Your  letter  never  could  have  come  in  a  more  favourable 
moment.  Anything  you  could  have  said  would  have  been 
well  received.  You  surprise  me  much  at  the  regret  you 
you  had  of  leaving  Carlisle.  Indeed,  I  can't  believe 


316  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

it  was  on  my  account,  I  was  so  uncommonly  stupid.  I  don't 
know  what  could  be  the  matter  with  me,  I  was  so  very  low, 
and  felt  really  ill :  it  was  even  a  trouble  to  speak.  The  set 
tling  of  our  little  plans  —  all  looked  so  much  in  earnest  —  that 
J  began  reflecting  more  seriously  than  I  generally  do,  or  ap 
prove  of.  I  don't  think  that  very  thoughtful  people  ever  caa 
be  happy.  As  this  is  my  maxim,  adieu  to  all  thoughts.  I 
have  made  a  determination  of  being  pleased  with  everything, 
and  with  everybody  in  Edinburgh ;  a  wise  system  for  happi 
ness,  is  it  not  ?  I  enclose  the  lock.  I  have  had  almost  all  my 
hair  cut  off.  Miss  Nicolson  has  taken  some,  which  she  sends 
to  London  to  be  made  to  something,  but  this  you  are  not  to 
know  of,  as  she  intends  to  present  it  to  you.  ******  J 
am  happy  to  hear  of  your  father's  being  better  pleased  as  to 
money  matters ;  it  will  come  at  last ;  don't  let  that  trifle  dis 
turb  you.  Adieu,  Monsieur.  J'ai  1'honneur  d'etre  votre  tres 
humble  et  tres  "  Obeissante  C.  C." 

"  Carlisle,  Nov.  27th. 

"  You  have  made  me  very  triste  all  day.  Pray  never  more 
complain  of  being  poor.  Are  you  not  ten  times  richer  than  I 
am  ?  Depend  on  yourself  and  your  profession.  I  have  no 
doubt  you  will  rise  very  high,  and  be  a  great  rich  man,  but  we 
should  look  down  to  be  contented  with  our  lot,  and  banish  all 
disagreeable  thoughts.  We  shall  do  very  well.  I  am  very 
sorry  to  hear  you  have  such  a  bad  head.  I  hope  I  shall  nurse 
away  all  your  aches.  I  think  you  write  too  much.  When  I 
am  mistress  I  shall  not  allow  it.  How  very  angry  I  should  be 
with  you  if  you  were  to  part  with  Lenore.  Do  you  really  be 
lieve  I  should  think  it  an  unnecessary  expense  where  your 
health  and  pleasure  can  be  concerned  ?  I  have  a  better  opin 
ion  of  you,  and  I  am  very  glad  you  don't  give  up  the  cavalry, 
as  1  love  anything  that  is  stylish.  Don't  forget  to  find  a  stand 
for  the  old  carriage,  as  I  shall  like  to  keep  'it,  in  case  we 
should  have  to  go  any  journey;  it  is  so  much  more  CDnvenient 
than  the  post-chaises,  and  will  do  very  well  till  we  can  keep 
vwr  carriage.  W7iat  an  idea  of  yours  was  that  to  mention 


MISS    CARPENTER.  317 

where  you  wish  to  have  your  bones  laid  I  If  you  were  married, 
I  should  think  you  were  tired  of  me.  A  very  pretty  compli 
ment  before  marriage.  I  hope  sincerely  that  I  shall  not  live  to 
gee  that  day.  If  you  always  have  those  cheerful  thoughts, 
how  very  pleasant  and  gay  you  must  be. 

"  Adieu,  my  dearest  friend.  Take  care  of  yourself  if  you 
love  me,  as  I  have  no  wish  that  you  should  visit  that  beautiful 
and  romantic  scene,  the  burying-place.  Adieu,  once  more, 
and  believe  that  you  are  loved  very  sincerely  by 

"  C.  C." 

"  Dec.  10th. 

"  If  I  could  but  really  believe  that  my  letter  gave  you  only 
half  the  pleasure  you  express,  I  should  almost  think,  my  dear 
est  Scott,  that  I  should  get  very  fond  of  writing  merely  for  the 
pleasure  to  indulge  you  —  that  is  saying  a  great  deal.  I  hope 
you  are  sensible  of  the  compliment  I  pay  you,  and  don't  expect 
I  shall  always  be  so  pretty  behaved.  You  may  depend  on  me, 
my  dearest  friend,  for  fixing  as  early  a  day  as  I  possibly  can ; 
and  if  it  happens  to  be  not  quite  so  soon  as  you  wish,  you  must 
not  be  angry  with  me.  It  is  very  unlucky  you  are  such  a  bad 
housekeeper  —  as  I  am  no  better.  I  shall  try.  I  hope  to 
have  very  soon  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you,  and  to  tell  you  how 
much  I  love  you;  but  I  wish  the  first  fortnight  was  over. 
With  all  my  love,  and  those  sort  of  pretty  things  —  adieu. 

"  CHARLOTTE.'* 

"  P.  S.  —  Etudiez  votre  Franfais.  Remember  you  are  to 
teach  me  Italian  in  return,  but  I  shall  be  but  a  stupid 
scholar.  Aimez  Charlotte" 

"  Carlisle,  Dec  14th. 

******  "I  heard  last  night  from  my  friends  in  London, 
and  I  shall  certainly  have  the  deed  this  week.  I  will  send  it 
to  you  directly;  but  not  to  lose  so  much  time  as  you  have 
oeen  reckoning,  I  will  prevent  any  little  delay  that  might  hap 
pen  by  the  post,  by  fixing  already  next  Wednesday  for  your 


818  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

coming  here,  and  on  Thursday  the  21st  —  Oh,  my  dear  Scott, 
on  that  day  I  shall  be  yours  for  ever.  C.  C." 

"  P.  £  —  Arrange  it  so  that  we  shall  see  none  of  your  family 
the  night  of  our  arrival.  I  shall  be  so  tired,  and  such  a  fright, 
I  should  not  be  seen  to  advantage.*' 

To  these  extracts  I  may  add  the  following  from  the 
first  leaf  of  an  old  black-letter  Bible  at  Abbotsford:  — 

"  Secundum  morem  majorum  h<zc  de  familid  Gualten 
Scott,  Jurisconsulti  Edinensis,  in  librum  hunc  sacrum 
manu  sud  conscripta  sunt. 

"  Gualterus  Scott,  filius  Gualteri  Scott  et  Anna  Ruther 
ford,  natus  erat  apud  Edinam  I5mo  die  Augusti,  A.  D. 
1771. 

"  Socius  Facultatis  Juridicce  Edinensis  receptus  erat 
llmo  die  Julii,  A.  D.  1792. 

"  In  ecclesiam  Sanctce  Maries  apud  Carlisle,  uxorem 
duxit  Margaretam  Gharlottam  Carpenter,  filiam  quondam 
Joannis  Charpentier  et  Charlotte  Volere,  Lugdunensem, 
2±todie  Decembris  1797."* 

*  The  account  in  the  text  of  Miss  Carpenter's  origin  has  been,  I  am 
aware,  both  spoken  and  written  of  as  an  uncandid  one :  it  had  been 
expected  that  even  in  1837  I  would  not  pass  in  silence  a  rumour  of 
*  arly  prevalence,  which  represented  her  and  her  brother  as  children  of 
Lord  Downshire  by  Madame  Charpentier.  I  did  not  think  it  neces 
sary  to  allude  to  this  story  while  any  of  Sir  Walter's  own  children 
were  living;  and  I  presume  it  will  be  sufficient  for  me  to  say  now,  that 
neither  I,  nor,  I  firmly  believe,  any  one  of  them,  ever  heard  either  from 
8k  Walter,  or  from  his  wife,  or  from  Miss  Nicolson  (who  survived 
them  both)  the  slightest  hint  as  to  the  rumour  in  question.  There  is 
not  an  expression  in  the  preserved  correspondence  between  Scott,  the 
young  lady,  and  the  Marquis,  that  gives  it  a  shadow  of  countenance. 
Lastly,  Lady  Scott  always  kept  hanging  by  her  bedside,  and  repeatedly 
kissed  in  her  dying  moments,  a  miniature  of  her  father  which  is  now 
in  my  hands ;  and  it  is  the  well-painted  likeness  of  a  handsome  gentle 
man —  but  I  am  assured  the  features  have  no  resemblance  to  Lord 
Dpwnshire  or  any  of  the  Hill  family. 

END   OF   VOL.   I. 


&RA*>SL 

ik 

UNIVERSITY) 

/ 

>^ 


MEMOIES  OF  THE  LIFE 


OF 


SIR   WALTER    SCOTT,   BARl, 


MEMOIRS 


OP  THE 


LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Early  Married  Life  —  Lasswade  Cottage  —  Monk  Lewis  — 
Translation  of  Goetz  von  Berlichingen,  published  —  Visit  to 
London  —  House  of  Aspen  —  Death  of  Scotfs  Father  — 
First  Original  Ballads  —  Glenfinlas,  fyc.  —  Metrical  Frag 
ments  —  Appointment  to  the  Sheriffship  of  Selkirkshire. 

1798-1799. 

SCOTT  carried  his  bride  to  a  lodging  in  George  Street* 
Edinburgh  ;  a  house  which  he  had  taken  in  South  Castle 
Street  not  being  quite  prepared  for  her  reception.  The 
first  fortnight,  to  which  she  had  looked  with  such  anxiety, 
was,  I  believe,  more  than  sufficient  to  convince  her  hus 
band's  family  that,  however  rashly  he  had  formed  the 
connexion,  she  had  the  sterling  qualities  of  a  good  wife,. 
Notwithstanding  the  little  leaning  to  the  pomps  and  van 
ities  of  the  world,  which  her  letters  have  not  concealed, 
she  had  made  up  her  mind  to  find  her  happiness  in  better 
things  ;  and  so  long  as  their  circumstances  continued  nar 
row,  no  woman  could  have  conformed  herself  to  them 
with  more  of  good  feeling  and  good  sense.  Some  habits, 
new  in  the  quiet  domestic  circles  of  Edinburgh  citizens, 
did  not  escape  criticism  ;  and  in  particular,  I  have  heard 
herself,  in  her  most  prosperous  days,  laugh  heartily  at 


O  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  remonstrances  of  her  George  Street  landlady,  when 
it  was  discovered  that  the  southron  lodger  chose  to  sit 
usually,  and  not  on  high  occasions  merely,  in  her  draw 
ing-room,  —  on  which  subject  the  mother-in-law  was  dis 
posed  to  take  the  thrifty  old-fashioned  dame's  side. 

I  cannot  fancy  that  Lady  Scott's  manners  or  ideas  could 
ever  have  amalgamated  very  well  with  those  of  her  hus 
band's  parents  ;  but  the  feeble  state  of  the  old  gentleman's 
health  prevented  her  from  seeing  them  constantly  ;  and 
without  any  affectation  of  strict  intimacy,  they  soon  were, 
and  always  continued  to  be,  very  good  friends.  Anne 
Scott,  the  delicate  sister  to  whom  the  Ashestiel  Memoir 
alludes  so  tenderly,  speedily  formed  a  warm  and  sincere 
attachment  for  the  stranger ;  but  death,  in  a  short  time, 
carried  off  that  interesting  creature,  who  seems  to  have 
had  much  of  her  brother's  imaginative  and  romantic  tem 
perament,  without  his  power  of  controlling  it. 

Mrs.  Scott's  arrival  was  welcomed  with  unmingled  de 
light  by  the  brothers  of  the  Mountain.  The  two  ladies, 
who  had  formerly  given  life  and  grace  to  their  society, 
were  both  recently  married.  We  have  seen  Miss  Ers- 
kine's  letter  of  farewell ;  and  I  have  before  me  another 
not  less  affectionate,  written  when  Miss  Cranstoun  gave 
her  hand  (a  few  months  later)  to  Godfrey  Wenceslaus, 
Count  of  Purgstall,  a  nobleman  of  large  possessions  in 
Styria,  who  had  been  spending  some  time  in  Edinburgh. 
Scott's  house  in  South  Castle  Street  (soon  after  ex 
changed  for  one  of  the  same  sort  in  North  Castle  Street, 
which  he  purchased,  and  inhabited  down  to  1826)  be 
came  now  to  the  Mountain  what  Cranstoun's  and  Ers- 
kine's  had  been  while  their  accomplished  sisters  remained 
with  them.  The  officers  of  the  Light  Horse,  too,  estab 
lished  a  club  among  themselves,  supping  once  a-week  at 
each  other's  houses  in  rotation.  The  young  lady  thus 


EDINBURGH  —  1798. 

found  two  somewhat  different,  but  both  highly  agreeable 
circles  ready  to  receive  her  with  cordial  kindness ;  and 
the  evening  hours  passed  in  a  round  of  innocent  gaiety, 
all  the  arrangements  being  conducted  in  a  simple  and  in 
expensive  fashion,  suitable  to  young  people  whose  days 
were  mostly  laborious,  and  very  few  of  their  purses 
heavy.  Scott  and  Erskine  had  always  been  fond  of  the 
theatre ;  the  pretty  bride  was  passionately  so  —  and  I 
doubt  if  they  ever  spent  a  week  in  Edinburgh  without 
indulging  themselves  in  this  amusement.  But  regular 
dinners  and  crowded  assemblies  were  in  those  years  quite 
unthought  of.  Perhaps  nowhere  could  have  been  found 
a  society  on  so  small  a  scale  including  more  of  vigorous 
intellect,  varied  information,  elegant  tastes,  and  real  vir 
tue,  affection,  and  mutual  confidence.  How  often  have  I 
heard  its  members,  in  the  midst  of  the  wealth  and  honours 
which  most  of  them  in  due  season  attained,  sigh  over  the 
recollection  of  those  humbler  days,  when  love  and  am 
bition  were  young  and  buoyant  —  and  no  difference  of 
opinion  was  able  to  bring  even  a  momentary  chill  over 
the  warmth  of  friendship. 

"  You  will  imagine,"  writes  the  Countess  Purgstall  to  Scott, 
from  one  of  her  Styrian  castles,  "  how  my  heart  burnt  within 
me,  my  dear,  dear  friend,  while  I  read  your  thrice-welcome 
letter.  Had  all  the  gods  and  goddesses,  from  Saturn  to  La 
Liberte,  laid  their  heads  together,  they  could  not  have  present 
ed  me  with  anything  that  so  accorded  with  my  fondest  wishes. 
To  have  a  conviction  that  those  I  love  are  happy,  and  don't 
forget  me  !  —  I  have  no  way  to  express  my  feelings  —  they  come 
in  a  flood  and  destroy  me.  Could  my  George  but  light  on 
another  Charlotte,  there  would  be  but  one  crook  left  in  my 
ot  *  —  to  wit,  that  Reggersburg  does  not  serve  as  a  vista  for 

*  A  long-popular  manual  of  Presbyterian  Theology  is  entitled,  "  The 
Crook  in  the  Lot: "  — the  author's  name,  Thomas  Boston,  Minister  of 
Ettrick. 


10  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  Parliament  Square.*  Would  some  earthquake  engulf  the 
vile  tract  between,  or  the  spirit  of  our  rock  introduce  me  to 
Jack  the  Giant-Queller's  shoemaker ;  Lord,  Lord,  how  delight 
ful  !  Could  I  choose,  I  should  just  for  the  present  patronise 
the  shoemaker,  and  then  the  moment  I  got  you  all  snug  in  this 
old  hall,  steal  the  shoes,  and  lock  them  away  till  the  indigna 
tion  of  the  Lord  passes  by  poor  Old  England !  Earl  Walter 
would  play  the  devil  with  me,  but  his  Charlotte's  smiles  would 
speak  thanks  ineffable,  and  the  angry  clouds  pass  as  before  the 
sun  in  his  strength.  How  divinely  your  spectre  scenes  would 
come  in  here  !  Surely  there  is  no  vanity  in  saying  that  earth 
has  no  mountains  like  ours.  O,  how  delightful  to  see  the  lady 
that  is  blessed  with  Earl  Walter's  love,  and  that  had  mind 
enough  to  discover  the  blessing.  Some  kind  post,  I  hope,  will 
soon  tell  me  that  your  happiness  is  enlarged,  in  the  only  way 
it  can  be  enlarged,  for  you  have  no  chance  now  I  think  of 
taking  Buonaparte  prisoner.  What  sort  of  a  genius  will  he  be, 
is  a  very  anxious  speculation  indeed ;  whether  the  philosopher, 
the  lawyer,  the  antiquary,  the  poet,  or  the  hero  will  prevail  — 
the  spirit  whispers  unto  me  a  happy  melange  of  the  two  last  — 
he  will  lisp  in  numbers,  and  kick  at  la  Nourrice.  On  his  arri 
val,  present  my  fondest  wishes  to  his  honour,  and  don't,  pray, 
give  him  a  name  out  of  your  list  of  round-table  knights,  but 
some  simple  Christian  appellation  from  the  House  of  Harden. 
And  is  it  then  true,  my  God,  that  Earl  Walter  is  a  Benedick, 
and  that  I  am  in  Styria  ?  Well,  bless  us  all,  prays  the  sepa 
rated  from  her  brethren,  J.  A.  P.*' 
"  Hainfeld,  July  20, 1798." 

Another  extract  from  the  Family  Bible  may  close  this 

*  The  ancient  castle  of  Reggersburg  (if  engravings  may  be  trusted, 
one  of  the  most  magnificent  in  Germany)  was  the  chief  seat  of  the 
Purgstalls.  In  situation  and  extent  it  seems  to  resemble  the  castle  of 
Stirling.  The  Countess  writes  thus,  about  the  same  time,  to  another 
of  the  Mountain:  —  "As  for  Scott  and  his  sweet  little  wife,  I  consider 
ihem  as  a  sort  of  papa  and  mamma  to  you  all,  and  am  happy  the  godi 
have  ordered  it  so." 


LASSWADE  —  1798.  1 

letter  -^  "  M.   0.  Scott  puerum  edidit  \Uo  die   Octobris 
1798,  qui  postero  die  obiit  apud  Edinburgum" 

In  the  summer  of  this  year  Scott  had  hired  a  pretty 
cottage  at  Lasswade,  on  the  Esk,  about  six  miles  from 
Edinburgh,  and  there,  as  the  back  of  Madame  de  P.'s 
letter  shows,  he  received  it  from  the  hands  of  Professor 
Stewart.  It  is  a  small  house,  but  with  one  room  of  good 
dimensions,  which  Mrs.  Scott's  taste  set  off  to  advantage 
at  very  humble  cost  —  a  paddock  or  two  —  and  a  garden 
(commanding  a  most  beautiful  view)  in  which  Scott  de 
lighted  to  train  his  flowers  and  creepers.  Never,  I  have 
heard  him  say,  was  he  prouder  of  his  handiwork  than 
when  he  had  completed  the  fashioning  of  a  rustic  arch 
way,  now  overgrown  with  hoary  ivy,  by  way  of  orna 
ment  to  the  entrance  from  the  Edinburgh  road.  In  this 
retreat  they  spent  some  happy  summers,  receiving  the 
visits  of  their  few  chosen  friends  from  the  neighbouring 
city,  and  wandering  at  will  amidst  some  of  the  most  ro 
mantic  scenery  that  Scotland  can  boast  —  Scott's  dearest 
haunt  in  the  days  of  his  boyish  ramblings.  They  had 
neighbours,  too,  who  were  not  slow  to  cultivate  their  ac 
quaintance.  With  the  Clerks  of  Pennycuick,  with  Mac 
kenzie  the  Man  of  Feeling,  who  then  occupied  the  charm 
ing  villa  of  Auchendinny,  and  with  Lord  Woodhouselee, 
Scott  had  from  an  earlier  date  been  familiar ;  and  it  was 
while  at  Lasswade  that  he  formed  intimacies,  even  more 
important  in  their  results,  with  the  noble  families  of  Mel 
ville  and  Buccleuch,  both  of  whom  have  castles  in  the 
game  valley. 

"  Sweet  are  the  paths,  0  passing  sweet, 

By  Esk's  fair  streams  that  run, 
O'er  airy  steep,  thro'  copsewood  deep 
Impervious  to  the  sun; 


12  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  From  that  fair  dome  where  suit  is  paid 

By  blast  of  bugle  free,* 
To  Auchendinny's  hazel  shade, 
And  haunted  Wooclhouselee. 

"  Who  knows  not  Melville's  beechy  grove, 

And  Roslin's  rocky  glen; 
Dalkeith,  which  all  the  virtues  love, 
And  classic  Hawthornden  ?  " 

Another  verse  reminds  us  that 

"  There  the  rapt  poet's  step  may  rove; "  — 

and  it  was  amidst  these  delicious  solitudes  that  he  did 
produce  the  pieces  which  laid  the  imperishable  founda 
tions  of  all  his  fame.  It  was  here,  that  when  his  warm 
heart  was  beating  with  young  and  happy  love,  and  his 
whole  mind  and  spirit  were  nerved  by  new  motives  for 
exertion  —  it  was  here,  that  in  the  ripened  glow  of  man 
hood  he  seems  to  have  first  felt  something  of  his  real 
strength,  and  poured  himself  out  in  those  splendid  orig 
inal  ballads  which  were  at  once  to  fix  his  name. 

I  must,  however,  approach  these  more  leisurely.  When 
William  Erskine  was  in  London  in  the  spring  of  this 
year,  he  happened  to  meet  in  society  with  Matthew  Greg 
ory  Lewis,  M.  P.  for  Hindon,  whose  romance  of  The 
Monk,  with  the  ballads  which  it  included,  had  made  for 
him,  in  those  barren  days,  a  brilliant  reputation.  This 
good-natured  fopling,  the  pet  and  plaything  of  certain 
fashionable  circles,  was  then  busy  with  that  miscellany 
which  at  length  came  out  in  1801,  under  the  name  of 
Tales  of  Wonder,  and  was  beating  up  in  all  quarters 
for  contributions.  Erskine  showed  Lewis,  Scott's  ver 
sions  of  Lenore  and  the  Wild  Huntsman ;  and  when  he 

*  Pennycuick. 


"  MONK    LEWIS  " 1798.  13 

mentioned  that  his  friend  had  other  specimens  of  the 
German  diablerie  in  his  portfolio,  the  collector  anxiously 
requested  that  Scott  might  be  enlisted  in  his  cause.  The 
brushwood  splendour  of  "  The  Monk's  "  fame, 

"  The  false  and  foolish  fire  that's  whiskt  about 
By  popular  air,  and  glares,  and  then  goes  out,"  * 

had  a  dazzling  influence  among  the  unknown  aspirants 
of  Edinburgh  ;  and  Scott,  who  was  perhaps  at  all  times 
rather  disposed  to  hold  popular  favour  as  the  surest  test 
of  literary  merit,  and  who  certainly  continued  through 
life  to  over-estimate  all  talents  except  his  own,  consid 
ered  this  invitation  as  a  very  flattering  compliment.  He 
immediately  wrote  to  Lewis,  placing  whatever  pieces  he 
had  translated  and  imitated  from  the  German  Volkslieder 
at  his  disposal.  The  following  is  the  first  of  Lewis's  let 
ters  to  him  that  has  been  preserved  —  it  is  without  date, 
but  marked  by  Scott  "  1798." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.  Advocate,  Edinburgh. 

"  Sir,  —  I  cannot  delay  expressing  to  you  how  much  I  feel 
obliged  to  you,  both  for  the  permission  to  publish  the  ballads 
J  requested,  and  for  the  handsome  manner  in  which  that  per 
mission  was  granted.  The  plan  I  have  proposed  to  myself,  is 
to  collect  all  the  marvellous  ballads  which  I  can  lay  hands 
upon.  Ancient  as  well,  as  modern  will  be  comprised  in  my 
design ;  and  I  shall  even  allow  a  place  to  Sir  Gawaine's  Foul 
Ladye,  and  the  Ghost  that  came  to  Margaret's  door  and  tirled 
at  the  pin.  But  as  a  ghost  or  a  witch  is  a  sine-qua-non  ingre 
dient  in  all  the  dishes  of  which  I  mean  to  compose  my  hob 
goblin  repast,  I  am  afraid  the  '  Lied  von  Treue '  does  not  come 
within  the  plan.  With  regard  to  the  romance  in  Claudina 
von  Villa  Bella,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  it  is  only  a  fragment 

*  Oldham. 


14  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

in  the  original ;  but,  should  you  have  finished  it,  you  will 
oblige  me  much  by  letting  me  have  a  copy  of  it,  as  well  as 
of  the  other  marvellous  traditionary  ballads  you  were  so  goot» 
as  to  offer  me. 

"  Should  you  be  in  Edinburgh  when  I  arrive  there,  I  shall 
request  Erskine  to  contrive  an  opportunity  for  my  returning 
my  personal  thanks.  Meanwhile,  I  beg  you  to  believe  me 
your  most  obedient  and  obliged  M.  G.  LEWIS." 

When  Lewis  reached  Edinburgh,  he  met  Scott  accord 
ingly,  and  the  latter  told  Allan  Cunningham,  thirty  years 
afterwards,  that  he  thought  he  had  never  felt  such  elation 
as  when  the  "  Monk  "  invited  him  to  dine  with  him  for 
the  first  time  at  his  hotel.  Since  he  gazed  on  Burns  in 
his  seventeenth  year,  he  had  seen  no  one  enjoying,  by 
general  consent,  the  fame  of  a  poet ;  and  Lewis,  what 
ever  Scott  might,  on  maturer  consideration,  think  of  his 
title  to  such  fame,  had  certainly  done  him  no  small  ser 
vice  ;  for  the  ballads  of  "  Alonzo  the  Brave  and  the 
Fair  Imogine,"  and  "  Durandarte,"  had  rekindled  effect 
ually  in  bis  breast  the  spark  of  poetical  ambition.  Lady 
Charlotte  Campbell  (now  Bury),  always  distinguished  by 
her  passion  for  elegant  letters,  was  ready,  "  in  pride  of 
rank,  in  beauty's  bloom,"  to  do  the  honours  of  Scotland 
to  the  "Lion  of  Mayfair;"  and  I  believe  Scott's  first 
introduction  to  Lewis  took  place  at  one  of  her  Lady 
ship's  parties.  But  they  met  frequently,  and,  among 
other  places,  at  Dalkeith  —  as  witness  one  of  Scott's 
marginal  notes,  written  in  1825,  on  Lord  Byron's  Diary 
—  "  Poor  fellow,"  says  Byron,  "  he  died  a  martyr  to  hii 
new  riches  —  of  a  second  visit  to  Jamaica. 


that  is, 


'  I'd  give  the  lands  of  Deloraine 
Dark  Musgrave  were  alive  again 


MONK    LEWIS 1798.  15 

*  I  would  give  many  a  sugar-cane 
Monk  Lewis  were  alive  again. '  " 

To  which  Scott  adds  :  —  "I  would  pay  my  share !  how 
few  friends  one  has  whose  faults  are  only  ridiculous. 
Flis  visit  was  one  of  humanity  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
aon  of  his  slaves.  He  did  much  good  by  stealth,  and 
was  a  most  generous  creature  ....  Lewis  was  fonder 
of  great  people  than  he  ought  to  have  been,  either  as  a 
man  of  talent  or  as  a  man  of  fashion.  He  had  always 
dukes  and  duchesses  in  his  mouth,  and  was  pathetically 
fond  of  any  one  that  had  a  title.  You  would  have  sworn 
he  had  been  a  parvenu  of  yesterday,  yet  he  had  lived 
all  his  life  in  good  society  ....  Mat  had  queerish  eyes 
—  they  projected  like  those  of  some  insects,  and  were 
flattish  on  the  orbit.  His  person  was  extremely  small 
and  boyish  —  he  was  indeed  the  least  man  I  ever  saw, 
to  be  strictly  well  and  neatly  made.  I  remember  a  pic 
ture  of  him  by  Saunders  being  handed  round  at  Dalkeith 
House.  The  artist  had  ingeniously  flung  a  dark  folding- 
mantle  around  the  form,  under  which  was  half-hid  a  dag 
ger,  a  dark  lantern,  or  some  such  cut-throat  appurtenance; 
with  all  this  the  features  were  preserved  and  ennobled. 
It  passed  from  hand  to  hand  into  that  of  Henry,  Duke 
of  Buccleuch,  who,  hearing  the  general  voice  affirm  that 
it  was  very  like,  said  aloud,  '  Like  Mat  Lewis  !  Why 
that  picture's  like  a  MAN  ! '  He  looked,  and  lo,  Mat 
Lewis's  head  was  at  his  elbow.  This  boyishness  went 
through  life  with  him.  He  was  a  child,  and  a  spoiled 
child,  but  a  child  of  high  imagination  ;  and  so  he  wasted 
himself  on  ghost-stories  and  German  romances.  He 
had  the  finest  ear  for  rhythm  I  ever  met  with  —  finer 
than  Byron's." 

During  Lewis's  stay  in  Scotland  this  year,  he  spent  a 


16  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

day  or  two  with  Scott  at  Musselburgh,  where  the 
manry  corps  were  in  quarters.  Scott  received  him 
his  lodgings,  under  the  roof  of  an  ancient  dame,  who 
afforded  him  much  amusement  by  her  daily  colloquies 
with  the  tishwomen  —  the  Mucklebackets  of  the  place. 
His  delight  in  studying  the  dialect  of  these  people  is 
well  remembered  by  the  survivors  of  the  cavalry,  and 
rr>ust  have  astonished  the  stranger  dandy.  While  walk-  / 
ing  about  before  dinner  on  one  of  these  days,  Mr.  Skene's 
recitation  of  the  German  Kriegslied,  "  Der  Abschied's 
Tag  ist  da"  (the  day  of  departure  is  come),  delighted 
both  Lewis  and  the  Quarter-Master ;  and  the  latter  pro 
duced  next  morning  that  spirited  little  piece  in  the  same 
measure,  which,  embodying  the  volunteer  ardour  of  the 
time,  was  forthwith  adopted  as  the  troop-song  of  the 
Edinburgh  Light-Horse.* 

In  January  1799,  Mr.  Lewis  appears  negotiating  with 
a  bookseller,  named  Bell,  for  the  publication  of  Scott's 
version  of  Goethe's  Tragedy,  "  Goetz  von  Berlichingen 
of  the  Iron  Hand."  Bell  seems  finally  to  have  pur 
chased  the  copy-right  for  twenty-five  guineas,  and  twenty- 
five  more  to  be  paid  in  case  of  a  second  edition  —  which 
was  never  called  for  until  long  after  the  copy-right  had 
expired.  Lewis  writes,  "I  have  made  him  distinctly 
understand,  that,  if  you  accept  so  small  a  sum,  it  will  be 
only  because  this  is  your  first  publication."  The  edition 
of  "  Lenore  "  and  the  "Yager,"  in  1796,  had  been  com 
pletely  forgotten  ;  and  Lewis  thought  of  those  ballads  ex 
actly  as  if  they  had  been  MS.  contributions  to  his  own 
Tales  of  Wonder,  still  lingering  on  the  threshold  of  the 
press.  The  Goetz  appeared  accordingly,  with  Scott's 
name  on  the  title-page,  in  the  following  February 
*  See  Poetical  Works  (Edition  1841),  p.  604. 


GOETZ    OF    BERLICHINGEN 1799. 

In  March  1799,  he  carried  his  wife  to  London,  this 
being  the  first  time  that  he  had  seen  the  metropolis  since 
the  days  of  his  infancy.  The  acquaintance  of  Lewis 
served  to  introduce  him  to  some  literary  and  fashionable 
society,  with  which  he  was  much  amused ;  but  his  great 
anxiety  was  to  examine  the  antiquities  of  the  Tower  and 
Westminster  Abbey,  and  to  make  some  researches  among 
the  MSS.  of  the  British  Museum.  He  found  his  Goetz 
spoken  of  favourably,  on  the  whole,  by  the  critics  of  the 
time ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  have  attracted  general 
attention.  The  truth  is,  that,  to  have  given  Goethe  any 
thing  like  a  fair  chance  with  the  English  public,  his  first 
drama  ought  to  have  been  translated  at  least  ten  years 
before.  The  imitators  had  been  more  fortunate  than  the 
master,  and  this  work,  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most 
important  landmarks  in  the  history  of  German  literature, 
had  not  come  even  into  Scott's  hands,  until  he  had  famil 
iarized  himself  with  the  ideas  which  it  first  opened,  in 
the  feeble  and  puny  mimicries  of  writers  already  forgot 
ten.  He  readily  discovered  the  vast  gulf  which  sepa 
rated  Goethe  from  the  German  dramatists  on  whom  he 
had  heretofore  been  employing  himself;  but  the  public 
in  general  drew  no  such  distinctions,  and  the  English 
Goetz  was  soon  afterwards  condemned  to  oblivion, 
through  the  unsparing  ridicule  showered  on  whatever 
bore  the  name  of  German  play,  by  the  inimitable  cari 
cature  of  The  Rovers. 

The  tragedy  of  Goethe,  however,  has  in  truth  nothing 
in  common  with  the  wild  absurdities  against  which  Can 
ning  and  Ellis  levelled  the  arrows  of  their  wit.  It  is  a 
broad,  bold,  free,  and  most  picturesque  delineation  8f  real 
characters,  manners,  and  events ;  the  first  fruits,  in  a 
word,  of  that  passionate  admiration  for  Shakspeare,  to 


18  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

which  all  that  is  excellent  in  the  recent  imaginative  liter 
ature  of  Germany  must  be  traced.  With  what  delight 
must  Scott  have  found  the  scope  and  manner  of  our 
Elizabethan  drama  revived  on  a  foreign  stage  at  the  call 
of  a  real  master !  — with  what  double  delight  must  he  have 
seen  Goethe  seizing  for  the  noblest  purposes  of  art,  men 
and  modes  of  life,  scenes,  incidents,  and  transactions,  all 
claiming  near  kindred  with  those  that  had  from  boyhood 
formed  the  chosen  theme  of  his  own  sympathy  and  re 
flection  !  In  the  baronial  robbers  of  the  Rhine,  stern, 
bloody,  and  rapacious,  but  frank,  generous,  and,  after 
their  fashion,  courteous  —  in  their  forays  upon  each  oth 
er's  domains,  the  besieged  castles,  the  plundered  herds, 
the  captive  knights,  the  browbeaten  bishop,  and  the  baf 
fled  liege-lord,  who  vainly  strove  to  quell  all  these  turbu 
lences  —  Scott  had  before  him  a  vivid  image  of  the  life 
of  his  own  and  the  rival  Border  clans,  familiarized  to 
him  by  a  hundred  nameless  minstrels.  If  it  be  doubtful 
whether,  but  for  Percy's  Reliques,  he  would  ever  have 
thought  of  editing  their  Ballads,  I  think  it  not  less  so, 
whether,  but  for  the  Ironhanded  Goetz,  it  would  ever 
have  flashed  upon  his  mind,  that  in  the  wild  traditions 
which  these  recorded,  he  had  been  unconsciously  assem 
bling  materials  for  more  works  of  high  art  than  the 
longest  life  could  serve  him  to  elaborate.  , 

As  the  version  of  the  Goetz  has  at  length  been  in 
cluded  in  Scott's  poetical  works,  I  need  not  make  it  the 
subject  of  more  detailed  observation  here.  The  reader 
who  turns  to  it  for  the  first  time  will  be  no  less  struck 
than  I  was  under  similar  circumstances  a  dozen  years  ago, 
with  the  many  points  of  resemblance  between  the  tone 
and  spirit  of  Goethe's  delineation,  and  that  afterwards 
adopted  by  the  translator  in  some  of  the  most  remark 


GOETZ    OP   BERLICHINGEN 1799.  19 

able  of  his  original  works.     One  example,  however,  may 
be  forgiven :  — 

M  A  loud  alarm,  with  shouts  and  firing  —  SELBISS  is  borne  in  wounded 
by  two  Troopers. 

Selbiss.    Leave  me  here,  and  hasten  to  Goetz. 

1st  Trooper.    Let  us  stay — you  need  our  aid. 

Sel.    Get  one  of  you  on  the  watch-tower,  and  tell  me  how  it  goes. 

1st  Troop.    How  shall  I  get  up  ? 

2rf  Trojp.  Get  upon  my  shoulder;  you  can  then  reach  the  ruined 
part. 

1st  Troop.    ( On  the  tower.)    Alas!  Alas! 

Sel.    What  seest  thou  ? 

Troop.    Your  cavaliers  fly  to  the  hill. 

Sel.  Hellish  cowards!  I  would  that  they  stood,  and  that  I  had  a 
ball  through  my  head !  Ride  one  of  you  at  full  speed  —  Curse  and 
thunder  them  back  to  the  field!  Seest  thou  Goetz? 

Troop.    I  see  the  three  black  feathers  in  the  midst  of  the  tumult. 

Sel.     Swim,  brave  swimmer  —  I  lie  here. 

Troop.    A  white  plume!  Whose  is  that? 

Sel.     The  Captain. 

Troop.    Goetz  gallops  upon  him  —  Crash  —  down  he  goes. 

Sel.    The  Captain? 

Troop.    Yes. 

Sel.     Bravo !  —  bravo ! 

Troop.    Alas !  Alas !  I  see  Goetz  no  more. 

Sel.     Then  die,  Selbiss ! 

Troop.  A  dreadful  tumult  where  he  stood.  George's  blue  plumt 
ranishes  too. 

Sel.    Climb  higher !  —  Seest  thou  Lerse  ? 

Troop.    No  —  everything  is  in  confusion. 

Sel.    No  further — come  down  —  tell  me  no  more. 

Troop.    I  cannot  —  Bravo !  I  see  Goetz. 

Sel.    On  horseback  ? 

Troop.  Ay,  ay  —  high  on  horseback  —  victory !  —  they  fly ! 

Sel    The  Imperialists? 

Troop.  Standard  and  all  —  Goetz  behind  them— he  has  it  — he 
\>*s  it!" 

The  first  hint  of  this  (as  of  what  not  in  poetry  ?)  may 
be  found  in  the  Iliad  —  where  Helen  points  out  the  per- 


20  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

sons  of  the  Greek  heroes,  to  old  Priam  seated  on  the 
walls  of  Troy ;  and  Shak  spear e  makes  some  use  of  the 
same  idea  in  his  Julius  Caesar.  But  who  does  not  recog 
nise  in  Goethe's  drama  the  true  original  of  the  death- 
scene  of  Marmion,  and  the  storm  in  Ivanhoe? 

Scott  executed  about  the  same  time  his  "  House  of 
Aspen,"  rather  a  rifacimento  than  a  translation  from  one 
of  the  minor  dramatists  that  had  crowded  to  partake  the 
popularity  of  Goetz  of  the  Ironhand.  It  also  was  sent 
to  Lewis  in  London,  where  having  first  been  read  and 
much  recommended  by  the  celebrated  actress,  Mrs.  Esten. 
it  was  taken  up  by  Kemble,  and  I  believe  actually  put 
in  rehearsal  for  the  stage.  If  so,  the  trial  did  not  en 
courage  further  preparation,  and  the  notion  was  aban 
doned.  Discovering  the  play  thirty  years  after  among 
his  papers,  Scott  sent  it  to  one  of  the  literary  almanacks 
(the  Keepsake  of  1829.)  In  the  advertisement  he  says, 
'*  he  had  lately  chanced  to  look  over  these  scenes  with 
feelings  very  different  from  those  of  the  adventurous 
period  of  his  literary  life  during  which  they  were  writ 
ten,  and  yet  with  such,  perhaps,  as  a  reformed  libertine 
might  regard  the  illegitimate  production  of  an  early 
amour."  He  adds,  "  there  is  something  to  be  ashamed 
of,  certainly  ;  but  after  all,  paternal  vanity  whispers  that 
the  child  has  some  resemblance  to  the  father."  This 
piece  being  also  now  included  in  the  general  edition  of 
his  works,  I  shall  not  dwell  upon  it  here.  It  owes  its 
\paost  effective  scenes  to  the  Secret  Tribunal,  which  fouii- 
lain  of  terror  had  first  been  disclosed  by  Goethe,  and 
had  by  this  time  lost  much  of  its  effect  through  the 
*  clumsy  alacrity  "  of  a  hundred  followers.  Scott's  scenes 
are  interspersed  with  some  lyrics,  the  numbers  of  which 
at  least,  are  worthy  of  attention.  One  has  the  metre  — 


DEATH    OF    HIS    FATHER- — 1799.  21 

ind  not  a  little  of  the  spirit,  of  the  boat-song  of  Roderick 
Dhu  and  Clan  Alpin  :  — 

"  Joy  to  the  victors,  the  sons  of  old  Aspen, 
Joy  to  the  race  of  the  battle  and  scar ! 
Glory's  proud  garland  triumphantly  grasping, 
Generous  in  peace,  and  victorious  in  war. 

Honour  acquiring, 

Valour  inspiring, 
Bursting  resistless  through  foemen  they  go, 

War  axes  wielding, 

Broken  ranks  yielding, 
Till  from  the  battle  proud  Roderick  retiring, 
Yields  hi  wild  rout  the  fair  palm  to  his  foe." 

Another  is  the  first  draft  of  "  the  Maid  of  Toro ; "  and 
perhaps  he  had  forgotten  the  more  perfect  copy  of  that 
song,  when  he  sent  the  original  to  the  Keepsake. 

I  incline  to  believe  that  the  House  of  Aspen  was  writ 
ten  after  Scott's  return  from  London ;  but  it  has  been 
mentioned  in  the  same  page  with  the  Goetz,  to  avoid  any 
recurrence  to  either  the  German  or  the  Germanized 
dramas.  His  return  was  accelerated  by  the  domestic  ca 
lamity  which  forms  the  subject  of  the  following  letter:  — 

"  To  Mrs.  Scott,  George's  Square,  Edinburgh. 

"  London,  19th  April  1799. 

"My  Dear  Mother,  —  I  cannot  express  the  feelings  with 
which  I  sit  down  to  the  discharge  of  my  present  melancholy 
duty,  nor  how  much  I  regret  the  accident  which  has  removed 
me  from  Edinburgh,  at  a  time,  of  all  others,  when  I  should 
have  wished  to  administer  to  your  distress  all  the  consolation 
which  sympathy  and  affection  could  have  afforded.  Your 
own  principles  of  virtue  and  religion  will,  however,  I  well 
know,  be  your  best  support  in  this  heaviest  of  human  afflic 
tions.  The  removal  of  my  regretted  parent  from  this  earthly 


22  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOT  I. 

§cene,  is  to  him,  doubtless,  the  happiest  change,  if  the  firmest 
integrity  and  the  best  spent  life  can  entitle  us  to  judge  of  the 
state  of  our  departed  friends.  When  we  reflect  upon  this,  we 
ought  almost  to  suppress  the  selfish  feelings  of  regret  that  he 
was  not  spared  to  us  a  little  longer,  especially  when  we  con 
sider  that  it  was  not  the  will  of  Heaven  that  he  should  share 
the  most  inestimable  of  its  earthly  blessings,  such  a  portion 
of  health  as  might  have  enabled  him  to  enjoy  his  family.  To 
my  dear  father,  then,  the  putting  off  this  mortal  mask  was 
happiness,  and  to  us  who  remain,  a  lesson  so  to  live  that  we 
also  may  have  hope  in  our  latter  end;  and  with  you,  my 
dearest  Mother,  remain  many  blessings  and  some  duties,  a 
grateful  recollection  of  which  will,  I  am  sure,  contribute  to 
calm  the  current  of  your  affliction.  The  affection  and  atten 
tion  which  you  have  a  right  to  expect  from  your  children,  and 
which  I  consider  as  the  best  tribute  we  can  pay  to  the  mem 
ory  of  the  parent  we  have  lost,  will  also,  I  am  sure,  contribute 
its  full  share  to  the  alleviation  of  your  distress.  The  situation 
of  Charlotte's  health,  in  its  present  delicate  state,  prevented 
me  from  setting  off  directly  for  Scotland,  when  I  heard  that 
immediate  danger  was  apprehended.  I  am  now  glad  I  did 
not  do  so,  as  I  could  not  with  the  utmost  expedition  have 
reached  Edinburgh  before  the  lamented  event  had  taken 
place.  The  situation  of  my  affairs  must  detain  me  here  for 
a  few  days  more ;  the  instant  I  can  I  will  set  off  for  Scotland. 
I  need  not  tell  you  not  even  to  attempt  to  answer  this  letter 
• —  such  an  exertion  would  be  both  unnecessary  and  improper. 
John  or  Tom  will  let  me  know  how  my  sister  and  you  do.  .1 
am,  ever,  dear  Mother,  your  dutiful  and  affectionate  son, 

"  W.  S." 

"  P.S.  —  Permit  me,  my  dear  Madam,  to  add  a  line  to 
Scott's  letter,  to  express  to  you  how  sincerely  I  feel  for  your 
loss,  and  how  much  I  regret  that  I  am  not  near  you  to  try  by 
the  most  tender  care  to  soften  the  pain  that  so  great  a  misfor 
tune  must  inflict  on  you  and  on  all  those  who  had  the  happi- 


DEATH    OF    HIS    FATHER.  3 

ness  of  being  connected  with  him.  I  hope  soon  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  returning  to  you,  and  to  convince  you  of  the  sin 
cere  affection  of  your  daughter,  M.  C.  8." 

The  death  of  this  worthy  man,  in  his  70th  year,  after 
a  long  series  of  feeble  health  and  suffering,  was  an  event 
which  could  only  be  regarded  as  a  great  deliverance  to 
himself.  He  had  had  a  succession  of  paralytic  attacks, 
under  which,  mind  as  well  as  body  had  by  degrees  been 
laid  quite  prostrate.  When  the  first  Chronicles  of  the 
Canongate  appeared,  a  near  relation  of  the  family  said  to 
me  —  "I  had  been  out  of  Scotland  for  some  time,  and 
did  not  know  of  my  good  friend's  illness,  until  I  reached 
Edinburgh,  a  few  months  before  his  death.  Walter  car 
ried  me  to  visit  him,  and  warned  me  that  I  should  see  a 
great  change.  I  saw  the  very  scene  that  is  here  painted 
of  the  elder  Croftangry's  sickroom  —  not  a  feature  differ 
ent  —  poor  Anne  Scott,  the  gentlest  of  creatures,  was 
treated  by  the  fretful  patient  precisely  like  this  niece."  * 

I  have  lived  to  see  the  curtain  rise  and  fall  once  more 
on  a  like  scene. 

Mr.  Thomas  Scott  continued  to  manage  his  father's 
business.  He  married  early ;  he  was  in  his  circle  of 
society  extremely  popular ;  and  his  prospects  seemed  fair 
in  all  things.  The  property  left  by  the  old  gentleman 
was  less  than  had  been  expected,  but  sufficient  to  make 
ample  provision  for  his  widow,  and  a  not  inconsiderable 
addition  to  the  resources  of  those  among  whom  the  re 
mainder  was  divided. 

Scott's  mother  and  sister,  both  much  exhausted  with 
their  attendance  on  a  protracted  sickbed,  and  the  latter 
already  in  the  first  stage  of  the  malady  which  in 

*  See  Chronicles  —  Waverley  Novels,  vol.  xli.  p.  13. 


24  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER   SCOTT. 

years  more  carried  her  also  to  her  grave,  spent  the  great- 
er  part  of  the  following  summer  and  autumn  in  his  cot 
tage  at  Lasswade. 

There  he  was  now  again  labouring  assiduously  in  the 
service  of  Lewis's  "  hobgoblin  repast,"  and  the  specimens 
of  his  friend's  letters  on  his  contributions,  as  they  were 
successively  forwarded  to  London,  which  were  printed  by 
way  of  appendix  to  the  Essay  on  Imitations  of  the  An 
cient  Ballad,  in  1830,*  may  perhaps  be  sufficient  for  the 
reader's  curiosity.  The  versions  from  Burger  were,  in 
consequence  of  Lewis's  remarks,  somewhat  corrected; 
and,  indeed,  although  Scott  speaks  of  himself  as  having 
paid  no  attention  "at  the  time"  to  the -lectures  of  his 
"  martinet  in  rhymes  and  numbers  "  —  "  lectures  which 
were,"  he  adds,  "  severe  enough,  but  useful  eventually,  as 
forcing  on  a  young  and  careless  versifier  criticisms  abso 
lutely  necessary  to  his  future  success  "  —  it  is  certain 
that  his  memory  had  in  some  degree  deceived  him  when 
he  used  this  language,  for,  of  all  the  false  rhymes  and 
Scotticisms  which  Lewis  had  pointed  out  in  these  "  lec 
tures,"  hardly  one  appears  in  the  printed  copies  of  the 
ballads  contributed  by  Scott  to  the  Tales  of  Wonder. 

As  to  his  imperfect  rhymes  of  this  period,  I  have  no 
doubt  he  owed  them  to  his  recent  zeal  about  collecting 
the  ballads  of  the  Border.  He  had,  in  his  familiarity 
with  compositions  so  remarkable  for  merits  of  a  higher 
crder,  ceased  to  be  offended,  as  in  the  days  of  his  devo 
tion  to  Langhorne  and  Mickle  he  would  probably  have 
been,  with  their  loose  and  vague  assonances,  which  are 
often,  in  fact,  not  rhymes  at  all ;  a  license  pardonable 
enough  in  real  minstrelsy,  meant  to  be  chanted  to  moss 

*  See  Poetical  Works  (1841),  p.  569. 


FIRST    ORIGINAL    BALLADS 1799.  25 

troopers  with  the  accompanying  tones  of  the  war-pipe, 
but  certainly  not  worthy  of  imitation  in  verses  written  for 
the  eye  of  a  polished  age.  Of  this  carelessness  as  to 
rhyme,  we  see  little  or  nothing  in  our  few  specimens  of 
his  boyish  verse,  and  it  does  not  occur,  to  any  extent  that 
has  ever  been  thought  worth  notice,  in  his  great  works. 

But  Lewis's  collection  did  not  engross  the  leisure  of 
this  summer.  It  produced  also  what  Scott  justly  calls 
his  "  first  serious  attempts  in  verse ; "  and  of  these,  the 
earliest  appears  to  have  been  the  Glenfinlas.  Here  the 
scene  is  laid  in  the  most  favourite  district  of  his  favourite 
Perthshire  Highlands ;  and  the  Gaelic  tradition  on  which 
it  is  founded  was  far  more  likely  to  draw  out  the  secret 
strength  of  his  genius,  as  well  as  to  arrest  the  feelings  of 
his  countrymen,  than  any  subject  with  which  the  stores 
of  German  diablerie  could  have  supplied  him.  It  has 
been  alleged,  however,  that  the  poet  makes  a  German 
use  of  his  Scottish  materials  ;  that  the  legend,  as  briefly 
told  in  the  simple  prose  of  his  preface,  is  more  affecting 
than  the  lofty  and  sonorous  stanzas  themselves  ;  that  the 
vague  terror  of  the  original  dream  loses,  instead  of  gain 
ing,  by  the  expanded  elaboration  of  the  detail.  There 
may  be  something  in  these  objections :  but  no  man  can 
pretend  to  be  an  impartial  critic  of  the  piece  which  first 
awoke  his  own  childish  ear  to  the  power  of  poetry  and 
the  melody  of  verse. 

The  next  of  these  compositions  was,  I  believe,  the  Eve 
of  St.  John,  in  which  Scott  repeoples  the  tower  of  Smail- 
holm,  the  awe-inspiring  haunt  of  his  infancy ;  and  here 
\ie  touches,  for  the  first  time,  the  one  superstition  which 
can  still  be  appealed  to  with  full  and  perfect  effect ;  the 
dnly  one  which  lingers  in  minds  long  since  weaned  from 
qll  sympathy  with  the  machinery  of  witches  and  goblins 


26  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

And  surely  this  mystery  was  never  touched  with  more 
thrilling  skill  than  in  that  noble  ballad.  It  is  the  first  of 
his  original  pieces,  too,  in  which  he  uses  the  measure 
of  his  own  favourite  Minstrels ;  a  measure  which  the 
monotony  of  mediocrity  had  long  and  successfully  been 
labouring  to  degrade,  but  in  itself  adequate  to  the  expres 
sion  of  the  highest  thoughts,  as  well  as  the  gentlest  emo 
tions  ;  and  capable,  in  fit  hands,  of  as  rich  a  variety  of 
music  as  any  other  of  modern  times.  This  was  written 
at  Mertoun-house  in  the  autumn  of  1799.  Some  dilapi 
dations  had  taken  place  in  the  tower  of  Smailholm,  and 
Harden,  being  informed  of  the  fact,  and  entreated  with 
needless  earnestness  by  his  kinsman  to  arrest  the  hand 
of  the  spoiler,  requested  playfully  a  ballad,  of  which 
Smailholm  should  be  the  scene,  as  the  price  of  his  assent. 
The  stanza  in  which  the  groves  of  Mertoun  are  alluded 
to,  has  been  quoted  in  a  preceding  page. 

Then  came  The  Grey  Brother,  founded  on  another 
superstition,  which  seems  to  have  been  almost  as  ancient 
as  the  belief  in  ghosts ;  namely,  that  the  holiest  service 
of  the  altar  cannot  go  on  in  the  presence  of  an  unclean 
person  —  a  heinous  sinner  unconfessed  and  unabsolved. 
The  fragmentary  form  of  this  poem  greatly  heightens 
the  awfulness  of  its  impression ;  and  in  construction  and 
metre,  the  verses  which  really  belong  to  the  story  appear 
to  me  the  happiest  that  have  ever  been  produced  ex 
pressly  in  imitation  of  the  ballad  of  the  middle  age.  In 
the  stanzas,  previously  quoted,  on  the  scenery  of  the  Esk, 
however  beautiful  in  themselves,  and  however  interesting 
now  as  marking  the  locality  of  the  composition,  he  must 
be  allowed  to  have  lapsed  into  another  strain,  and  pro 
duced  a  pannus  purpureus  which  interferes  with  and 
nars  the  general  texture. 


BOTHWELL    CASTLE  —  1799.  27 

He  wrote  at  the  same  period  the  fine  chivalrous  ballad 
entitled  The  Fire-King,  in  which  there  is  more  than 
enough  to  make  us  forgive  the  machinery. 

It  was  in  the  course  of  this  autumn  that  he  first  visited 
Bothwell  Castle,  the  seat  of  Archibald  Lord  Douglas, 
who  had  married  the  Lady  Frances  Scott,  sister  tc 
Henry  Duke  of  Buccleuch ;  a  woman  whose  many  ami 
able  virtues  were  combined  with  extraordinary  strength 
of  mind,  and  who  had,  from  the  first  introduction  of  the 
young  poet  at  Dalkeith,  formed  high  anticipations  of  his 
future  career.  Lady  Douglas  was  one  of  his  dearest 
friends  through  life;  and  now,  under  her  roof,  he  im 
proved  an  acquaintance  (begun  also  at  Dalkeith)  with 
one  whose  abilities  and  accomplishments  not  less  qualified 
her  to  estimate  him,  and  who  still  survives  to  lament  the 
only  event  that  could  have  interrupted  their  cordial  con 
fidence  —  the  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  daughter  of  the  cel 
ebrated  John  Earl  of  Bute.  These  ladies,  who  were 
sisters  in  mind,  feeling,  and  affection,  he  visited  among 
scenes  the  noblest  and  most  interesting  that  all  Scotland 
can  show  —  alike  famous  hi  history  and  romance ;  and 
he  was  not  unwilling  to  make  Bothwell  and  Blantyre  the 
subject  of  another  ballad.  His  purpose  was  never  com 
pleted.  I  think,  however,  the  reader  will  not  complain 
of  my  introducing  the  fragment  which  I  have  found 
among  his  papers. 

"  When  fruitful  Clydesdale's  apple-bowers 

Are  mellowing  in  the  noon ; 
When  sighs  round  Pembroke's  ruin'd  towers 
The  sultry  breath  of  June ; 

"  When  Clyde,  despite  his  sheltering  wood, 

Must  leave  his  channel  dry; 
And  vainly  o'er  the  limpid  flood 
The  angler  guides  his  fly; 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"If  chance  by  Bothwell's  lovely  braes 

A  wanderer  thou  hast  been, 
Or  hid  thee  from  the  summer's  blaze 
In  Blantyre's  bowers  of  green, 

"  Full  where  the  copsewood  opens  wild 

Thy  pilgrim  step  hath  staid, 
Where  Bothwell's  towers  in  ruins  piled 
O'erlook  the  verdant  glade; 

"  And  many  a  tale  of  love  and  fear 
Hath  mingled  with  the  scene  — 
Of  Bothwell's  banks  that  bloom' d  so  dear 
And  Bothwell's  bonny  Jean. 

"0,  if  with  rugged  minstrel  lays 

Unsated  be  thy  ear, 
And  thou  of  deeds  of  other  days 
Another  tale  wilt  hear, 

"  Then  all  beneath  the  spreading  beech 

Flung  careless  on  the  lea, 
The  Gothic  muse  the  tale  shall  teach 
Of  Bothwell's  sisters  three. 

**  Wight  Wallace  stood  on  Deckmont  head, 

He  blew  his  bugle  round, 
Till  the  wild  bull  in  Cadyow  wood 
Has  started  at  the  sound. 

"  St.  George's  cross,  o'er  Bothwell  hung, 

Was  waving  far  and  wide, 

And  from  the  lofty  turret  flung 

Its  crimson  blaze  on  Clyde; 

u  And  rising  at  the  bugle  blast 

That  marked  the  Scottish  foe, 
Old  England's  yeomen  muster'd  fast, 
And  bent  the  Norman  bow. 

"  Tall  in  the  midst  Sir  Aylmer  rose, 

Proud  Pembroke's  Earl  was  he  — 
While" 


THE  SHEPHERD'S  TALE  — 1799.  29 

One  morning,  during  his  visit  to  Bothwell,  was  spent 
on  an  excursion  to  the  ruins  of  Craignethan  Castle, 
the  seat,  in  former  days,  of  the  great  Evandale  branch 
of  the  house  of  Hamilton,  but  now  the  property  of  Lord 
Douglas ;  and  the  poet  expressed  such  rapture  with  the 
scenery,  that  his  hosts  urged  him  to  accept,  for  his  life 
time,  the  use  of  a  small  habitable  house,  enclosed  within 
the  circuit  of  the  ancient  walls.  This  offer  was  not  at 
once  declined;  but  circumstances  occurred  before  the 
end  of  the  year,  which  rendered  it  impossible  for  him 
to  establish  his  summer  residence  in  Lanarkshire.  The 
castle  of  Craignethan  is  the  original  of  his  "  Tillietud- 
lem."* 

Another  imperfect  ballad,  in  which  he  had  meant  to 
blend  together  two  legends  familiar  to  every  reader  of 
Scottish  history  and  romance,  has  been  found  in  the  same 
portfolio,  and  the  handwriting  proves  it  to  be  of  the  same 
early  date.  Though  long  and  very  unfinished,  it  con 
tains  so  many  touches  of  his  best  manner  that  I  cannot 
withhold 

THE  SHEPHERD'S  TALE. 


And  ne'er  but  once,  my  son,  he  says, 

Was  yon  sad  cavern  trod, 
In  persecution's  iron  days, 

When  the  land  was  left  by  God. 

From  Bewlie  bog,  with  slaughter  red, 

A  wanderer  hither  drew, 
And  oft  he  stopt  and  turned  his  head, 

As  by  fits  the  night  wind  blew; 

*  The  name  Tittietudlem  was  no  doubt  taken  from  that  of  the  ravine 
under  the  old  castle  of  Lanark  —  which  town  is  near  Craignethan 
This  ravine  is  called  Gillytudlem. 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

For  trampling  round  by  Cheviot  edge 

Were  heard  the  troopers  keen, 
And  frequent  from  the  Whitelaw  ridge 

The  death-shot  flashed  between. 

The  moonbeams  through  the  misty  shower 

On  yon  dark  cavern  fell; 
Through  the  cloudy  night  the  snow  gleamed  white, 

Which  sunbeam  ne'er  could  quell. 

"  Yon  cavern  dark  is  rough  and  rude, 

And  cold  its  jaws  of  snow; 
But  more  rough  and  rude  are  the  men  of  blood, 

That  hunt  my  life  below; 

"  Yon  spell-bound  den,  as  the  aged  tell, 

Was  hewn  by  demon's  hands; 
But  I  had  lourd*  melle  with  the  fiends  of  hell, 

Than  with  Clavers  and  his  band." 

He  heard  the  deep-mouthed  bloodhound  bark, 

He  heard  the  horses  neigh, 
He  plunged  him  in  the  cavern  dark, 

And  downward  sped  his  way. 

Now  faintly  down  the  winding  path 

Came  the  cry  of  the  faulting  hound, 
And  the  muttered  oath  of  baulked  wrath 

Was  lost  in  hollow  sound. 

He  threw  him  on  the  flinted  floor, 

And  held  his  breath  for  fear; 
He  rose  and  bitter  cursed  his  foes, 

As  the  sounds  died  on  his  ear. 

"  O  bare  thine  arm,  thou  battling  Lord, 

For  Scotland's  wandering  band; 
Dash  from  the  oppressor's  grasp  the  sword, 

And  sweep  him  from  the  land ! 

*  Lourd ;  t.  e.  liefer—  rather. 


THE  SHEPHERD'S  TALE  —  1799.  31 

"  Forget  not  thou  thy  people's  groans 

From  dark  Dunnotter's  tower, 
Mix'd  with  the  seafowl's  shrilly  moans, 

And  ocean's  bursting  roar! 

"  O  in  fell  Clavers'  hour  of  pride, 

Even  in  his  mightiest  day, 
As  bold  he  strides  through  conquest's  tide, 

0  stretch  him  on  the  clay ! 

"  His  widow  and  his  little  ones, 

0  may  their  tower  of  trust 
Remove  its  strong  foundation  stones, 

And  crush  them  in  the  dust !  "  — 

"  Sweet  prayers  to  me,"  a  voice  replied, 

"  Thrice  welcome,  guest  of  mine  I  " — 
And  glimmering  on  the  cavern  side, 

A  light  was  seen  to  shine. 

An  aged  man,  in  amice  brown, 

Stood  by  the  wanderer's  side, 
By  powerful  charm,  a  dead  man's  arm 

The  torch's  light  supplied. 

From  each  stiff  finger  stretched  upright, 

Arose  a  ghastly  flame, 
That  waved  not  in  the  blast  of  night 

Which  through  the  cavern  came. 

O  deadly  blue  was  that  taper's  hue, 

That  flamed  the  cavern  o'er, 
But  more  deadly  blue  was  the  ghastly  hue 

Of  his  eyes  who  the  taper  bore. 

He  laid  on  his  head  a  hand  like  lead, 

As  heavy,  pale,  and  cold:  — 
"  Vengeance  be  thine,  thou  guest  of  mine 

If  thy  heart  be  firm  and  bold. 

"But  if  faint  thy  heart,  and  caitiff  fear 

Thy  recreant  sinews  know, 
The  mountain  erne  thy  heart  shall  tear, 

Thy  nerves  the  hooded  crow." 


32  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  wanderer  raised  him  undismayd; 

"  My  soul,  by  dangers  steeled, 
Is  stubborn  as  my  border  blade, 

Which  never  knew  to  yield. 

"  And  if  thjr  power  can  speed  the  hour 

Of  vengeaxice  on  my  foes, 
Theirs  be  the  fate,  from  bridge  and  gate 

To  feed  the  hooded  crows." 

The  Brownie  looked  him  in  the  face, 

And  his  colour  fled  with  speed  — 
"I  fear  me,"  quoth  he,  "  uneath  it  will  be 

To  match  thy  word  and  deed. 

"  In  ancient  days  when  English  bands 

Sore  ravaged  Scotland  fair, 
The  sword  and  shield  of  Scottish  land 

Was  valiant  Halbert  Kerr. 

"  A  warlock  loved  the  warrior  well, 

Sir  Michael  Scott  by  name, 
And  he  sought  for  his  sake  a  spell  to  make, 

Should  the  Southern  foemen  tame: 

"  Look  thou,  he  said,  from  Cessford  head, 

As  the  July  sun  sinks  low, 
And  when  glimmering  white  on  Cheviot's  height 

Thou  shalt  spy  a  wreath  of  snow, 
The  spell  is  complete  which  shall  bring  to  thy  feel 

The  haughty  Saxon  foe. 

"  For  many  a  year  wrought  the  wizard  here, 

In  Cheviot's  bosom  low, 
Till  the  spell  was  complete,  and  in  July's  heat 

Appeared  December's  snow; 
But  Cessford' s  Halbert  never  came 

The  wondrous  cause  to  know. 

"For years  before  in  Bowden  aisle 

The  warrior's  bones  had  lain, 
And  after  short  while,  by  female  guile, 

Sir  Michael  Scott  was  slain. 


THE  SHEPHERD'S  TALE  — 1799.  33 

"  But  me  and  my  brethren  in  this  cell 

His  mighty  charms  retain,  — 
4nd  he  that  can  quell  the  powerful  spell 

Shall  o'er  broad  Scotland  reign." 

He  led  him  through  an  iron  door 

And  up  a  winding  stair, 
And  in  wild  amaze  did  the  wanderer  gaze 

On  the  sight  which  opened  there. 

Through  the  gloomy  night  flashed  ruddy  light,  — 

A  thousand  torches'  glow; 
The  cave  rose  high,  like  the  vaulted  sky, 

O'er  stalls  in  double  row. 

In  every  stall  of  that  endless  hall 

Stood  a  steed  in  barbing  bright; 
At  the  foot  of  each  steed,  all  armed  save  the  head, 

Lay  stretched  a  stalwart  knight. 

In  each  mailed  hand  was  a  naked  brand ; 

As  they  lay  on  the  black  bull's  hide, 
j£ach  visage  stern  did  upwards  turn, 

With  eyeballs  fixed  and  wide. 

A  launcegay  strong,  full  twelve  ells  long, 

By  every  warrior  hung ; 
At  each  pommel  there,  for  battle  yare, 

A  Jed  wood  axe  was  slung. 

The  casque  hung  near  each  cavalier; 

The  plumes  waved  mournfully 
At  every  tread  which  the  wanderer  made 

Through  the  hall  of  Gramarye ; 

The  ruddy  beam  of  the  torches'  gleam 

That  glared  the  warriors  on, 
Reflected  light  from  armour  bright, 

In  noontide  splendour  shone. 

And  onward  seen  in  lustre  sheen, 

Still  lengthening  on  the  sight, 
Through  the  boundless  hall,  stood  steeds  in  stall, 

And  by  each  lay  a  sable  knight. 
VOU  II.  3 


34  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

Still  as  the  dead  lay  each  horseman  dread, 
And  moved  nor  limb  nor  tongue ; 

Each  steed  stood  stiff  as  an  earthfast  cliff, 
Nor  hoof  nor  bridle  rung. 

No  sounds  through  all  the  spacious  hall 

The  deadly  still  divide, 
Save  where  echoes  aloof  from  the  vaulted  roof 

To  the  wanderer's  step  replied. 

At  length  before  his  wondering  eyes, 

On  an  iron  column  borne, 
Of  antique  shape,  and  giant  size, 

Appear' d  a  sword  and  horn. 

"  Now  choose  thee  here,"  quoth  his  leader, 

"  Thy  venturous  fortune  try ; 
Thy  wo  and  weal,  thy  boot  and  bale 

In  yon  brand  and  bugle  lie." 

To  the  fatal  brand  he  mounted  his  hand, 
But  his  soul  did  quiver  and  quail ; 

The  life-blood  did  start  to  his  shuddering  heart, 
And  left  him  wan  and  pale. 

The  brand  he  forsook,  and  the  horn  he  took 

To  'say  a  gentle  sound ; 
But  so  wild  a  blast  from  the  bugle  brast, 

That  the  Cheviot  rock'd  around. 

From  Forth  to  Tees,  from  seas  to  seas, 

The  awful  bugle  rung ; 
On  Carlisle  wall,  and  Berwick  withal, 

To  arms  the  warders  sprung. 

With  clank  and  clang  the  cavern  rang, 
The  steeds  did  stamp  and  neigh ; 

And  loud  was  the  yell  as  each  warrior  fell 
Sterte  up  with  hoop  and  cry. 

"  Wo,  wo,"  they  cried,  "  thou  caitiff  coward 

That  ever  thou  wert  born ! 
Why  drew  ye  not  the  knightly  sword 

Before  ye  blew  the  horn  ?  " 


THE  SHEPHERD'S  TALE  — 1799.  35 

The  morning  on  the  mountain  shone, 

And  on  the  bloody  ground 
Hurled  from  the  cave  with  shiver' d  bone, 

The  mangled  wretch  was  found. 

And  still  beneath  the  cavern  dread, 

Among  the  glidders  gray, 
A  shapeless  stone  with  lichens  spread 

Marks  where  the  wanderer  lay. 


The  reader  may  be  interested  by  comparing  with  this 
ballad  the  author's  prose  version  of  part  of  its  legend,  as 
given  in  one  of  the  last  works  of  his  pen.  He  says,  in 
the  Letters  on  Demonology  and  Witchcraft,  1830  :  — 
"  Thomas  of  Ercildowne,  during  his  retirement,  has  been 
supposed,  from  time  to  time,  to  be  levying  forces  to  take 
the  field  in  some  crisis  of  his  country's  fate.  The  story 
has  often  been  told,  of  a  daring  horse-jockey  having  sold 
a  black  horse  to  a  man  of  venerable  and  antique  appear 
ance,  who  appointed  the  remarkable  hillock  upon  Eildon 
hills,  called  the  Lucken-hare,  as  the  place  where,  at  twelve 
o'clock  at  night,  he  should  receive  the  price.  He  came, 
his  money  was  paid  in  ancient  coin,  and  he  was  invited 
by  his  customer  to  view  his  residence.  The  trader  in 
horses  followed  his  guide  in  the  deepest  astonishment 
through  several  long  ranges  of  stalls,  in  each  of  which  a 
horse  stood  motionless,  while  an  armed  warrior  lay  equally 
still  at  the  charger's  feet.  '  All  these  men,'  said  the  wiz 
ard  in  a  whisper,  *  will  awaken  at  the  battle  of  Sheriff- 
muir.'  At  the  extremity  of  this  extraordinary  depot  hung 
a  sword  and  a  horn,  which  the  prophet  pointed  out  to  the 
horse-dealer  as  containing  the  means  of  dissolving  the 
spell.  The  man  in  confusion  took  the  horn  and  attempted 
te  wind  it.  The  horses  instantly  started  in  their  stalls, 
Stamped,  and  shook  their  bridles,  the  men  arose  and 


6  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

clashed  their  armor,  and  the  mortal,  terrified  at  the  tu 
mult  he  had  excited,  dropped  the  horn  from  his  hand.  A 
voice  like  that  of  a  giant,  louder  even  than  the  tumult 
around,  pronounced  these  words  :  — 

'  Wo  t©  the  coward  that  ever  he  was  born, 
That  did  not  draw  the  sword  before  he  blew  the  horn.' 

A  whirlwind  expelled  the  horse-dealer  from  the  cavern, 
the  entrance  to  which  he  could  never  again  find.  A  moral 
might  be  perhaps  extracted  from  the  legend,  namely,  that 
ii  is  best  to  be  armed  against  danger  before  bidding  it 
defiance." 

One  more  fragment,  in  another  style,  and  I  shall  have 
exhausted  this  budget.  I  am  well  aware  that  the  intro 
duction  of  such  things  will  be  considered  by  many  as  of 
questionable  propriety ;  but  on  the  whole,  it  appears  to 
me  the  better  course  to  omit  nothing  by  which  it  is  in  my 
power  to  throw  light  on  this  experimental  period. 


"  Go  sit  old  Cheviot's  crest  below, 
And  pensive  mark  the  lingering  snow 

In  all  his  scaurs  abide, 
And  slow  dissolving  from  the  hill 
In  many  a  sightless,  soundless  rill, 

Feed  sparkling  Bowmont's  tide. 

"  Fair  shines  the  stream  by  bank  and  lea, 
As  wimpling  to  the  eastern  sea 

She  seeks  Till's  sullen  bed, 
Indenting  deep  the  fatal  plain, 
Where  Scotland's  noblest,  brave  in  vain, 

Around  their  monarch  bled. 

**  And  westward  hills  on  hills  you  see, 
Even  as  old  Ocean's  mightiest  sea 
Heaves  high  her  waves  of  foam, 


KERR    OF    ABBOTRULE  —  OCTOBER   1799.  37 

Dark  and  snow-ridged  from  Cutsfeld's  wold 
To  the  proud  foot  of  Cheviot  roll'd, 
Earth's  mountain  billows  come." 
***** 

Notwithstanding  all  these  varied  essays,  and  the  charms 
of  the  distinguished  society  into  which  his  reputation  had 
already  introduced  him,  Scott's  friends  do  not  appear  to 
have  as  yet  entertained  the  slightest  notion  that  literature 
was  to  be  the  main  business  of  his  life.  A  letter  of  Kerr 
of  Abbotrule  congratulates  him  on  his  having  had  more 
to  do  at  the  autumnal  assizes  of  Jedburgh  this  year  than 
on  any  former  occasion,  which  intelligence  he  seems  him 
self  to  have  communicated  with  no  feeble  expressions  of 
satisfaction.  "  I  greatly  enjoy  this,"  says  Kerr.  "  Go  on ; 
and  with  your  strong  sense  and  hourly  ripening  knowl 
edge,  that  you  must  rise  to  the  top  of  the  tree  in  the  Par 
liament  House  in  due  season,  I  hold  as  certain  as  that 
Murray  died  Lord  Mansfield.  But  don't  let  many  an 
Ovid,*  or  rather  many  a  Burns  (which  is  better),  be  lost 
in  you.  I  rather  think  men  of  business  have  produced 
as  good  poetry  in  their  by-hours  as  the  professed  regu 
lars  ;  and  I  don't  see  any  sufficient  reason  why  Lord 
President  Scott  should  not  be  a  famous  poet  (in  the  vaca 
tion  time),  when  we  have  seen  a  President  Montesquieu 
step  so  nobly  beyond  the  trammels  in  the  Esprit  des  Loix, 
I  suspect  Dryden  would  have  been  a  happier  man  had  he 
had  your  profession.  The  reasoning  talents  visible  in  his 
verses,  assure  me  that  he  would  have  ruled  in  Westmin 
ster  Hall  as  easily  as  he  did  at  Button's,  and  he  might  have 
found  time  enough  besides  for  every  thing  that  one  really 

*  How  sweet  an  Ovid,  Murray  was  our  boast ; 
How  many  Martials  werB  in  Pnlt'ney  lost. 

Dunciad,  b.  iv.  v.  170» 


38  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

honours  his  memory  for."  This  friend  appears  to  have 
entertained,  in  October  1799,  the  very  opinion  as  to  the 
profession  of  literature  on  which  Scott  acted  through  life. 
Having  again  given  a  week  to  Liddesdale,  in  company 
with  Mr.  Shortreed,  he  spent  a  few  days  at  Rosebank, 
and  was  preparing  to  return  to  Edinburgh  for  the  winter, 
when  James  Ballantyne  called  on  him  one  morning,  and 
begged  him  to  supply  a  few  paragraphs  on  some  legal 
question  of  the  day  for  his  newspaper.  Scott  complied  ; 
and  carrying  his  article  himself  to  the  printing-office,  took 
with  him  also  some  of  his  recent  pieces,  designed  to  appear 
in  Lewis's  collection.  With  these,  especially,  as  his  Mem 
orandum  says,  the  "  Morlachian  fragment  after  Goethe," 
Ballantyne  was  charmed,  and  he  expressed  his  regret  that 
Lewis's  book  was  so  long  in  appearing.  Scott  talked 
of  Lewis  with  rapture ;  and,  after  reciting  some  of  his 
stanzas,  said  —  "I  ought  to  apologize  to  you  for  having 
troubled  you  with  anything  of  my  own  when  I  had 
things  like  this  for  your  ear." — "I  felt  at  once,"  says 
Ballantyne,  "  that  his  own  verses  were  far  above  what 
Lewis  could  ever  do,  and  though,  when  I  said  this,  he 
dissented,  yet  he  seemed  pleased  with  the  warmth  of  my 
approbation."  At  parting,  Scott  threw  out  a  casual  obser 
vation,  that  he  wondered  his  old  friend  did  not  try  to  get 
some  little  booksellers'  work,  "  to  keep  his  types  in  play 
during  the  rest  of  the  week."  Ballantyne  answered,  that 
such  an  idea  had  not  before  occurred  to  him  —  that  he 
had  no  acquaintance  with  the  Edinburgh  "  trade  ; "  but, 
if  he  had,  his  types  were  good,  and  he  thought  he  could 
afford  to  work  more  cheaply  than  town-printers.  Scott, 
"  with  his  good-humoured  smile,"  said — "  You  had  better 
try  what  you  can  do.  You  have  been  praising  my  little 
ballads ;  suppose  you  print  off  a  dozen  copies  or  so  of  aa 


SHERIFF    OF    SELKIRK DECEMBER    1799.  39 

many  as  will  make  a  pamphlet,  sufficient  to  let  my  Edin 
burgh  acquaintances  judge  of  your  skill  for  themselves." 
Ballantyne  assented  ;  and  I  believe  exactly  twelve  copies 
of  William  and  Ellen,  The  Fire-King,  The  Chase,  and  a 
few  more  of  those  pieces,  were  thrown  off  accordingly, 
with  the  title  (alluding  to  the  long  delay  of  Lewis's  col- 

ection)  of  "  Apology  for  Tales  of  Terror — 1799."  Thi8 
first  specimen  of  a  press,  afterwards  so  celebrated,  pleased 
Scott ;  and  he  said  to  Ballantyne  —  "I  have  been  for 
years  collecting  old  Border  ballads,  and  I  think  I  could, 
with  little  trouble,  put  together  such  a  selection  from  them 
as  might  make  a  neat  little  volume,  to  sell  for  four  or  five 
shillings.  I  will  talk  to  some  of  the  booksellers  about  it 
when  I  get  to  Edinburgh,  and  if  the  thing  goes  on,  you 
shall  be  the  printer."  Ballantyne  highly  relished  the  pro 
posal  ;  and  the  result  of  this  little  experiment  changed 
wholly  the  course  of  his  worldly  fortunes,  as  well  as  of 
his  friend's. 

Shortly  after  the  commencement  of  the  Winter  Session, 
the  office  of  Sheriff-depute  of  Selkirkshire  became  vacant 
by  the  death  of  an  early  ally  of  Scott's,  Andrew  Plum- 
mer  of  Middlestead,  a  scholar  and  antiquary,  who  had 
entered  with  zeal  into  his  ballad  researches,  and  whose 
name  occurs  accordingly  more  than  once  in  the  notes  to 
the  Border  Minstrelsy.  Perhaps  the  community  of  their 
tastes  may  have  had  some  part  in  suggesting  to  the  Duke 

f  Buccleuch,  that  Scott  might  fitly  succeed  Mr.  Plum- 
mer  in  the  magistrature.  Be  that  as  it  might,  his  Grace's 
influence  was  used  with  the  late  Lord  Melville,  who,  in 
those  days,  had  the  general  control  of  the  Crown  patron 
age  in  Scotland,  and  his  Lordship  was  prepared  to  look 
favourably  on  Scott's  pretensions  to  some  office  of  this 
description.  Though  neither  the  Duke  nor  this  able 


40  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Minister  were  at  all  addicted  to  literature,  they  had  both 
Been  Scott  frequently  under  their  own  roofs,  and  been 
pleased  with  his  manners  and  conversation ;  and  he  had 
by  this  time  come  to  be  on  terms  of  affectionate  intimacy 
with  some  of  the  younger  members  of  either  family, 
The  Earl  of  Dalkeith  (afterwards  Duke  Charles  of  Buc 
cleuch),  and  his  brother  Lord  Montagu,  had  been  partic 
ipating,  with  kindred  ardour,  in  the  military  patriotism 
of  the  period,  and  had  been  thrown  into  Scott's  society 
under  circumstances  well  qualified  to  ripen  acquaintance 
into  confidence.  The  Honourable  Robert  Dundas,  eldest 
son  of  the  statesman  whose  title  he  has  inherited,  had 
been  one  of  Scott's  companions  in  the  High  School ;  and 
he,  too,  had  been  of  late  a  lively  partaker  in  the  business 
of  the  yeomanry  cavalry ;  and,  last  not  least,  Scott  always 
remembered  with  gratitude  the  strong  intercession  on  this 
occasion  of  Lord  Melville's  nephews,  Robert  Dundas  of 
Arniston,  then  Lord  Advocate,  and  afterwards  Chief 
Baron  of  the  Exchequer  in  Scotland,  and  the  Right 
Honourable  William  Dundas,  then  Secretary  to  the 
Board  of  Control,  and  now  Lord  Clerk  Register. 

His  appointment  to  the  Sheriffship  bears  date  16th 
December  1799.  It  secured  him  an  annual  salary  of 
£300  ;  an  addition  to  his  resources  which  at  once  re 
lieved  his  mind  from  whatever  degree  of  anxiety  he 
might  have  felt  in  considering  the  prospect  of  an  increas 
ing  family,  along  with  the  ever  precarious  chances  of  a 
profession,  in  the  daily  drudgery  of  which  it  is  impossible 
to  suppose  that  he  ever  could  have  found  much  pleasure.* 

*  "  My  profession  and  I  came  to  stand  nearly  upon  the  footing 
which  honest  Slender  consoled  himself  on  having  established  with 
Mistress  Anne  Page :  '  There  was  no  great  love  between  us  at  th» 
beginning,  and  it  pleased  heaven  to  decrease  it  on  farther  acquaint 
ance.'  "  —  Introduction  to  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  1830. 


SHERIFF    OF    SELKIRK DECEMBER    1799.  41 

The  duties  of  the  office  were  far  from  heavy ;  the  district, 
small,  peaceful,  and  pastoral,  was  in  great  part  the  prop 
erty  of  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch ;  and  he  turned  with  re 
doubled  zeal  to  his  project  of  editing  the  ballads,  many  of 
the  best  of  which  belonged  to  this  very  district  of  his  fa 
vourite  Border  —  those  "  tales,"  which,  as  the  Dedication 
of  the  Minstrelsy  expresses  it,  had  "  in  elder  times  cele 
brated  the  prowess  and  cheered  the  halls  "  of  his  noble 
patron's  ancestors. 


12  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 


CHAPTER  X. 

The  Border  Minstrelsy  in  Preparation  —  Richard  Heler~> 
John  Leyden  —  William  Laidlaw  —  James  Hogg  —  Corre 
spondence  with  George  Ellis  —  Publication  of  the  Two  First 
Volumes  of  the  Border  Minstrelsy. 

1800-1802. 

JAMES  BALLANTYNE,  in  his  Memorandum,  after  men 
tioning  his  ready  acceptance  of  Scott's  proposal  to  print 
the  Minstrelsy,  adds  —  "I  do  not  believe,  that  even  at 
this  time,  he  seriously  contemplated  giving  himself  much 
to  literature."  I  confess,  however,  that  a  letter  of  his, 
addressed  to  Ballantyne  in  the  spring  of  1800,  inclines 
me  to  question  the  accuracy  of  this  impression.  After 
alluding  to  an  intention  which  he  had  entertained,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  delay  of  Lewis's  collection,  to  publish  an 
edition  of  the  ballads  contained  in  his  own  little  volume, 
entitled  "  Apology  for  Tales  of  Terror,"  he  goes  on  to 
detail  plans  for  the  future  direction  of  his  printer's  career, 
which  were,  no  doubt,  primarily  suggested  by  the  friendly 
interest  he  took  in  Ballantyne's  fortunes ;  but  there  are 
some  hints  which,  considering  what  afterwards  did  take 
place,  lead  me  to  suspect,  that  even  thus  early  the  writer 
contemplated  the  possibility  at  least  of  being  himself  very 
intimately  connected  with  the  result  of  these  air-drawB 
schemes.  The  letter  is  as  follows  :  — 


LETTER    TO    BALLANTYNE APRIL    1800.  43 

"  To  Mr.  J.  Ballantyne,  Kelso  Mail  Office,  Kelso. 

"  Castle  Street,  22d  April  1800. 

*'  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  your  favour,  since  the  receipt  of  which 
»ome  things  have  occurred  which  induce  me  to  postpone  my 
intention  of  publishing  my  ballads,  particularly  a  letter  from  a 
friend,  assuring  me  that  '  The  Tales  of  Wonder '  are  actually 
in  the  printer's  hand.  In  this  situation  I  endeavour  to  strength 
en  my  small  stock  of  patience,  which  has  been  nearly  exhausted 
by  the  delay  of  this  work,  to  which  (though  for  that  reason 
alone)  I  almost  regret  having  promised  assistance.  I  am  still 
resolved  to  have  recourse  to  your  press  for  the  Ballads  of  the 
Border,  which  are  in  some  forwardness. 

"  I  have  now  to  request  your  forgiveness  for  mentioning  a 
plan  which  your  friend  Gillon  and  I  have  talked  over  together 
with  a  view  as  well  to  the  public  advantage  as  to  your  individ 
ual  interest.  It  is  nothing  short  of  a  migration  from  Kelso  to 
this  place,  which  I  think  might  be  effected  upon  a  prospect  of 
a  very  flattering  nature. 

"  Three  branches  of  printing  are  quite  open  in  Edinburgh, 
all  of  which  I  am  well  convinced  you  have  both  the  ability 
and  inclination  to  unite  in  your  person.  The  first  is  that  of  an 
editor  of  a  newspaper,  which  shall  contain  something  of  an 
uniform  historical  deduction  of  events,  distinct  from  the  far 
rago  of  detached  and  unconnected  plagiarisms  from  the  Lon 
don  paragraphs  of  *  The  Sun.'  Perhaps  it  might  be  possible 
(and  Gillon  has  promised  to  make  inquiry  about  it)  to  treat 
with  the  proprietors  of  some  established  paper  —  suppose  the 
Caledonian  Mercury  —  and  we  would  all  struggle  to  obtain 
for  it  some  celebrity.  To  this  might  be  added  a  '  Monthly 
Magazine,'  and  '  Caledonian  Annual  Register,'  if  you  will ; 
for  both  of  which,  with  the  excellent  literary  assistance  which 
Edinburgh  at  present  affords,  there  is  a  fair  opening.  The 
next  object  would  naturally  be  the  execution  of  Session 
papers,  the  best  paid  work  which  a  printer  undertakes,  and 
of  which,  I  dare  say,  you  would  soon  have  a  considerable 
»hare ;  for  a*  you  make  it  your  business  to  superintend  the 


44  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

proofs  yourself,  your  education  and  abilities  would  insure  you 
employers  against  the  gross  and  provoking  blunders  which  thf 
poor  composers  are  often  obliged  to  subrmf,  to.  The  publica 
tion  of  works,  either  ancient  or  moderw,  opens  a  third  fail- 
field  for  ambition.  The  only  gentleman  wto  attempts  any 
thing  in  that  way  is  in  very  bad  health ,  nor  can  I,  at  any 
rate,  compliment  either  the  accuracy  or  tne  execution  of  hu 
press.  I  believe  it  is  well  understood,  vtiac  with  equal  atten 
tion  an  Edinburgh  press  would  have  superior  advantages  ever 
to  those  of  the  metropolis ;  and  though  I  would  not  advise 
launching  into  that  line  at  once,  yet  it.  would  be  easy  to  fee* 
your  way  by  occupying  your  press  in  this  manner  on  vacanf , 
days  only. 

"  It  appears  to  me  that  such  a  plan, )  udiciously  adopted  an* 
diligently  pursued,  opens  a  fair  road  to  an  ample  fortune.  In 
the  meanwhile,  the  '  Kelso  Mail '  mii^u  be  so  arranged  as  tu 
be  still  a  source  of  some  advantage  to  ,you ;  and  I  dare  say,  ii1 
wanted,  pecuniary  assistance  might  be  procured  to  assist  you 
at  the  outset,  either  upon  terms  of  a  stiare  or  otherwise ;  but  j 
refer  you  for  particulars  to  Joseph,  iiu  whose  room  I  am  no*i 
assuming  the  pen,  for  reasons  too  digressing  to  be  declarer , 
but  at  which  you  will  readily  guess.  I  hope,  at  all  events 
you  will  impute  my  interference  to  anytning  rather  than  aa 
impertinent  intermeddling  with  your  concerns  on  the  part  of, 
Dear  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  Joseph  Gillon  here  named  was  a  solicitor  of  some 
eminence ;  a  man  of  strong  abilities  and  genuine  wit  and 
humour,  for  whom  Scott,  as  well  as  Ballantyne,  had  a 
warm  regard.*  The  intemperate  habits  alluded  to  at  the 
close  of  Scott's  letter  gradually  undermined  his  business, 
his  health,  and  his  character ;  and  he  was  glad,  on  leav 

*  Calling  on  him  one  day  in  his  writing  office,  Scott  said,  "  Why 
Joseph,  this  place  is  as  hot  as  an  oven."  "  Well,"  quoth  Gillon,  "  and 
\sn't  it  here  that  I  make  mv  bread?  " 


HEBER 1800.  45 

ing  Edinburgh,  which  became  quite  necessary  some  years 
afterwards,  to  obtain  a  humble  situation  about  the  House 
of  Lords  —  in  which  he  died.*  The  answer  of  Ballan- 
tyne  has  not  been  preserved. 

To  return  to  the  "  Minstrelsy."  —  Scott  found  able  as 
sistants  in  the  completion  of  his  design.  Richard  Heber 
(long  Member  of  Parliament  for  the  University  of  Ox 
ford)  happened  to  spend  this  winter  in  Edinburgh,  and 
was  welcomed,  as  his  talents  and  accomplishments  en 
titled  him  to  be,  by  the  cultivated  society  of  the  place. 
"With  Scott  his  multifarious  learning,  particularly  his  pro 
found  knowledge  of  the  literary  monuments  of  the  middle 
ages,  soon  drew  him  into  habits  of  close  alliance  ;  the 
stores  of  his  library,  even  then  extensive,  were  freely  laid 
open,  and  his  own  oral  commentaries  were  not  less  valu 
able.  But  through  him  Scott  made  acquaintance  with  a 
person  still  more  qualified  to  give  him  effectual  aid  in 
this  undertaking ;  a  native  of  the  Border  —  from  infancy, 
like  himself,  an  enthusiastic  lover  of  its  legends,  and  who 
had  already  saturated  his  mind  with  every  species  of  lore 
that  could  throw  light  upon  these  relics. 

Few  who  read  these  pages  can  be  unacquainted  with 
the  leading  facts  in  the  history  of  John  Leyden.  —  Few 
tan  need  to  be  reminded  that  this  extraordinary  man, 
torn  in  a  shepherd's  cottage  in  one  of  the  wildest  valleys 
of  Roxburghshire,  and  of  course  almost  entirely  self-edu 
cated,  had,  before  he  attained  his  nineteenth  year,  con- 
jbunded  the  doctors  of  Edinburgh  by  the  portentous  mass 

*  The  poet  casually  meeting  Joseph  in  the  streets,  on  one  of  his 
visits  to  London,  expressed  his  regret  at  having  lost  his  society  in 
Edinburgh ;  Joseph  responded  by  a  quotation  from  the  Scotch  Metrical 

Version  of  the  Psalms  — 

"  rather  in 

The  Lord's  house  would  I  keep  a  door, 
Than  dwell  in  tents  of  sin  " 


46  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

§f  his  acquisitions  in  almost  every  department  of  learn 
ing.  He  had  set  the  extremest  penury  at  utter  defiance, 
or  rather  he  had  never  been  conscious  that  it  could 
operate  as  a  bar;  for  bread  and  water,  and  access  to 
books  and  lectures,  comprised  all  within  the  bound  of  his 
wishes ;  and  thus  he  toiled  and  battled  at  the  gates  of 
science  after  science,  until  his  unconquerable  persever 
ance  carried  everything  before  it;  and  yet  with  this 
monastic  abstemiousness  and  iron  hardness  of  will,  per 
plexing  those  about  him  by  manners  and  habits  in  which 
it  was  hard  to  say  whether  the  moss-trooper  or  the  school 
man  of  former  days  most  prevailed,  he  was  at  heart  a 
poet. 

Archibald  Constable,  in  after-life,  one  of  the  most  emi 
nent  of  British  publishers,  was  at  this  period  the  keeper 
of  a  small  book-shop,  into  which  few  but  the  poor  stu 
dents  of  Leyden's  order  had  hitherto  found  their  way. 
Heber,  in  the  course  of  his  bibliomaniacal  prowlings,  dis 
covered  that  it  contained  some  of 

"  The  small  old  volumes,  dark  with  tarnished  gold," 

which  were  already  the  Delilahs  of  his  imagination  ;  and, 
moreover,  that  the  young  bookseller  had  himself  a  strong 
taste  for  such  charmers.  Frequenting  the  place  accord 
ingly,  he  observed  with  some  curiosity  the  barbarous 
aspect  and  gestures  of  another  daily  visitant,  who  came 
not  to  purchase,  evidently,  but  to  pore  over  the  more 
recondite  articles  of  the  collection  —  often  balanced  for 
hours  on  a  ladder  with  a  folio  in  his  hand,  like  Dominie 
Sampson.  The  English  virtuoso  was  on  the  look-out  for 
flny  books  or  MSS.  that  might  be  of  use  to  the  editor  of 
the  projected  "  Minstrelsy,"  and  some  casual  colloquy  led 
to  the  discovery  that  this  unshorn  stranger  was,  amidst 


HEBER-LEYDEN 1800.  47 

,he  endless  labyrinth  of  his  lore,  a  master  of  legend 
and  tradition — an  enthusiastic  collector  and  most  skilful 
expounder  of  these  very  Border  ballads  in  particular. 
Scott  heard  with  much  interest  Heber's  account  of  his 
odd  acquaintance,  and  found,  when  introduced,  the  person 
whose  initials,  affixed  to  a  series  of  pieces  in  verse,  chiefly 
translations  from  Greek,  Latin,  and  the  northern  lan 
guages,  scattered,  during  the  last  three  or  four  years, 
over  the  pages  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Magazine,"  had  often 
much  excited  his  curiosity,  as  various  indications  pointed 
out  the  Scotch  Border  to  be  the  native  district  of  this 
unknown  "  J.  L." 

These  new  friendships  led  to  a  great  change  in  Ley- 
den's  position,  purposes,  and  prospects.  He  was  pres 
ently  received  into  the  best  society  of  Edinburgh,  where 
his  strange,  wild  uncouthness  of  demeanour  does  not  seem 
to  have  at  all  interfered  with  the  general  appreciation  of 
his  genius,  his  gigantic  endowments,  and  really  amiable  vir 
tues.  Fixing  his  ambition  on  the  East,  where  he  hoped 
to  rival  the  achievements  of  Sir  William  Jones,  he  at 
length,  about  the  beginning  of  1802,  obtained  the  promise 
of  some  literary  appointment  in  the  East  India  Com 
pany's  service  ;  but  when  the  time  drew  near,  it  was  dis 
covered  that  the  patronage  of  the  season  had  been  ex 
hausted,  with  the  exception  of  one  surgeon-assistant's 
commission  —  which  had  been  with  difficulty  secure, 
for  him  by  Mr.  William  Dundas  ;  who,  moreover,  was 
obliged  to  inform  him,  that  if  he  accepted  it,  he  must  be 
qualified  to  pass  his  medical  trials  within  six  months. 
This  news,  which  would  have  crushed  any  other  man's 
hopes  to  the  dust,  was  only  a  welcome  fillip  to  the  ardour 
of  Leyden.  He  that  same  hour  grappled  with  a  new 
science,  in  full  confidence  that  whatever  ordinary  men 


48  LIFE    OP    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

could  do  in  three  or  four  years,  his  energy  could  accom 
plish  in  as  many  months ;  took  his  degree  accordingly  in 
the  beginning  of  1803,  having  just  before  published  his 
beautiful  poem,  the  Scenes  of  Infancy ;  sailed  to  India 
raised  for  himself,  within  seven  short  years,  the  reputa 
tion  of  the  most  marvellous  of  Orientalists ;  and  died,  in 
the  midst  of  the  proudest  hopes,  at  the  same  age  with 
Burns  and  Byron,  in  1811. 

But  to  return  :  —  Leyden  was  enlisted  by  Scott  in  the 
service  of  Lewis,  and  immediately  contributed  a  ballad, 
called  The  Elf-King,  to  the  Tales  of  Terror.  Those 
highly-spirited  pieces,  The  Gout  of  Keildar,  Lord  Soulis, 
and  The  Mermaid,  were  furnished  for  the  original  de 
partment  of  Scott's  own  collection  :  and  the  Dissertation 
on  Fairies,  prefixed  to  its  second  volume,  "  although  ar 
ranged  and  digested  by  the  editor,  abounds  with  instances 
of  such  curious  reading  as  Leyden  only  had  read,  and 
was  originally  compiled  by  him ; "  but  not  the  least  of 
his  labours  was  in  the  collection  of  the  old  ballads  them 
selves.  When  he  first  conversed  with  Ballantyne  on  the 
subject  of  the  proposed  work,  and  the  printer  signified 
his  belief  that  a  single  volume  of  moderate  size  would 
be  sufficient  for  the  materials,  Leyden  exclaimed  — 
"  Dash  it,  does  Mr.  Scott  mean  another  thin  thing  like 
Goetz  of  Berlichingen  ?  I  have  more  than  that  in  my 
head  myself:  we  shall  turn  out  three  or  four  such  vol 
umes  at  least."  He  went  to  work  stoutly  in  the  realiza 
tion  of  these  wider  views.  "  In  this  labour,''  says  Scott, 
"  he  was  equally  interested  by  friendship  for  the  editor, 
and  by  his  own  patriotic  zeal  for  the  honour  of  the  Scot 
tish  borders ;  and  both  may  be  judged  of  from  the  fol 
lowing  circumstance.  An  interesting  fragment  had  been 
obtained  of  an  ancient  historical  ballad ;  but  the  remain 


JOHN    LEYDEN.  49 

fler,  to  the  great  disturbance  of  the  editor  and  his  coad 
jutor,  was  not  to  be  recovered.  Two  days  afterwards, 
while  the  editor  was  sitting  with  some  company  after 
dinner,  a  sound  was  heard  at  a  distance  like  that  of  the 
whistling  of  a  tempest  through  the  torn  rigging  of  the 
vessel  which  scuds  before  it.  The  sounds  increased  as 
they  approached  more  near ;  and  Leyden  (to  the  great 
astonishment  of  such  of  the  guests  as  did  not  know  him) 
burst  into  the  room,  chanting  the  desiderated  ballad  with 
the  most  enthusiastic  gesture,  and  all  the  energy  of  what 
he  used  to  call  the  saw-tones  of  his  voice.  It  turned  out 
that  he  had  walked  between  forty  and  fifty  miles  and 
back  again,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  visiting  an  old  person 
who  possessed  this  precious  remnant  of  antiquity.'*  * 

Various  allusions  to  the  progress  of  Ley  den's  fortunes 
will  occur  in  letters  to  be  quoted  hereafter.  I  may  refer 
the  reader,  for  further  particulars,  to  the  biographical 
sketch  by  Scott  from  which  the  preceding  anecdote  is 
taken.  Many  tributes  to  his  memory  are  scattered  over 
his  friend's  other  works,  both  prose  and  verse ;  and,  above 
all,  Scott  did  not  forget  him  when  exploring,  three  years 
after  his  death,  the  scenery  of  his  "  Mermaid  :  "  — 

"  Scarba's  isle,  -whose  tortured  shore 
Still  rings  to  Corrivrekan's  roar, 

And  lonely  Colonsay ;  — 
Scenes  sung  by  him  who  sings  no  more : 
His  bright  and  brief  career  is  o'er, 

And  mute  his  tuneful  strains ; 
Quench'd  is  his  lamp  of  varied  lore, 
That  loved  the  light  of  song  to  pour; 
A  distant  and  a  deadly  shore 

Has  Leyden's  cold  remains!  "  t 

*  Essay  on  the  Life  of  Leyden  —  Scott's  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works 
f  Lord  of  the  Isles,  Canto  iv.  st.  11. 
VOL.  ii.  4 


50  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

During  the  years  1800  and  1801,  the  Minstrelsy 
formed  its  editor's  chief  occupation  —  a  labour  of  love 
truly,  if  ever  such  there  was;  but  neither  this  nor  his 
sheriffship  interfered  with  his  regular  attendance  at  the 
Bar,  the  abandonment  of  which  was  all  this  while  as  far 
as  it  ever  had  been  from  his  imagination,  or  that  of  any 
of  his  friends.  He  continued  to  have  his  summer  head 
quarters  at  Lasswade ;  and  Mr.  (now  Sir  John)  Stoddart, 
who  visited  him  there  in  the  course  of  his  Scottish  tour,* 
dwells  on  "  the  simple  unostentatious  elegance  of  the 
cottage,  and  the  domestic  picture  which  he  there  contem 
plated  —  a  man  of  native  kindness  and  cultivated  talent, 
passing  the  intervals  of  a  learned  profession  amidst 
scenes  highly  favourable  to  his  poetic  inspirations,  not  in 
churlish  and  rustic  solitude,  but  in  the  daily  exercise  of 
the  most  precious  sympathies  as  a  husband,  a  father,  and 
a  friend."  His  means  of  hospitality  were  now  much 
enlarged,  and  the  cottage,  on  a  Saturday  and  Sunday  at 
least,  was  seldom  without  visitors. 

Among  other  indications  of  greater  ease  in  his  cir 
cumstances,  which  I  find  in  his  letter-book,  he  writes  to 
Heber,  after  his  return  to  London  in  May  1800,  to  re 
quest  his  good  offices  on  behalf  of  Mrs.  Scott,  who  had 
"  set  her  heart  on  a  phaeton,  at  once  strong,  and  low,  and 
handsome,  and  not  to  cost  more  than  thirty  guineas ; ' 
which  combination  of  advantages  Heber  seems  to  have 
found  by  no  means  easy  of  attainment.  The  phaeton 
was,  however,  discovered;  and  its  springs  must  soon 
have  been  put  to  a  sufficient  trial,  for  this  was  "  the  first 
wheeled  carriage  that  ever  penetrated  into  Liddesdale " 
—  namely,  in  August  1800.  The  friendship  of  the  Buc- 
cleuch  family  now  placed  better  means  of  research  at  his 

*  The  account  of  this  Tour  was  published  in  1801. 


LAIDLAW HOGG.  51 

disposal,  and  Lord  Dalkeith  had  taken  special  care  that 
there  should  be  a  band  of  pioneers  in  waiting  for  his 
orders  when  he  reached  Hermitage. 

Though  he  had  not  given  up  Lasswade,  his  sheriffship 
now  made  it  necessary  for  him  that  he  should  be  fre 
quently  in  Ettrick  Forest.  On  such  occasions  he  took 
up  his  lodgings  in  the  little  inn  at  Clovenford,  a  favourite 
fishing  station  on  the  road  from  Edinburgh  to  Selkirk. 
From  this  place  he  could  ride  to  the  county  town  when 
ever  business  required  his  presence,  and  he  was  also 
within  a  few  miles  of  the  vales  of  Yarrow  and  Ettrick, 
where  he  obtained  large  accessions  to  his  store  of  ballads. 
It  was  in  one  of  these  excursions  that,  penetrating  be 
yond  St.  Mary's  lake,  he  found  a  hospitable  reception  at 
the  farm  of  Blackhouse,  situated  on  the  Douglas-burn, 
then  tenanted  by  a  remarkable  family,  to  which  I  have 
already  made  allusion  —  that  of  William  Laidlaw.  He 
was  then  a  very  young  man,  but  the  extent  of  his  ac 
quirements  was  already  as  noticeable  as  the  vigour  and 
originality  of  his  mind ;  and  their  correspondence,  where 
"  Sir  "  passes,  at  a  few  bounds,  through  "  Dear  Sir,"  and 
"  Dear  Mr.  Laidlaw,"  to  "  Dear  Willie,"  shews  how 
speedily  this  new  acquaintance  had  warmed  into  a  very 
tender  affection.  Laidlaw's  zeal  about  the  ballads  was 
repaid  by  Scott's  anxious  endeavours  to  get  him  removed 
from  a  sphere  for  which,  he  writes,  "  it  is  no  flattery  to 
say  that  you  are  much  too  good."  It  was  then,  and  always 
continued  to  be,  his  opinion,  that  his  friend  was  particu 
larly  qualified  for  entering  with  advantage  on  the  study 
of  the  medical  profession ;  but  such  designs,  if  Laidlaw 
himself  ever  took  them  up  seriously  were  not  ultimately 
persevered  in  ;  and  I  question  whether  any  worldly  suc 
cess  could,  after  all,  have  overbalanced  the  retrospect  of 


52  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

an  honourable  life  spent  happily  in  the  open  air  of  na« 
ture,  amidst  scenes  the  most  captivating  to  the  eye  of 
genius,  and  in  the  intimate  confidence  of,  perhaps,  the 
greatest  of  contemporary  minds. 

James  Hogg  spent  ten  years  of  his  life  in  the  service 
of  Mr.  Laidlaw's  father,  but  he  had  passed  into  that  of 
another  sheep  farmer  in  a  neighbouring  valley  before 
Scott  first  visited  Blackhouse.  William  Laidlaw  and 
Hogg  were,  however,  the  most  intimate  of  friends,  and 
the  former  took  care  that  Scott  should  see,  without  delay, 
one  whose  enthusiasm  about  the  minstrelsy  of  the  Forest 
was  equal  to  his  own,  and  whose  mother,  then  an  aged 
woman,  though  she  lived  many  years  afterwards,  was 
celebrated  for  having  by  heart  several  ballads  in  a  more 
perfect  form  than  any  other  inhabitant  of  the  vale  of 
Ettrick.  The  personal  history  of  James  Hogg  must 
have  interested  Scott  even  more  than  any  acquisition  of 
that  sort  which  he  owed  to  this  acquaintance  with,  per 
haps,  the  most  remarkable  man  that  ever  wore  the  maud 
of  a  shepherd.  But  I  need  not  here  repeat  a  tale  which 
his  own  language  will  convey  to  the  latest  posterity. 
Under  the  garb,  aspect,  and  bearing  of  a  rude  peasant  — 
and  rude  enough  he  was  in  most  of  these  things,  even 
after  no  inconsiderable  experience  of  society  —  Scott 
found  a  brother  poet,  a  true  son  of  nature  and  genius, 
hardly  conscious  of  his  powers.  He  had  taught  himself 
to  write  by  copying  the  letters  of  a  printed  book  as  he 
lay  watching  his  flock  on  the  hill-side,  and  had  probably 
reached  the  utmost  pitch  of  his  ambition  when  he  first 
found  that  his  artless  rhymes  could  touch  the  heart  of 
the  ewe-milker  who  partook  the  shelter  of  his  mantle 
duri'ig  the  passing  storm.  As  yet  his  naturally  kind 
and  r?"iple  character  had  not  been  exposed  to  any  of 


GEORGE    ELLIS  —  1801.  53 

the  dangerous  flatteries  of  the  world  ;  his  heart  was 
pure  —  his  enthusiasm  buoyant  as  that  of  a  happy  child ; 
and  well  as  Scott  knew  that  reflection,  sagacity,  wit,  and 
wisdom,  were  scattered  abundantly  among  the  humblest 
rangers  of  these  pastoral  solitudes,  there  was  here  a 
depth  and  a  brightness  that  filled  him  with  wonder,  com 
bined  with  a  quaintness  of  humour,  and  a  thousand  little 
touches  of  absurdity,  which  afforded  him  more  entertain 
ment,  as  I  have  often  heard  him  say,  than  the  best  com 
edy  that  ever  set  the  pit  in  a  roar. 

Scott  opened  in  the  same  year  a  correspondence  with 
the  venerable  Bishop  of  Dromore,  who  seems,  however, 
to  have  done  little  more  than  express  a  warm  interest  in 
an  undertaking  so  nearly  resembling  that  which  will  ever 
keep  his  own  name  in  remembrance.  He  had  more  suc 
cess  in  his  applications  to  a  more  unpromising  quarter  — 
namely,  with  Joseph  Kitson,  the  ancient  and  virulent 
assailant  of  Bishop  Percy's  editorial  character.  This 
narrow-minded,  sour,  and  dogmatical  little  word-catcher 
had  hated  the  very  name  of  a  Scotsman,  and  was  utterly 
incapable  of  sympathizing  with  any  of  the  higher  views 
of  his  new  correspondent.  Yet  the  bland  courtesy  of 
Scott  disarmed  even  this  half-crazy  pedant ;  and  he  com 
municated  the  stores  of  his  really  valuable  learning  in  a 
manner  that  seems  to  have  greatly  surprised  all  who  had 
hitherto  held  any  intercourse  with  him  on  antiquarian 
topics.  It  astonished,  above  all,  the  late  amiable  and 
elegant  George  Ellis,  whose  acquaintance  was  about  the 
same  time  opened  to  Scott  through  their  common  friend 
Heber.  Mr.  Ellis  was  now  busily  engaged  in  collecting 
the  materials  for  his  charming  works,  entitled  Specimens 
af  Ancient  English  Poetry,  and  Specimens  of  Ancient 
English  "Romance.  The  correspondence  between  him 


54  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  Scott  soon  came  to  be  constant.  They  met  person 
ally,  not  long  after  the  correspondence  had  commenced, 
conceived  for  each  other  a  cordial  respect  and  affection, 
and  continued  on  a  footing  of  almost  brotherly  intimacy 
ever  after.  To  this  valuable  alliance  Scott  owed,  among 
other  advantages,  his  early  and  ready  admission  to  the 
acquaintance  and  familiarity  of  Ellis's  bosom  friend,  his 
coadjutor  in  the  Anti-jacobin,  and  the  confidant  of  all 
his  literary  schemes,  the  late  illustrious  statesman,  Mr. 
Canning. 

The  first  letter  of  Scott  to  Ellis  is  dated  March  27, 
1801,  and  begins  thus  :  —  "  Sir,  as  I  feel  myself  highly 
flattered  by  your  inquiries,  I  lose  no  time  in  answering 
them  to  the  best  of  my  ability.  Your  eminence  in  the 
literary  world,  and  the  warm  praises  of  our  mutual  friend 
Heber,  had  made  me  long  wish  for  an  opportunity  of  being 
known  to  you.  I  enclose  the  first  sheet  of  Sir  Tristrem, 
that  you  may  not  so  much  rely  upon  my  opinion  as  upon 
that  which  a  specimen  of  the  style  and  versification  may 
enable  your  better  judgment  to  form  for  itself.  .  .  .  These 
pages  are  transcribed  by  Leyden,  an  excellent  young  man, 
of  uncommon  talents,  patronised  by  Heber,  and  who  is 
of  the  utmost  assistance  to  my  literary  undertakings." 

As  Scott's  edition  of  Sir  Tristrem  did  not  appear  until 
May  1804,  and  he  and  Leyden  were  busy  with  the  Bor 
der  Minstrelsy  when  his  correspondence  with  Ellis  com 
menced,  this  early  indication  of  his  labours  on  the  former 
work  may  require  explanation.  The  truth  is,  that  both 
Scott  and  Leyden,  having  eagerly  arrived  at  the  belief, 
from  which  neither  of  them  ever  permitted  himself  to 
falter,  that  the  "  Sir  Tristrem "  of  the  Auchinleck  MS. 
was  virtually,  if  not  literally,  the  production  of  Thomas 
Jie  Rhymer,  laird  of  Ercildoune  in  Berwickshire,  wh* 


LETTERS    TO    ELLIS 1801. 

flourished  at  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  century  —  the 
original  intention  had  been  to  give  it,  not  only  a  place, 
but  a  very  prominent  one,  in  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scot 
tish  Border.  The  doubts  and  difficulties  which  Ellis 
suggested,  however,  though  they  did  not  shake  Scott  in 
his  opinion  as  to  the  parentage  of  the  romance,  induced 
researches  which  occupied  so  much  time,  and  gave  birth 
to  notes  so  bulky,  that  he  eventually  found  it  expedient 
first  to  pass  it  over  in  the  two  volumes  of  the  Minstrelsy 
which  appeared  in  1802,  and  then  even  in  the  third,  which 
followed  a  year  later ;  thus  reserving  Tristrem  for  a  sep 
arate  publication,  which  did  not  take  place  until  after 
Leyden  had  sailed  for  India. 

I  must  not  swell  these  pages  by  transcribing  the  entire 
correspondence  of  Scott  and  Ellis,  the  greater  part  of 
which  consists  of  minute  antiquarian  discussion  which 
could  hardly  interest  the  general  reader  ;  but  I  shall  give 
such  extracts  as  seem  to  throw  light  on  Scott's  personal 
history  during  this  period. 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  Lasswade  Cottage,  20th  April  1801. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  should  long  ago  have  acknowledged  your 
instructive  letter,  but  I  have  been  wandering  about  in  the  wilds 
of  Liddesdale  and  Ettrick  Forest,  in  search  of  additional  mate 
rials  for  the  Border  Minstrelsy.  I  cannot,  however,  boast  much 
of  my  success.  One  of  our  best  reciters  has  turned  religious 
in  his  later  days,  and  finds  out  that  old  songs  are  unlawful.  If 
so,  then,  as  Falstaff  says,  is  many  an  acquaintance  of  mine 
damned.  I  now  send  you  an  accurate  analysis  of  Sir  Tristrem. 
Philo-Tomas,  whoever  he  was,  must  surely  have  been  an 
Englishman  ;  when  his  hero  joins  oattle  with  Moraunt,  h« 

exclaims  — 

'  God  help  Tristrem  the  Knight, 
Be  fought  for  Inglci-ndS 


56  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

This  strain  of  national  attachment  would  hardly  have  pro 
ceeded  from  a  Scottish  author,  even  though  he  had  laid  hia 
scene  in  the  sister  country.  In  other  respects  the  language 
appears  to  be  Scottish,  and  certainly  contains  the  essence  of 

Tomas's  work You  shall  have  Sir  Otuel  in  a  week 

or  two,  and  I  shall  be  happy  to  compare  your  Romance  of 
Merlin  with  our  Arthur  and  Merlin,  which  is  a  very  good 
poem,  and  may  supply  you  with  some  valuable  additions.  .  .  . 

I  would  very  fain  lend  your  elephant  *  a  lift,  but  I 

fear  I  can  be  of  little  use  to  you.     I  have  been  rather  an 

*This  phrase  will  be  best  explained  by  an  extract  from  a  letter 
addressed  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  on  the  12th  February  1830,  to  Wil 
liam  Brockedon,  Esq.,  acknowledging  that  gentleman's  courtesy  in 
sending  him  a  copy  of  the  beautiful  work  entitled  "  Passes  of  the 
Alps:"  — 

"  My  friend  the  late  George  Ellis,  one  of  the  most  accomplished  schol 
ars,  and  delightful  companions  whom  I  have  ever  known,  himself  a 
great  geographer  on  the  most  extended  and  liberal  plan,  used  to  tell 
me  an  anecdote  of  the  eminent  antiquary  General  Melville,  who  was 
crossing  the  Alps,  with  Livy  and  other  historical  accounts  in  his  post- 
chaise,  determined  to  follow  the  route  of  Hannibal.  He  met  Ellis,  I 
forget  where  at  this  moment,  on  the  western  side  of  that  tremendous 
ridge,  and  pushed  onwards  on  his  journey  after  a  day  spent  with  his 
brother  antiquary.  After  journeying  more  slowly  than  his  friend,  Ellis 
was  astonished  to  meet  General  Melville  coming  back.  '  What  is  the 
matter,  my  dear  friend?  how  come  you  back  on  the  journey  you  had 
so  much  at  heart?  '  —  'Alas ! '  said  Melville,  very  dejectedly,  '  I  would 
have  got  on  myself  well  enough,  but  I  could  not  get  my  elephants  over 
the  pass.'  He  had,  in  idea,  Hannibal  with  his  train  of  elephants  in 
his  party.  It  became  a  sort  of  by-word  between  Ellis  and  me ;  and  in 
assisting  each  other  during  a  close  correspondence  of  some  years,  we 
talked  of  a  lift  to  the  elephants. 

"  You,  Sir,  have  put  this  theoretical  difficulty  at  an  end,  and  show 
how,  without  bodily  labour,  the  antiquary  may  traverse  the  Alps  with 
his  elephants,  without  the  necessity  of  a  retrograde  movement.  la 
giving  a  distinct  picture  of  so  interesting  a  country  as  Switzerland,  so 
peculiar  in  its  habits,  and  its  history,  you  have  added  a  valuable  chap 
ter  to  the  history  of  Europe,  in  which  the  Alpine  regions  make  so  dis 
tinguished  a  figure.  Accept  my  best  congratulations  on  achieving  s- 
interesting  a  task." 


LETTERS    TO    ELLIS 1801.  57 

observer  of  detached  facts  respecting  antiquities,  than  a  regu 
lar  student.     At  the  same  time,  I  may  mention  one  or  two 
circumstances,  were  it  but  to  place  your  elephant  upon  a  tor 
toise.    From  Selkirkshire  to  Cumberland,  we  have  a  ditch  and 
bulwark  of  great  strength,  called  the  Catrail,  running  north 
and  south,  and  obviously  calculated  to  defend  the  western  side 
of  the  island  against  the  inhabitants  of  the  eastern  half.    Within 
this  bulwark,  at  Drummelzier,  near  Peebles,  we  find  the  grave 
of  Merlin,  the  account  of  whose  madness  and  death  you  will 
find  in  Fordun.     The  same  author  says  he  was  seized  with  his 
madness  during  a  dreadful  battle  on  the  Liddle,  which  divides 
Cumberland  from  Scotland.     All  this  seems  to  favour  your  in 
genious  hypothesis,  that  the  sway  of  the   British  Champion 
[Arthur]    extended   over  Cumberland   and    Strathcluyd,  as 
well  as  Wales.     Ercildoune  is  hardly  five  miles  from  the 
Catrail.  ..... 

"  Leyden  has  taken  up  a  most  absurd  resolution  to  go  to 
Africa  on  a  journey  of  discovery.  Will  you  have  the  good 
ness  to  beg  Heber  to  write  to  him  seriously  on  so  ridiculous  a 
plan,  which  can  promise  nothing  either  pleasant  or  profitable. 
I  am  certain  he  would  get  a  church  in  Scotland  with  a  little 
patience  and  prudence,  and  it  gives  me  great  pain  to  see  a 
valuable  young  man  of  uncommon  genius  and  acquirements 
fairly  throw  himself  away.  Yours  truly, 

"  W.  SCOTT." 

To  the  Same. 

"  Musselburgh,  llth  May  1801. 

"I  congratulate  you  upon  the  health  of  your  ele 
phants  —  as  an  additional  mouthful  of  provender  for  them, 
pray  observe  that  the  tale  of  Sir  Gawain's  Foul  Ladie,  in 
Percy's  Reliques,  is  originally  Scaldic,  as  you  will  see  in  the 
history  of  Hrolfe  Kraka,  edited  bv  Torfaeus  from  the  ancient 
Sagas  regarding  that  prince.  I  think  I  could  give  you  some 
more  crumbs  of  information  were  I  at  home;  but  I  am  at 
present  discharging  the  duties  of  quartermaster  to  a  regiment 


58  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  volunteer  cavalry  —  an  office  altogether  inconsistent  with 
romance ;  for  where  do  you  read  that  Sir  Tristrem  weighed 
out  hay  and  corn ;  that  Sir  Lancelot  du  Lac  distributed  bil 
lets  ;  or  that  any  Knight  of  the  Round  Table  condescended  to 
higgle  about  a  truss  of  straw  ?  Such  things  were  left  for  our 
degenerate  days,  when  no  warder  sounds  his  horn  from  the 
barbican  as  the  preux  chevalier  approaches  to  claim  hospital 
ity.  Bugles  indeed  we  have  ;  but  it  is  only  to  scream  us  out 
of  bed  at  five  in  the  morning  —  hospitality  such  as  the  senes 
chals  of  Don  Quixote's  castles  were  wont  to  offer  him  —  and 
all  to  troopers,  to  whom,  for  valour  eke  and  courtesy,  Major 
Sturgeon*  himself  might  yield  the  palm.  In  the  midst  of 
this  scene  of  motley  confusion,  I  long,  like  the  hart  for  water- 
brooks,  for  the  arrival  of  your  grande  opus.  The  nature  of 
your  researches  animates  me  to  proceed  in  mine  (though  of  a 
much  more  limited  and  local  nature),  even  as  iron  sharpeneth 
iron.  I  am  in  utter  despair  about  some  of  the  hunting  terms 
in  '  Sir  Tristrem.'  There  is  no  copy  of  Lady  Juliana  Ber- 
ners'  work  f  in  Scotland,  and  I  would  move  heaven  and  earth 
to  get  a  sight  of  it.  But  as  I  fear  this  is  utterly  impossible,  I 
must  have  recourse  to  your  friendly  assistance,  and  communi- 
sate  a  set  of  doubts  and  queries,  which,  if  any  man  in  Eng- 
iand  can  satisfy,  I  am  well  assured  it  must  be  you.  You  may 
therefore  expect,  in  a  few  days,  another  epistle.  Meantime  I 
must  invoke  the  spirit  of  Nimrod." 

"  Edinburgh,  10th  June  1801. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  A  heavy  family  misfortune,  the  loss  of  an 
only  sister  in  the  prime  of  life,  has  prevented,  for  some  time, 
my  proposed  communication  regarding  the  hunting  terms  of 
Sir  Tristrem.'  I  now  enclose  the  passage,  accurately  copied, 
with  such  explanations  as  occur  to  myself,  subject  always  to 
your  correction  and  better  judgment I  have  as  yet 


*  See  Foote's  farce  of  The  Mayor  of  Garrat. 

f  "  The  Boke  of  St.  Albans  "  —first  printed  in  1486  —  reprinted  bj 
Mr  Haslewood  in  1810. 


LETTP:RS  TO  ELLIS  — 1801.  59 

had  only  a  glance  of  The  Specimens.  Thomson,  to  whom 
Heber  intrusted  them,  had  left  them  to  follow  him  from  Lon 
don  in  a  certain  trunk,  which  has  never  yet  arrived.  I  should 
have  quarrelled  with  him  excessively  for  making  so  little  al 
lowance  for  my  impatience,  had  it  not  been  that  a  violent  epi 
demic  fever,  to  which  I  owe  the  loss  already  mentioned,  has 
threatened  also  to  deprive  me,  in  his  person,  of  one  of  my 
dearest  friends,  and  the  Scottish  literary  world  of  one  of  its 
most  promising  members. 

"  Some  prospect  seems  to  open  for  getting  Leyden  out  to 
India,  under  the  patronage  of  Mackintosh,  who  goes  as  chief 
of  the  intended  academical  establishment  at  Calcutta.  That 
he  is  highly  qualified  for  acting  a  distinguished  part  in  any 
literary  undertaking,  will  be  readily  granted ;  nor  do  I  think 
Mr.  Mackintosh  will  meet  with  many  half  so  likely  to  be  use 
ful  in  the  proposed  institution.  The  extent  and  versatility  of 
his  talents  would  soon  raise  him  to  his  level,  even  although  he 
were  at  first  to  go  out  in  a  subordinate  department.  If  it  be 
in  your  power  to  second  his  application,  I  rely  upon  Heber's 
interest  with  you  to  induce  you  to  do  so." 

"Edinburgh,  13th  July  1801. 

.  ..."  I  am  infinitely  obliged  to  you,  indeed,  for  your  in 
terference  in  behalf  of  our  Leyden,  who,  I  am  sure,  will  do 
credit  to  your  patronage,  and  may  be  of  essential  service  to 
the  proposed  mission.  What  a  difference  from  broiling  him 
self,  or  getting  himself  literally  broiled,  in  Africa.  '  Que  dia- 
ble  vouloit-il  faire  dans  cette  galere  ? '  .  .  .  His  brother  is  a 
fine  lad,  and  is  likely  to  enjoy  some  advantages  which  ho 
wanted  —  I  mean  by  being  more  early  introduced  into  society. 
\  have  intermitted  his  transcript  of  '  Merlin,'  and  set  him  to 
work  on  *  Otuel,'  of  which  I  send  a  specimen." 

"  Edinburgh,  7th  December  1801. 

"  My  literary  amusements  havp  of  late  been  much 

retarded  and  interrupted,  partly  by  professional   avocations, 
»nd  partly  by  removing  to  a  house  newly  furnished,  where  it 


60  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

will  be  some  time  before  I  can  get  my  few  books  put  into 
order,  or  clear  the  premises  of  painters  and  workmen ;  not  to 
mention  that  these  worthies  do  not  nowadays  proceed  upon 
the  plan  of  Solomon's  architects,  whose  saws  and  hammers 
were  not  heard,  but  rather  upon  the  more  ancient  system  of 
the  builders  of  Babel.  To  augment  this  confusion,  my  wife 
has  fixed  upon  this  time  as  proper  to  present  me  with  a  fine 
chopping  boy,  whose  pipe,  being  of  the  shrillest,  is  heard  amid 
the  storm,  like  a  boatswain's  whistle  in  a  gale  of  wind.  These 
various  causes  of  confusion  have  also  interrupted  the  labours 
of  young  Leyden  on  your  behalf;  but  he  has  again  resumed 
the  task  of  transcribing  *  Arthour,'  of  which  I  once  again 
transmit  a  part.  I  have  to  acknowledge,  with  the  deepest 
sense  of  gratitude,  the  beautiful  analysis  of  Mr.  Douce's  Frag 
ments,  which  throws  great  light  upon  the  romance  of  Sir  Tris- 
trem.  In  arranging  that,  I  have  anticipated  your  judicious 
hint,  by  dividing  it  into  three  parts,  where  the  story  seems 
naturally  to  pause,  and  prefixing  an  accurate  argument,  refer 
ring  to  the  stanzas  as  numbered. 

"  I  am  glad  that  Mrs.  Ellis  and  you  have  derived  any  amuse 
ment  from  the  House  of  Aspen.  It  is  a  very  hurried  dramatic 
sketch ;  and  the  fifth  act,  as  you  remark,  would  require  a  total 
revisal  previous  to  representation  or  publication.  At  one  time 
I  certainly  thought,  with  my  friends,  that  it  might  have  ranked 
well  enough  by  the  side  of  the  Castle  Spectre,  Bluebeard,  and 
the  other  drum  and  trumpet  exhibitions  of  the  day ;  but  the 
*  Plays  of  the  Passions  '  *  have  put  me  entirely  out  of  conceit 
with  my  Germanized  brat ;  and  should  I  ever  again  attempt 
dramatic  composition,  I  would  endeavour  after  the  genuine 

old  English  model The  publication  of  '  The  Com 

playnt '  f  is  delayed.  It  is  a  work  of  multifarious  lore.  I  am 
truly  anxious  about  Ley  den's  Indian  journey,  which  seems  to 

*  The  first  volume  of  Joanna  Baillie's  "  Plays  of  the  Passions  " 
appeared  in  1798.  Vol.  II.  followed  in  1802. 

t  "The  Complaynt  of  Scotland,  written  in  1548;  with  a  Prelimi 
nary  Dissertation  and  Glossary,  by  John  Leyden,"  was  published  b» 
Constable  in  January  1802. 


LETTERS    TO    ELLIS 1801.  6 

hang  fire.  Mr.  William  Dundas  was  so  good  as  to  promise  me 
his  interest  to  get  him  appointed  Secretary  to  the  Institu 
tion  ;  *  but  whether  he  has  succeeded  or  not,  I  have  not  yet 
learned.  The  various  kinds  of  distress  under  which  literary 
men,  I  mean  such  as  have  no  other  profession  than  letters, 
must  labour,  in  a  commercial  country,  is  a  great  disgrace  to 
society.  I  own  to  you  I  always  tremble  for  the  fate  of  genius 
when  left  to  its  own  exertions,  which,  however  powerful,  are 
usually,  by  some  bizarre  dispensation  of  nature,  useful  to  every 
one  but  themselves.  If  Heber  could  learn  by  Mackintosh, 
whether  anything  could  be  done  to  fix  Leyden's  situation,  and 
what  sort  of  interest  would  be  most  likely  to  succeed,  his 

friends  here  might  unite  every  exertion  in  his  favour 

Direct  Castle  Street,  as  usual ;  my  new  house  being 

in  the  same  street  with  my  old  dwelling." 

"  Edinburgh,  8th  January  1802. 

..."  Your  favour  arrived  just  as  I  was  sitting  down  to  write 
to  you,  with  a  sheet  or  two  of  '  King  Arthur.'  I  fear,  from  a 
letter  which  I  have  received  from  Mr.  William  Dundas,  that 
the  Indian  Establishment  is  tottering,  and  will  probably  fall. 
Leyden  has  therefore  been  induced  to  turn  his  mind  to  some 
other  mode  of  making  his  way  to  the  East ;  and  proposes 
taking  his  degree  as  a  physician  and  surgeon,  with  the  hope 
of  getting  an  appointment  in  the  Company's  service  as  sur 
geon.  If  the  Institution  goes  forward,  his  having  secured  this 
step  will  not  prevent  his  being  attached  to  it ;  at  the  same 
time  that  it  will  afford  him  a  provision  independent  of  what 
seems  to  be  a  very  precarious  establishment.  Mr.  Dundas 
has  promised  to  exert  himself.  ...  I  have  just  returned  from 
the  hospitable  halls  of  Hamilton,  where  I  have  spent  the 
Christmas."  .... 

"  14th  February  1802. 

"  I  have  been  silent,  but  not  idle.     The  transcript  of  King 
Arthur  is  at  length  finished,  being  a  fragment  of  about   7000 

*  A  proposed  Institution  for  purposes  of  Education  at  Calcutta. 


62  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

lines.  Let  me  know  how  I  shall  transmit  a  parcel  containing 
it,  with  the  Complaynt  and  the  Border  Ballads,  of  which  I 
expect  every  day  to  receive  some  copies.  I  think  you  will 
be  disappointed  in  the  Ballads.  I  have  as  yet  to.uched  very 
little  on  the  more  remote  antiquities  of  the  Border,  which, 
indeed,  my  songs,  all  comparatively  modern,  did  not  lead  me 
to  discuss.  Some  scattered  herbage,  however,  the  elephants 
may  perhaps  find.  By  the  way,  you  will  not  forget  to  notice 
the  mountain  called  Arthur's  Seat,  which  overhangs  this  city. 
When  I  was  at  school,  the  tradition  ran  that  King  Arthur 
occupied  as  his  throne  a  huge  rock  upon  its  summit,  and  that 
he  beheld  from  thence  some  naval  engagement  upon  the  Frith 
of  Forth.  I  am  pleasantly  interrupted  by  the  post ;  he  brings 
me  a  letter  from  William  Dundas,  fixing  Leyden's  appoint 
ment  as  an  assistant-surgeon  to  one  of  the  India  settlements 
—  which, is  not  yet  determined;  and  another  from  my  printer, 
a  very  ingenious  young  man,  telling  me,  that  he  means  to 
escort  the  'Minstrelsy'  up  to  London  in  person.  I  shall, 
therefore,  direct  him  to  transmit  my  parcel  to  Mr.  Nicol."  ... 

"  2d  March  1802. 

"  I  hope  that  long  ere  this  you  have  received  the  Ballads, 
and  that  they  have  afforded  you  some  amusement.  I  hope, 
also,  that  the  threatened  third  volume  will  be  more  interesting 
to  Mrs.  Ellis  than  the  dry  antiquarian  detail  of  the  two  first 
could  prove.  I  hope,  moreover,  that  I  shall  have  the  pleasure 
of  seeing  you  soon,  as  some  circumstances  seem  not  so  much 
to  call  me  to  London,  as  to  furnish  me  with  a  decent  apology 
for  coming  up  some  time  this  spring  ;  and  I  long  particularly 
to  say,  that  I  know  my  friend  Mr.  Ellis  by  sight  as  well  a? 
intimately.  I  am  glad  you  have  seen  the  Marquess  of  Lorn, 
whom  I  have  met  frequently  at  the  house  of  his  charming 
sister,  Lady  Charlotte  Campbell,  whom,  I  am  sure,  if  you  are 
acquainted  with  her,  you  must  admire  as  much  as  I  do.  Her 
Grace  of  Gordon,  a  great  admirer  of  yours,  spent  some  days 
here  lately,  and,  like  Lord  Lorn,  was  highly  entertained  with 
an  account  of  our  friendship  a  la  distance.  I  do  not,  nor  did 


HAMILTON    PALACE  —  1801. 

I  ever,  intend  to  fob  you  off  with  twenty  or  thirty  lines  of  the 
second  part  of  Sir  Guy.  Young  Leyden  has  been  much  en 
gaged  with  his  studies,  otherwise  you  would  have  long  since 
received  what  I  now  send,  namely,  the  combat  between  Guy 
and  Colbronde,  which  I  take  to  be  the  cream  of  the  romance. 
....  If  I  do  not  come  to  London  this  spring,  I  will  find  a 
safe  opportunity  of  returning  Lady  Juliana  Berners,  with  my 
very  best  thanks  for  the  use  of  her  reverence's  work." 

The  preceding  extracts  are  picked  out  of  letters,  mostly 
very  long  ones,  in  which  Scott  discusses  questions  of  an-  i  / 
tiquarian  interest,  suggested  sometimes  by  Ellis,  and 
sometimes  by  the  course  of  his  own  researches  among 
the  MSS.  of  the  Advocates'  Library.  The  passages 
which  I  have  transcribed  appear  sufficient  to  give  the 
reader  a  distinct  notion  of  the  tenor  of  Scott's  life 
while  his  first  considerable  work  was  in  progress  through 
the  press.  In  fact,  they  place  before  us  in  a  vivid  light 
the  chief  features  of  a  character  which,  by  this  time, 
was  completely  formed  and  settled  —  which  had  passed 
unmoved  through  the  first  blandishments  of  worldly  ap 
plause,  and  which  no  subsequent  trials  of  that  sort  could 
ever  shake  from  its  early  balance  :  —  His  calm  delight 
in  his  own  pursuits  —  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  which 
mingled  with  all  the  best  of  his  literary  efforts ;  his 
modesty  as  to  his  own  general  merits,  combined  with  a 
certain  dogged  resolution  to  maintain  his  own  first  view 
of  a  subject,  however  assailed ;  his  readiness  to  interrupt 
his  own  tasks  by  any  drudgery  by  vhich  he  could  assist 
those  of  a  friend ;  his  steady  and  determined  watchful 
ness  over  the  struggling  fortunes  of  young  genius  and 
worth. 

The  reader  has  seen  that  he  s^ent  the  Christmas  of 
1801  at  Hamilton  Palace,  in  Lanarkshire.     To  Lady 


64  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

Anne  Hamilton  he  had  been  introduced  by  her  friend, 
Ladj  Charlotte  Campbell,  and  both  the  late  and  the 
present  Dukes  of  Hamilton  appear  to  have  partaken 
of  Lady  Anne's  admiration  for  Glenfinlas,  and  the  Eve 
of  St.  John.  A  morning's  ramble  to  the  majestic  ruins 
of  the  old  baronial  castle  on  the  precipitous  banks  of 
the  Evan,  and  among  the  adjoining  remains  of  the  pri 
meval  Caledonian  forest,  suggested  to  him  a  ballad,  not 
inferior  in  execution  to  any  that  he  had  hitherto  produced, 
and  especially  interesting  as  the  first  in  which  he  grap 
ples  with  the  world  of  picturesque  incident  unfolded  in 
the  authentic  annals  of  Scotland.  With  the  magnificent 
localities  before  him,  he  skilfully  interwove  the  daring 
assassination  of  the  Regent  Murray  by  one  of  the  clans 
men  of  "  the  princely  Hamilton."  Had  the  subject  been 
taken  up  in  after  years,  we  might  have  had  another  Mar- 
mion  or  Heart  of  Mid-Lothian ;  for  in  Cadyow  Castle  we 
have  the  materials  and  outline  of  more  than  one  of  the 
noblest  of  ballads. 

About  two  years  before  this  piece  began  to  be  handed 
about  in  Edinburgh,  Thomas  Campbell  had  made  his  ap 
pearance  there,  and  at  once  seized  a  high  place  in  the 
literary  world  by  his  "  Pleasures  of  Hope."  Among  the 
most  eager  to  welcome  him  had  been  Scott ;  and  I  find 
the  brother-bard  thus  expressing  himself  concerning  the 
MS.  of  Cadyow :  — 

"  The  verses  of  Cadyow  Castle  are  perpetually  ringing 
in  my  imagination  — 

Where,  mightiest  of  the  beasts  of  chase 

That  roam  in  woody  Caledon, 
Crashing  the  forest  in  his  race, 

The  mountain  bull  comes  thundering  on  —  * 


THE    MINSTRELSY    PUBLISHED — 1802.  65 

and  the  arrival  of  Hamilton,  when 

*  Reeking  from  the  recent  deed, 

He  dashed  his  carbine  on  the  ground.' 

I  have  repeated  these  lines  so  often  on  the  North  Bridge 
that  the  whole  fraternity  of  coachmen  know  me  by  tongue 
as  I  pass.  To  be  sure,  to  a  mind  in  sober,  serious  street- 
walking  humour,  it  must  bear  an  appearance  of  lunacy 
when  one  stamps  with  the  hurried  pace  and  fervent  shake 
of  the  head,  which  strong,  pithy  poetry  excites." 

Scott  finished  Cadyow  Castle  before  the  last  sheets  of 
the  second  volume  of  his  Minstrelsy  had  passed  through 
the  press;  but  "the  two  volumes,"  as  Ballantyne  says,  ' 
"  were  already  full  to  overflowing ; "  so  it  was  reserved 
for  the  "  threatened  third."  The  two  volumes  appeared  * 
in  the  course  of  January  1802,  from  the  respectable  house 
of  Cadell  and  Davies,  in  the  Strand ;  and,  owing  to  the 
cold  reception  of  Lewis's  Tales  of  Wonder,  which  had 
come  forth  a  year  earlier,  these  may  be  said  to  have  first 
introduced  Scott  as  an  original  writer  to  the  English 
public. 

In  his  Remarks  on  the  Imitation  of  Popular  Poetry, 
he  says :  —  "  Owing  to  the  failure  of  the  vehicle  I  had 
chosen,  my  first  efforts  to  present  myself  before  the 
public  as  an  original  writer  proved  as  vain  as  those  by 
which  I  had  previously  endeavoured  to  distinguish  my 
self  as  a  translator.  Like  Lord  Home,  however,  at  the 
Battle  of  Flodden,  I  did  so  far  well,  that  I  was  able  to 
stand  and  save  myself";  and  amidst  the  general  depreci 
ation  of  the  Tales  of  Wonder,  my  small  share  of  the 
obnoxious  publication  was  dismissed  without  censure,  and 
in  some  cases  obtained  praise  from  the  critics.  The  con 
sequences  of  my  escape  made  me  naturally  more  daring 

VOL.    II.  5 


66  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  I  attempted  in  my  own  name,  a  collection  of  ballads 
of  various  kinds,  both  ancient  and  modern,  to  be  con 
nected  by  the  common  tie  of  relation  to  the  Border  dis 
tricts  in  which  I  had  collected  them.  The  edition  was 
curious,  as  being  the  first  example  of  a  work  printed  by 
my  friend  and  schoolfellow,  Mr.  James  Ballantyne,  who 
at  that  period  was  editor  of  a  provincial  paper.  When 
the  book  came  out,  the  imprint,  Kelso,  was  read  with 
wonder  by  amateurs  of  typography,  who  had  never  heard 
of  such  a  place,  and  were  astonished  at  the  example  of 
handsome  printing  which  so  obscure  a  town  had  pro 
duced.  As  for  the  editorial  part  of  the  task,  my  attempt 
to  imitate  the  plan  and  style  of  Bishop  Percy,  observing 
only  more  strict  fidelity  concerning  my  originals,  was 
favourably  received  by  the  public." 

The  first  edition  of  volumes  I.  and  II.  of  the  Minstrelsy 
consisted  of  eight  hundred  copies,  fifty  of  which  were  on 
large  paper.  One  of  the  embellishments  was  a  view  of 
Hermitage  castle,  the  history  of  which  is  rather  curious. 
Scott  executed  a  rough  sketch  of  it  during  the  last  of  his 
"  Liddesdale  raids "  with  Shortreed,  standing  for  that 
purpose  for  an  hour  or  more  up  to  his  middle  in  the 
Bnow.  Nothing  can  be  ruder  than  the  performance, 
which  I  have  now  before  me ;  but  his  friend  William 
Clerk  made  a  better  drawing  from  it ;  and  from  his,  a 

\iird  and  further  improved  copy  was  done  by  Hugh 
Williams,  the  elegant  artist,  afterwards  known  as  "  Greek 
Williams."  *  Scott  used  to  say,  the  oddest  thing  of  all 
was,  that  the  engraving,  founded'  on  the  labours  of  three 
draugh  tsmen,  one  of  whom  could  not  draw  a  straight  line, 
and  the  two  others  had  never  seen  the  place  meant  to  be 
represented,  was  nevertheless  pronounced  by  the  natives 

*  Mr.  Williams's  Travels  in  Italy  and  Greece  were  published  in  1820 


THE    MINSTRELSY LETTER   FROM    ELLIS.  67 

of  Liddesdale  to  give  a  very  fair  notion  of  the  ruins  of 
Hermitage. 

The  edition  was  exhausted  in  the  course  of  the  year, 
and  the  terms  of  publication  having  been  that  Scott 
should  have  half  the  clear  profits,  his  share  was  exactly 
£78  10«.  —  a  sum  which  certainly  could  not  have  repaid 
him  for  the  actual  expenditure  incurred  in  the  collection 
of  his  materials.  Messrs.  Cadell  and  Davies,  however, 
complained,  and  probably  with  good  reason,  that  a  prema 
ture  advertisement  of  a  "  second  and  improved  edition  " 
had  rendered  some  copies  of  the  first  unsaleable,  i 

I  shall  transcribe  the  letter  in  which  Mr.  George  Ellis 
acknowledges  the  receipt  of  his  copy  of  the  book :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.  Advocate,  Castle  Street,  Edinburgh. 

"  Sunning  Hill,  March  5, 1802. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  The  volumes  are  arrived,  and  I  have  been 
devouring  them,  not  as  a  pig  does  a  parcel  of  grains  (by  which 
simile  you  will  judge  that  I  must  be  brewing,  as  indeed  I  am), 
putting  in  its  snout,  shutting  its  eyes,  and  swallowing  as  fast  as 
it  can  without  consideration  —  but  as  a  schoolboy  does  a  piece 
of  gingerbread  ;  nibbling  a  little  bit  here,  and  a  little  bit  there, 
smacking  his  lips,  surveying  the  number  of  square  inches  which 
still  remain  for  his  gratification,  endeavouring  to  look  it  into 
larger  dimensions,  and  making  at  every  mouthful  a  tacit  vow 
to  protract  his  enjoyment  by  restraining  his  appetite.  Now, 
therefore  —  but  no !  I  must  first  assure  you  on  the  part  of 
Mrs.  E.,  that  if  you  cannot,  or  will  not  come  to  England  soon, 
she  must  gratify  her  curiosity  and  gratitude,  by  setting  off  for 
Scotland,  though  at  the  risk  of  being  tempted  to  pull  capa 
with  Mrs.  Scott  when  she  arrives  at  the  end  of  her  journey. 
Next,  I  must  request  you  to  convey  to  Mr.  Leyden  my  verv 
sincere  acknowledgment  for  his  part  of  the  precious  parcel. 
How  truly  vexatious  that  such  a  man  should  embark,  not  for 
*he  '  fines  Atticse,'  but  for  those  of  Asia ;  that  'he  genius  of 


38  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Scotland,  Instead  of  a  poor  Complaint,  and  an  address  in  the 
style  of  '  Navis,  quas  tibi  creditum  debes  Yirgilmm — reddas 
incolumem,  precor,'  should  not  interfere  to  prevent  his  loss.  I 
wish  to  hope  that  we  should,  as  Sterne  says,  *  manage  these 
matters  better '  in  England ;  but  now,  as  regret  is  unavailing, 
to  the  main  point  of  my  letter. 

"'  You  will  not,  of  course,  expect  that  I  should  as  yet  give 
you  anything  like  an  opinion,  as  a  critic,  of  your  volumes :  first 
because  you  have  thrown  into  my  throat  a  cate  of  such  magni 
tude  that  Cerberus,  who  had  three  throats,  could  not  have 
swallowed  a  third  part  of  it  without  shutting  his  eyes ;  and 
secondly,  because,  although  I  have  gone  a  little  farther  than 
George  Nicol  the  bookseller,  who  cannot  cease  exclaiming, 
*  What  a  beautiful  book ! '  and  is  distracted  with  jealousy  of 
your  Kelso  Buhner,  yet,  as  I  said  before,  I  have  not  been  able 
yet  to  digest  a  great  deal  of  your  '  Border  Minstrelsy.'  I  have, 
however,  taken  such  a  survey  as  satisfies  me  that  your  plan  is 
neither  too  comprehensive  nor  too  contracted ;  that  the  parts 
are  properly  distinct;  and  that  they  are  (to  preserve  the 
painter's  metaphor)  made  out  just  as  they  ought  to  be.  Your 
introductory  chapter  is,  I  think,  particularly  good ;  and  1  was 
much  pleased,  although  a  little  surprised,  at  finding  that  it  was 
made  to  serve  as  a  recueil  des  pieces  justificatives  to  your  view 
of  the  state  of  manners  among  your  Borderers,  which  I  venture 
to  say  will  be  more  thumbed  than  any  part  of  the  volume. 

"  You  will  easily  believe  that  I  cast  many  an  anxious  loot 
for  the  annunciation  of  '  Sir  Tristrem,'  and  will  not  be  sui 
prised  that  I  was  at  first  rather  disappointed  at  not  finding  any 
thing  like  a  solemn  engagement  to  produce  him  to  the  world 
within  some  fixed  and  limited  period.  Upon  reflection,  how 
ever,  I  really  think  you  have  judged  wisely,  and  that  you  have 
best  promoted  the  interests  of  literature,  by  sending,  as  the 
\arbinger  of  the  '  Knight  of  Leonais,'  a  collection  which  must 
form  a  parlour-window  book  in  every  house  in  Britain  which 
contains  a  parlour  and  a  window.  I  am  happy  to  find  my  old 
favourites  in  their  natural  situation  —  indeed  in  the  only 
iituation  which  can  enable  a  Southern  reader  to  estimate  theh 


THE    MINSTRELSY  —  MISS    SEWARD.  69 

Herits.  You  remember  what  somebody  said  of  the  Prince  de 
Conde's  army  during  the  wars  of  the  Fronde,  viz.  — "  that  it 
would  be  a  very  fine  army  whenever  it  came  of  age."  Of  the 
Murrays  and  Armstrongs  of  your  Border  Ballads,  it  might  be 
said  that  they  might  grow,  when  the  age  of  good  taste  should 
arrive,  to  a  Glenfmlas  or  an  Eve  of  St.  John.  Leyden's  addi 
tional  poems  are  also  very  beautiful.  I  meant,  at  setting  oat, 
a  few  simple  words  of  thanks,  and  behold  I  have  written  a 
letter ;  but  no  matter  —  I  shall  return  to  the  charge  after  a 
more  attentive  perusal.  Ever  yours  very  faithfully, 

"  G.  ELLIS/' 


I  might  fill  many  pages  by  transcribing  similar  letters 
from  persons  of  acknowledged  discernment  in  this  branch 
of  literature.  John  Duke  of  Roxburgh  is  among  the 
number,  and  he  conveys  also  a  complimentary  message 
from  the  late  Earl  Spencer ;  Pinkerton  issues  his  decree 
of  approbation  as  ex  cathedra  ;  Chalmers  overflows  with 
heartier  praise  ;  and  even  Joseph  Ritson  extols  his  pres 
entation  copy  as  "  the  most  valuable  literary  treasure  in 
his  possession."  There  follows  enough  of  female  admira 
tion  to  have  been  dangerous  for  another  man ;  a  score  of 
fine  ladies  contend  who  shall  be  the  most  extravagant  in 
encomium  —  and  as  many  professed  blue  stockings  come 
^fter ;  among,  or  rather  above  the  rest,  Anna  Seward, 
"  the  Swan  of  Lichfield,"  who  laments  that  her  "  bright 
luminary,"  Darwin,  does  not  survive  to  partake  her  rap 
tures  ;  —  observes,  that  "  in  the  Border  Ballads  the  first 
strong  rays  of  the  Delphic  orb  illuminate  Jellon  Graeme;" 
and  concludes  with  a  fact  indisputable,  but  strangely  ex 
pressed,  viz.  that  "  the  Lady  Anne  Bothwell's  Lament, 
Cowdenknowes,  &c.  &c.,  climatically  preceded  the  treas 
ures  of  Burns,  and  the  consummate  Glenfmlas  and  Eve 
of  St.  John."  Scott  felt  as  acutely  as  any  malevolent 


70  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

critic  the  pedantic  affectations  of  Miss  Seward's  episto 
lary  style,  but  in  her  case  sound  sense  as  well  as  vigorous 
ability  had  unfortunately  condescended  to  an  absurd  dis 
guise  ;  he  looked  below  it,  and  was  far  from  confounding 
her  honest  praise  with  the  flat  superlatives  either  of 
wordy  parrots  or  weak  enthusiasts. 


THE    MINSTRELSY VOL.    III.  71 


CHAPTER  XI. 

Preparation  of  Volume  III.  of  the  Minstrelsy  —  and  oj  Sir 
Tristrem  —  Correspondence  with  Miss  Seward  and  Mr.  Ellis 
—  Ballad  of  the  Reiver's  Wedding  —  Commencement  of  the 
Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  —  Visit  to  London  and  Oxford  — 
Completion  of  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border. 

1802-1803. 

THE  approbation  with  which  the  first  two  volumes  of 
the  Minstrelsy  were  received,  stimulated  Scott  to  fresh 
diligence  in  the  preparation  of  a  third ;  while  "  Sir  Tris 
trem  "  —  it  being  now  settled  that  this  romance  should 
form  a  separate  volume  —  was  transmitted,  without  de 
lay,  to  the  printer  at  Kelso.  As  early  as  March  30th, 
1802,  Ballantyne,  who  had  just  returned  from  London, 
writes  thus:  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Castle  Street,  Edinburgh. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  By  to-morrow's  Fly  I  shall  send  the  remain, 
ing  materials  for  Minstrelsy,  together  with  three  sheets  of 
Sir  Tristrem.  ...  I  shall  ever  think  the  printing  the  Scottish 
Minstrelsy  one  of  the  most  fortunate  circumstances  of  my  life. 
I  have  gained,  not  lost  by  it,  in  a  pecuniary  light ;  and  the 
prospects  it  has  been  the  means  of  opening  to  me,  may  ad 
vantageously  influence  my  future  destiny.  I  can  never  be 
sufficiently  grateful  for  the  interest  you  unceasingly  take  in 
my  welfare.  Your  query  respecting  Edinburgh,  I  am  yet  at  a 


72  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

loss  to  answer.  To  say  truth,  the  expenses  I  have  incurred 
In  my  resolution  to  acquire  a  character  for  elegant  printing, 
whatever  might  be  the  result,  cramp  considerably  my  present 
exertions.  A  short  time,  I  trust,  will  make  me  easier,  and  I 
shall  then  contemplate  the  road  before  me  with  a  steady  eye. 
One  thing  alone  is  clear  —  that  Kelso  cannot  be  my  abiding 
place  for  aye ;  sooner  or  later,  emigrate  I  must  and  will ;  but, 
at  all  events,  I  must  wait  till  my  plumes  are  grown.  I  am, 
Dear  Sir,  your  faithful  and  obliged  J.  B." 

On  learning  that  a  third  volume  of  the  Minstrelsy  was 
in  progress,  Miss  Seward  forwarded  to  the  Editor  "Rich 
Auld  Willie's  Farewell,"  a  Scotch  ballad  of  her  own 
manufacture,  meaning,  no  doubt,  to  place  it  at  his  dis 
posal,  for  the  section  of  "  Imitations."  His  answer  (dated 
Edinburgh,  June  29,  1802),  after  many  compliments  to 
the  Auld  Willie,  of  which  he  made  the  use  that  had  been 
intended,  proceeds  as  follows  :  — 

"I  have  some  thoughts  of  attempting  a  Border  ballad  in 
the  comic  manner ;  but  I  almost  despair  of  bringing  it  wel1 
out.  A  certain  Sir  William  Scott,  from  whom  I  am  descended> 
was  ill-advised  enough  to  plunder  the  estate  of  Sir  Gideon 
Murray  of  Elibank,  ancestor  to  the  present  Lord  Elibank. 
The  marauder  was  defeated,  seized,  and  brought  in  fetters 
to  the  castle  of  Elibank,  upon  the  Tweed.  The  Lady  Mur 
ray  (agreeably  to  the  custom  of  all  ladies  in  ancient  tales) 
was  seated  on  the  battlements,  and  descried  the  return  of  her 
husband  with  his  prisoners.  She  immediately  inquired  what 
he  meant  to  do  with  the  young  Knight  of  Harden,  which  was 
the  petit  litre  of  Sir  William  Scott.  '  Hang  the  robber,  as 
suredly,'  was  the  answer  of  Sir  Gideon.  '  What ! '  answered 
the  lady,  '  hang  the  handsome  young  knight  of  Harden,  when 
J  have  three  ill-favoured  daughters  unmarried !  No,  no,  Sir 
G'deon,  we'll  force  him  to  marry  our  Meg.'  Now  tradition 
?  rs,  that  Meg  Murray  was  the  ugliest  woman  in  the  foul 


LETTERS    TO    MISS    SEWARD 1802.  73 

tounties,  and  that  she  was  called,  in  the  homely  dialect  of 
the  time,  meikle-moutlied  Meg  (I  will  riot  affront  you  by  an  ex 
planation.)*  Sir  Gideon,  like  a  good  husband  and  tender 
father,  entered  into  his  wife's  sentiments,  and  proffered  to  Sir 
William  the  alternative  of  becoming  his  son-in-law,  or  deco 
rating  with  his  carcase  the  kindly  gallows  of  Elibank.  The 
lady  was  so  very  ugly,  that  Sir  William,  the  handsomest  man 
of  his  time,  positively  refused  the  honour  of  her  hand.  Three 
days  were  allowed  him  to  make  up  his  mind ;  and  it  was  not 
until  he  found  one  end  of  a  rope  made  fast  to  his  neck,  and 
the  other  knitted  to  a  sturdy  oak  bough,  that  his  resolution 
gave  way,  and  he  preferred  an  ugly  wife  to  the  literal  noose. 
It  is  said,  they  were  afterwards  a  very  happy  couple.  She/ 
had  a  curious  hand  at  pickling  the  beef  which  he  stole  ;  and, 
marauder  as  he  was,  he  had  little  reason  to  dread  being 
twitted  by  the  pawky  gowk.  This,  either  by  its  being  per 
petually  told  to  me  when  young,  or  by  a  perverted  taste  for 
such  anecdotes,  has  always  struck  me  as  a  good  subject  for  a 
comic  ballad,  and  how  happy  should  I  be  were  Miss  Seward 
to  agree  in  opinion  with  me. 

"  This  little  tale  may  serve  for  an  introduction  to  some  ob 
servations  I  have  to  offer  upon  our  popular  poetry.  It  will  at 
least  so  far  disclose  your  correspondent's  weak  side,  as  to  in 
duce  you  to  make  allowance  for  my  mode  of  arguing.  Much 
of  its  peculiar  charm  is  indeed,  I  believe,  to  be  attributed 
solely  to  its  locality.  A  very  commonplace  and  obvious  epi 
thet,  when  applied  to  a  scene  which  we  have  been  accustomed 
to  view  with  pleasure,  recalls  to  us  not  merely  the  local  sce- 
uery,  but  a  thousand  little  nameless  associations,  which  we 
are  unable  to  separate  or  to  define.  In  some  verses  of  that 
eccentric  but  admirable  poet,  Coleridge,  he  talks  of 

'  An  old  rude  tale  that  suited  well 
The  ruins  wild  and  hoary.' 

*  It  is  commonly  said  that  all  Meg's  descendants  have  inherited 
itmething  of  her  characteristic  feature.  The  poet  certainly  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule. 


74  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

1  think  there  are  few  who  have  not  been  in  some  degree 
touched  with  this  local  sympathy.  Tell  a  peasant  an  ordi 
nary  tale  of  robbery  and  murder,  and  perhaps  you  may  fail 
to  interest  him ;  but  to  excite  his  terrors,  you  assure  him  it 
happened  on  the  very  heath  he  usually  crosses,  or  to  a  man 
whose  family  he  has  known,  and  you  rarely  meet  such  a  mere 
image  of  Humanity  as  remains  entirely  unmoved.  I  suspect  it 
is  pretty  much  the  same  with  myself,  and  many  of  my  country 
men,  who  are  charmed  by  the  effect  of  local  description,  and 
sometimes  impute  that  effect  to  the  poet,  which  is  produced  by 
the  recollections  and  associations  which  his  verses  excite.  Why 
else  did  Sir  Philip  Sydney  feel  that  the  tale  of  Percy  and 
Douglas  moved  him  like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  ?  or  why  is  it 
that  a  Swiss  sickens  at  hearing  the  famous  Ranz  des  Vaches, 
to  which  the  native  of  any  other  country  would  have  listened 
for  a  hundred  days,  without  any  other  sensation  than  ennui  ? 
I  fear  our  poetical  taste  is  in  general  much  more  linked  with 
our  prejudices  of  birth,  of  education,  and  of  habitual  thinking, 
than  our  vanity  will  allow  us  to  suppose ;  and  that,  let  the 
point  of  the  poet's  dart  be  as  sharp  as  that  of  Cupid,  it  is  the 
wings  lent  it  by  the  fancy  and  prepossessions  of  the  gentle 
reader  which  carry  it  to  the  mark.  It  may  appear  like  great 
egotism  to  pretend  to  illustrate  my  position  from  the  reception 
which  the  productions  of  so  mere  a  ballad-monger  as  myself 
have  met  with  from  the  public  ;  but  I  cannot  help  observing 
that  all  Scotchmen  prefer  the  Eve  of  St.  John  to  Glenfinlas, 
and  most  of  my  English  friends  entertain  precisely  an  opposite 
opinion.  ...  I  have  been  writing  this  letter  by  a  paragraph 
at  a  time  for  about  a  month,  this  being  the  season  when  we 
are  most  devoted  to  the 

*  Drowsy  bench  and  babbling  hall.' 
"  I  have  the  honour,"  &c.  &c 

Miss  Seward,  in  her  next  letter,  offers  an  apology  foi 
not  having  sooner  begged  Scott  to  place  her  name  among 


LETTERS    TO    MISS    SEWARD 1802.  75 

Jhe  subscribers  to  his  third  volume.      His  answer  is  in 
these  words :  — 

"  Lasswade,  Jnly  1802. 

"  I  am  very  sorry  to  have  left  you  under  a  mistake  about  my 
third  volume.  The  truth  is,  that  highly  as  I  should  feel  my 
self  flattered  by  the  encouragement  of  Miss  Seward's  name, 
cannot,  in  the  present  instance,  avail  myself  of  it,  as  the  Bal 
lads  are  not  published  by  subscription.  Providence  having,  I 
suppose,  foreseen  that  my  literary  qualifications,  like  those  of 
many  more  distinguished  persons,  might  not,  par  hazard,  sup 
port  me  exactly  as  I  would  like,  allotted  me  a  small  patrimony, 
which,  joined  to  my  professional  income,  and  my  appointments 
in  the  characteristic  office  of  Sheriff  of  Ettrick  Forest,  serves 
to  render  my  literary  pursuits  more  a  matter  of  amusement 
than  an  object  of  emolument.  With  this  explanation,  I  hope 
you  will  honour  me  by  accepting  the  third  volume  as  soon  as 
published,  which  will  be  in  the  beginning  of  next  year,  and  I 
also  hope,  that  under  the  circumstances,  you  will  hold  me 
acquitted  of  the  silly  vanity  of  wishing  to  be  thought  a  gen- 
tleman-authar. 

"  The  ballad  of  the  Reiver's  Wedding  is  not  yet  written, 
but  I  have  finished  one  of  a  tragic  cast,  founded  upon  the 
death  of  Eegent  Murray,  who  was  shot  in  Linlithgow,  by 
James  Hamilton  of  Bothwellhaugh.  The  following  verses 
contain  the  catastrophe,  as  told  by  Hamilton  himself  to  his 
chief  and  his  kinsmen  :  — 

'  With  hackbut  bent,'  &c.  &c. 
*  *  *  *  * 


"  This  Bothwellhaugh  has  occupied  such  an  unwarrantable 
proportion  of  my  letter,  that  I  have  hardly  time  to  tell  you 
how  much  I  join  in  your  admiration  of  Tarn  o'  Shanter,  which 
I  verily  believe  to  be  inimitable,  both  in  the  serious  and  ludi 
crous  parts,  as  well  as  the  singularly  happy  combination  of 
ooth.  I  request  Miss  Seward  to  believe/'  &c. 


76  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  "  Reiver's  Wedding "  never  was  completed,  but 
I  have  found  two  copies  of  its  commencement,  and  I  shall 
make  no  apologies  for  inserting  here  what  seems  to  have 
been  the  second  one.  It  will  be  seen  that  he  had  meant 
to  mingle  with  Sir  William's  capture,  Auld  Wat's  Foray 
of  the  Bassened  Bull,  and  the  Feast  of  Spurs  ;  and  that, 
I  know  not  for  what  reason,  Lochwood,  the  ancient  for 
tress  of  the  Johnstones  in  Annandale,  has  been  substi 
tuted  for  the  real  locality  of  his  ancestor's  drum-head 
Wedding  Contract :  — 

THE  REIVER'S  WEDDING. 

0  will  ye  hear  a  mirthful  bourd? 

Or  will  ye  hear  of  courtesie  ? 
Or  will  ye  hear  how  a  gallant  lord 

Was  wedded  to  a  gay  ladye  ? 

"  Ca'  out  the  kye,"  quo  the  village  herd, 

As  he  stood  on  the  knowe, 
"  Ca'  this  ane's  nine  and  that  ane's  ten, 

And  bauld  Lord  William's  cow." 

"  Ah !  by  my  sooth,"  quoth  WiUiam  then, 

"  And  stands  it  that  way  now, 
When  knave  and  churl  have  nine  and  ten, 

That  the  Lord  has  but  his  cow? 

"  I  swear  by  the  light  of  the  Michaelmas  moon 

And  the  might  of  Mary  high, 
And  by  the  edge  of  my  braidsword  brown, 

They  shall  soon  say  Harden' s  kye." 

He  took  a  bugle  frae  his  side, 

With  names  carved  o'er  and  o'er  — 
Full  many  a  chief  of  meikle  pride, 

That  Border  bugle  bore  —  * 

*  This  celebrated  horn  is  still  in  the  possession  of  Lord  Pol  worth 


THE  REIVER'S  WEDDING  —  1802  77 

He  blew  a  note  baith  sharp  and  hie, 

Till  rock  and  water  rang  around  — 
Three  score  of  mosstroopers  and  three 

Have  mounted  at  that  bugle  sound. 

The  Michaelmas  moon  had  entered  then, 

And  ere  she  wan  the  full, 
Ye  might  see  by  her  light  in  Harden  glen 

A  bow  o'  kye  and  a  bassened  bull. 

And  loud  and  loud  in  Harden  tower 
The  quaigh  gaed  round  wi'  meikle  glee; 

For  the  English  beef  was  brought  in  bower, 
And  the  English  ale  flowed  merrJie. 

And  mony  a  guest  from  Teviotside 

And  Yarrow's  Braes  were  there; 
Was  never  a  lord  in  Scotland  wide 

That  made  more  dainty  fare. 

They  ate,  they  laugh' d,  they  sang  and  quaff 'd, 

Till  nought  on  board  was  seen, 
When  knight  and  squire  were  boune  to  dine, 

But  a  spur  of  silver  sheen. 

Lord  William  has  ta'en  his  berry  brown  steed  — 

A  sore  shent  man  was  he ; 
"  Wait  ye,  my  guests,  a  little  speed  — 

Weel  feasted  ye  shall  be." 

He  rode  him  down  by  Falsehope  burn, 

His  cousin  dear  to  see, 
With  him  to  take  a  riding  turn  — 

Wat-draw-the-sword  was  he. 

And  when  he  came  to  Falsehope  glen, 

Beneath  the  trysting  tree, 
On  the  smooth  green  was  carved  plain,* 

"  To  Lochwood  bound  are  we." 

»  "At  Linton,  in  Roxburghshire,  there  is  a  crrcle  of  stones  surround 
ing  a  smooth  plot  of  turf,  called  tne  Tryst,  or  place  of  appointment, 
which  tradition  avers  to  have  been  the  rendezvous  of  the  neighbour- 


78  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  0  if  they  be  gane  to  dark  Lochwood 

To  drive  the  Warden's  gear, 
Betwixt  our  names,  I  ween,  there's  feud: 

I'll  go  and  have  my  share: 

'•'  For  little  reck  I  for  Johnstone's  feud, 

The  Warden  though  he  be." 
So  Lord  William  is  away  to  dark  Lochwood. 

With  riders  barely  three. 

The  Warden's  daughters  in  Lochwood  sate, 

Were  all  both  fair  and  gay, 
All  save  the  Lady  Margaret, 

And  she  was  wan  and  wae. 

The  sister,  Jean,  had  a  full  fair  skin, 

And  Grace  was  bauld  and  braw ; 
But  the  leal-fast  heart  her  breast  within 

It  weel  was  worth  them  a'. 

Her  father 's  pranked  her  sisters  twa 

With  meikle  joy  and  pride; 
But  Margaret  maun  seek  Dundrennan's  wa'  — 

She  ne'er  can  be  a  bride. 

On  spear  and  casque  by  gallants  gent 

Her  sisters'  scarfs  were  borne, 
But  never  at  tilt  or  tournament 

Were  Margaret's  colours  worn. 

Her  sisters  rode  to  Thirlestane  bower, 

But  she  was  left  at  hame 
To  wander  round  the  gloomy  tower, 

And  sigh  young  Harden's  name. 

"  Of  all  the  knights,  the  knight  most  fair, 

From  Yarrow  to  the  Tyne," 
Soft  sighed  the  maid,  "  is  Harden's  heir, 

But  ne'er  can  he  be  mine; 

ing  warriors.  The  name  of  the  leader  was  cut  in  the  turf,  and  thf 
arrangement  of  the  letters  announced  to  his  followers  the  course  whicJJi 
ne  had  taken."  —  Introduction  to  the  Minstrelsy. 


"AULD  MAITLAND"  — 1802.  79 

"  Of  all  the  maids,  the  foulest  maid 

From  Teviot  to  the  Dee, 
Ah!  "  sighing  sad,  that  lady  said, 

"  Can  ne'er  young  Harden's  be  "  -  - 

She  looked  up  the  briery  glen,  N. 

And  up  the  mossy  brae, 
And  she  saw  a  score  of  her  father's  men 

Yclad  in  the  Johnstone  grey. 

0  fast  and  fast  they  downwards  sped 

The  moss  and  briers  among, 
And  in  the  midst  the  troopers  led 

A  shackled  knight  along. 


As  soon  as  the  autumn  vacation  set  Scott  at  liberty,  he 
proceeded  to  the  Borders  with  Leyden.  "  We  have  just 
concluded,"  he  tells  Ellis  on  his  return  to  Edinburgh, 
"  an  excursion  of  two  or  three  weeks  through  my  juris 
diction  of  Selkirkshire,  where,  in  defiance  of  mountains, 
rivers,  and  bogs  damp  and  dry,  we  have  penetrated  the 
very  recesses  of  Ettrick  Forest,  to  which  district  if  I 
ever  have  the  happiness  of  welcoming  you,  you  will  be 
convinced  that  I  am  truly  the  sheriff  of  the  *  cairn  and 
the  scaur.'  In  the  course  of  our  grand  tour,  besides  the 
risks  of  swamping  and  breaking  our  necks,  we  encoun 
tered  the  formidable  hardships  of  sleeping  upon  peat- 
stacks,  and  eating  mutton  slain  by  no  common  butcher, 
but  deprived  of  life  by  the  judgment  of  God,  as  a  coro 
ner's  inquest  would  express  themselves.  I  have,  how 
ever,  not  only  escaped  safe  *  per  varies  casus,  per  tot 
discrimina  rerum/  but  returned  loaded  with  the  treasures 
of  oral  tradition.  The  principal  result  of  our  inquiries 
has  been  a  complete  and  perfect  copy  of  '  Maitland  with 
his  Auld  Berd  Graie,'  referred  to  by  Douglas  in  hif 


80  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

'  Palice  of  Honour,'  along  with  John  the  Reef  and  othei 
popular  characters,  and  celebrated  also  in  the  poems  from 
Maitland  MS.  You  may  guess  the  surprise  of  Leyden 
and  myself  when  this  was  presented  to  us,  copied  down 
from  the  recitation  of  an  old  shepherd,  by  a  country 
farmer,  and  with  no  greater  corruptions  than  might  be 
supposed  to  be  introduced  by  the  lapse  of  time,  and  the 
ignorance  of  reciters.  I  don't  suppose  it  was  originally 
composed  later  than  the  days  of  Blind  Harry.  Many 
of  the  old  words  are  retained,  which  neither  the  reciter 
nor  the  copier  understood.  Such  are  the  military  en 
gines  sowies,  springwalls  (springalds),  and  many  others. 
Though  the  poetical  merit  of  this  curiosity  is  not  strik 
ing,  yet  it  has  an  odd  energy  and  dramatic  effect." 

A  few  weeks  later,  he  thus  answers  Ellis's  inquiries  as  to 
the  progress  of  the  Sir  Tristrem  :  —  "  The  worthy  knight 
is  still  in  embryo,  though  the  whole  poetry  is  printed. 
The  fact  is,  that  a  second  edition  of  the  Minstrelsy  has 
been  demanded  more  suddenly  than  I  expected,  and  has 
occupied  my  immediate  attention.  I  have  also  my  third 
volume  to  compile  and  arrange;  for  the  Minstrelsy  is 
now  to  be  completed  altogether  independent  of  the  preux 
chevalier,  who  might  hang  heavy  upon  its  skirts.  I  as 
sure  you  my  Continuation  is  mere  doggrel,  not  poetry  — 
it  is  argued  in  the  same  division  with  Thomas's  own  pro 
duction,  and  therefore  not  worth  sending.  However,  you 
may  depend  on  having  the  whole  long  before  publication. 
I  have  derived  much  information  from  Turner :  he  com 
bines  the  knowledge  of  the  Welsh  and  northern  author! 
ties,  and,  in  despite  of  a  most  detestable  Gibbonism,  his 
book  is  interesting.*  I  intend  to  study  the  Welsh  triads 

*  The  first  part  of  Mr.  Sharon  Turner's  History  of  the  Ang-lo-Sax- 
ms  was  published  in  1799 ;  the  second  in  1801. 


JOSEPH    KITSON  —  1802.  81 

before  I  finally  commit  myself  on  the  subject  of  Border 

poetry As  for  Mr.  Ritson,  he  and  I  still  continue 

on  decent  terms ;  and,  in  truth,  he  makes  patte  de  velours  ; 
but  I  dread  I  shall  see  *  a  whisker  first  and  then  a  claw ' 
stretched  out  against  my  unfortunate  lucubrations.  Bal- 
lantyne,  the  Kelso  printer,  who  has  a  book  of  his  in  hand, 
groans  in  spirit  over  the  peculiarities  of  his  orthography, 
which,  sooth  to  say,  hath  seldom  been  equalled  since  the 
days  of  Elphinstone,  the  ingenious  author  of  the  mode 
of  spelling  according  to  the  pronunciation,  which  he 
aptly  termed  '  Propriety  ascertained  in  her  Picture.'  I 
fear  the  remark  of  Festus  to  St.  Paul  might  be  more 
justly  applied  to  this  curious  investigator  of  antiquity, 
and  it  is  a  pity  such  research  should  be  rendered  useless 
by  the  infirmities  of  his  temper.  I  have  lately  had  from 
him  a  copie  of  '  Ye  litel  wee  Mon,'  of  which  I  think  I 
can  make  some  use.  In  return,  I  have  sent  him  a  sight 
of  Auld  Maitland,  the  original  MS.  If  you  are  curious, 
I  dare  say  you  may  easily  see  it.  Indeed,  I  might  easily 
send  you  a  transcribed  copy,  —  but  I  wish  him  to  see  it 
in  puris  naturalibus" 

Ritson  had  visited  Lasswade  in  the  course  of  this  au 
tumn,  and  his  conduct  had  been  such  as  to  render  the 
precaution  here  alluded  to  very  proper  in  the  case  of  one 
who,  like  Scott,  was  resolved  to  steer  clear  of  the  feuds 
and  heartburnings  that  gave  rise  to  such  scandalous 
scenes  among  the  other  antiquaries  of  the  day.  Leyden 
met  Ritson  at  the  cottage,  and,  far  from  imitating  his 
host's  forbearance,  took  a  pleasure  of  tormenting  the 
half-mad  pedant  by  every  means  in  his  power.  Among 
other  circumstances,  Scott  delighted  to  detail  the  scene 
that  occurred  when  his  two  uncouth  allies  first  met  at 
Dinner.  Well  knowing  Ritson's  holy  horror  of  all  animal 


82  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

food,  Ley  den  complained  that  the  joint  on  the  table  waa 
overdone.  "  Indeed,  for  that  matter,"  cried  he,  "  meat 
can  never  be  too  little  done,  and  raw  is  best  of  all."  He 
Bent  to  the  kitchen  accordingly  for  a  plate  of  literally  raw 
beef,  and  manfully  ate  it  up,  with  no  sauce  but  the  exqui 
site  ruefulness  of  the  Pythagorean's  glances. 

Mr.  Robert  Pierce  Gillies,  a  gentleman  of  the  Scotch 
bar,  well  known,  among  other  things,  for  some  excellent 
translations  from  the  German,  was  present  at  the  cottage 
another  day,  when  Ritson  was  in  Scotland.  He  has  de 
scribed  the  whole  scene  in  the  second  section  of  his 
"  Recollections  of  Sir  Walter  Scott,"  —  a  set  of  papers 
in  which  many  inaccurate  statements  occur,  but  which 
convey,  on  the  whole,  a  lively  impression  of  the  persons 
introduced.*  "  In  approaching  the  cottage,"  he  says,  "  I 
was  struck  with  the  exceeding  air  of  neatness  that  pre 
vailed  around.  The  hand  of  tasteful  cultivation  had 
been  there,  and  all  methods  employed  to  convert  an  ordi 
nary  thatched  cottage  into  a  handsome  and  comfortable 
abode.  The  doorway  was  in  an  angle  formed  by  the 
original  old  cabin  and  the  additional  rooms  which  had 
been  built  to  it.  In  a  moment  I  had  passed  through  the 
lobby,  and  found  myself  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Scott,  and  Mr.  William  Erskine.  At  this  early  period, 
Scott  was  more  like  the  portrait  by  Saxon,  engraved  for 
the  first  edition  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  than  to  any 
subsequent  picture.  He  retained  in  features  and  form 
an  impress  of  that  elasticity  and  youthful  vivacity,  which 
he  used  to  complain  wore  off  after  he  was  forty,  and  by 
his  own  account  was  exchanged  for  the  plodding  heavi 
ness  of  an  operose  student.  He  had  now,  indeed,  some- 

*  These  papers  appeared  in  Eraser's  Magazine  for  September,  No- 
feinber,  and  December  1835,  and  January  1836. 


LASSWADE  — 1802.  b3 

what  of  a  boyish  gaiety  of  look,  and  in  person  was  tall, 
glim,  and  extremely  active.  On  my  entrance,  he  was 
seated  at  a  table  near  the  window,  and  occupied  in  tran 
scribing  from  an  old  MS.  volume  into  his  commonplace 
book.  As  to  costume,  he  was  carelessly  attired  in  a 
widely-made  shooting-dress,  with  a  coloured  handker 
chief  round  his  neck ;  the  very  antithesis  of  style  usually 
adopted  either  by  student  or  barrister.  '  Hah  ! '  he  ex- 
claimed,  '  welcome,  thrice  welcome  !  for  we  are  just  pro 
posing  to  have  lunch,  and  then  a  long,  long  walk  through 
wood  and  wold,  in  which  I  am  sure  you  will  join  us. 
But  no  man  can  thoroughly  appreciate  the  pleasure  of 
such  a  life  who  has  not  known  what  it  is  to  rise  spiritless 
in  a  morning,  and  daidle  out  half  the  day  in  the  Parlia 
ment  House,  where  we  must  all  compear  within  anothei 
fortnight ;  then  to  spend  the  rest  of  one's  time  in  apply 
ing  proofs  to  condescendences,  and  hauling  out  papers  to 
bamboozle  judges,  most  of  whom  are  daized  enough  al 
ready.  What  say  you,  Counsellor  Erskine  ?  Come  — 
alia  guerra  —  rouse,  and  say  whether  you  are  for  a  walk 
to-day.'  — '  Certainly,  in  such  fine  weather  I  don't  see 
what  we  can  propose  better.  It  is  the  last  I  shall  see  of 
the  country  this  vacation.'  — l  Nay,  say  not  so,  man  ;  we 
shall  all  be  merry  twice  and  once  yet  before  the  evil  days 
arrive.'  — '  I'll  tell  you  what  I  have  thought  of  this  half- 
hour  :  it  is  a  plan  of  mine  to  rent  a  cottage  and  a  cab 
bage-garden  —  not  here,  but  somewhere  farther  out  of 
town,  and  never  again,  after  this  one  session,  to  enter  the 
Parliament  House.'  —  '  And  you'll  ask  Ritson,  perhaps/ 
said  Scott,  *  to  stay  with  you,  and  help  to  consume  the 
cabbages.  Rest  assured  we  shall  both  sit  on  the  bench 
one  day ;  but,  heigho !  we  shall  both  have  become  very 
old  and  philosophical  by  that  time.'  — '  Did  you  not  ex- 


84  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

pect  Lewis  here  this  morning  ? '  — '  Lewis,  1  venture  to 
say,  is  not  up  yet,  for  he  dined  at  Dalkeith  yesterday,  and 
of  course  found  the  wine  very  good.  Beside,  you  know,  I 
have  entrusted  him  with  Finetta  till  his  own  steed  gets 
well  of  a  sprain,  and  he  could  not  join  our  walking  ex 
cursion.  —  I  see  you  are  admiring  that  broken  sword,' 
he  added,  addressing  me,  'and  your  interest  would  in 
crease  if  you  knew  how  much  labour  was  required  to 
bring  it  into  my  possession.  In  order  to  grasp  that 
mouldering  weapon,  I  was  obliged  to  drain  the  well  at 
the  Castle  of  Dunnottar.  —  But  it  is  time  to  set  out ;  and 
here  is  one  friend '  (addressing  himself  to  a  large  dog) 
'  who  is  very  impatient  to  be  in  the  field.  He  tells  me 
he  knows  where  to  find  a  hare  in  the  woods  of  Mavis- 
bank.  And  here  is  another'  (caressing  a  terrier),  'who 
longs  to  have  a  battle  with  the  weazels  and  water-rats, 
and  the  foumart  that  wons  near  the  caves  of  Gorthy  :  so 
let  us  be  off.'" 

Mr.  Gillies  tells  us,  that  in  the  course  of  their  walk  to 
Rosslyn,  Scott's  foot  slipped,  as  he  was  scrambling  tow 
ards  a  cave  on  the  edge  of  a  precipitous  bank,  and  that, 
"  had  there  been  no  trees  in  the  way,  he  must  have  been 
killed,  but  midway  he  was  stopped  by  a  large  root  of 
hazel,  when,  instead  of "  struggling,  which  would  have 
made  matters  greatly  worse,  he  seemed  perfectly  resigned 
to  his  fate,  and  slipped  through  the  tangled  thicket  till  he 
lay  flat  on  the  river's  brink.  He  rose  in  an  instant  from 
his  recumbent  attitude,  and  with  a  hearty  laugh  called 
out,  '  Now,  let  me  see  who  else  will  do  the  like.'  He 
scrambled  up  the  cliff  with  alacrity,  and  entered  the  cave, 
where  we  had  a  long  dialogue." 

Even  after  he  was  an  old  and  hoary  man,  he  continu 
ally  encountered  such  risks  with  the  same  recklessness. 


R1TSON  LEYDEN.  8 

The  extraordinary  strength  of  his  hands  and  arms  was 
his  great  reliance  in  all  such  difficulties,  and  if  he  could 
Bee  anything  to  lay  hold  of,  he  was  afraid  of  no  leap, 
or  rather  hop,  that  came  in  his  way.  Mr.  Gillies  says, 
that  when  they  drew  near  the  famous  chapel  of  Rosslyn, 
Erskine  expressed  a  hope  that  they  might,  as  habitual 
visitors,  escape  hearing  the  usual  endless  story  of  the 
Billy  old  woman  that  showed  the  ruins ;  but  Scott  an 
swered,  "  There  is  a  pleasure  in  the  song  which  none 
but  the  songstress  knows,  and  by  telling  her  we  know 
it  all  already,  we  should  make  the  poor  devil  unhappy." 

On  their  return  to  the  cottage,  Scott  inquired  for  the 
learned  cabbage-eater,  meaning  Ritson,  who  had  been 
expected  to  dinner.  "  Indeed,"  answered  his  wife,  "  you 
may  be  happy  he  is  not  here,  he  is  so  very  disagreeable. 
Mr.  Leyden,  I  believe,  frightened  him  away."  It  turned 
out  that  it  was  even  so.  When  Ritson  appeared,  a  round 
of  cold  beef  was  on  the  luncheon-table,  and  Mrs.  Scott, 
forgetting  his  peculiar  creed,  offered  him  a  slice.  "  The 
antiquary,  in  his  indignation,  expressed  himself  in  such 
outrageous  terms  to  the  lady,  that  Leyden  first  tried  to 
correct  him  by  ridicule,  and  then,  on  the  madman  grow 
ing  more  violent,  became  angry  in  his  turn,  till  at  last 
he  threatened,  that  if  he  were  not  silent,  he  would  thraw 
his  neck.  Scott  shook  his  head  at  this  recital,  wlrch 
Leyden  observing,  grew  vehement  in  his  own  justifica 
tion.  Scott  said  not  a  word  in  reply,  but  took  up  a 
large  bunch  of  feathers  fastened  to  a  stick,  denominated 
a  duster,  and  shook  it  about  the  student's  ears,  till  he 
laughed  —  then  changed  the  subject." 

All  this  is  very  characteristic  of  the  parties.  Scott's 
playful  aversion  to  dispute  was  a  trait  in  his  mind  and 
manners  that  could  alone  have  enabled  him  to  make  use 


86  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

at  one  and  the  same  time,  and  for  the  same  purpose,  of 
two  such  persons  as  Ritson  and  Leyden. 

To  return  to  Ellis.  In  answer  to  Scott's  letter  last 
quoted,  he  urged  him  to  make  Sir  Tristrem  volume 
fourth  of  the  Minstrelsy.  "  As  to  his  hanging  heavy 
on  hand,"  says  he,  "  I  admit,  that  as  a  separate  publica 
tion  he  may  do  so,  but  the  Minstrelsy  is  now  established 
as  a  library  book,  and  in  this  bibliomaniac  age,  no  one 
would  think  it  perfect  without  the  preux  chevalier,  if  you 
avow  the  said  chevalier  as  your  adopted  son.  Let  him, 
at  least,  be  printed  in  the  same  size  and  paper,  and  then 
I  am  persuaded  our  booksellers  will  do  the  rest  fast 
enough,  upon  the  credit  of  your  reputation."  Scott  re 
plies  (November),  that  it  is  now  too  late  to  alter  the 
fate  of  Sir  Tristrem.  "  Longman,  of  Paternoster  Row, 
has  been  down  here  in  summer,  and  purchased  the 
copyright  of  the  Minstrelsy.  Sir  Tristrem  is  a  sepa 
rate  property,  but  will  be  on  the  same  scale  in  point 
of  size." 

The  next  letter  introduces  to  Ellis's  personal  acquaint 
ance  Leyden,  who  had  by  this  time  completed  his  medi 
cal  studies,  and  taken  his  degree  as  a  physician.  In 
it  Scott  says,  "  At  length  I  write  to  you  per  favour  of 
John  Leyden.  I  presume  Heber  has  made  you  suf 
ficiently  acquainted  with  this  original  (for  he  is  a  true 
one),  and  therefore  I  will  trust  to  your  own  kindness, 
should  an  opportunity  occur  of  doing  him  any  service 
in  furthering  his  Indian  plans.  You  will  readily  judge, 
from  conversing  with  him,  that  with  a  very  uncommon 
stock  of  acquired  knowledge,  he  wants  a  good  deal  of 
another  sort  of  knowledge  —  which  is  only  to  be  gleaned 
from  an  early  intercourse  with  polished  society.  But  he 
dances  his  bear  with  a  good  confidence,  and  the  beai 


ELLIS  —  LETDEN.  87 

is  a  very  good-natured  and  well-conditioned  animal. 
All  his  friends  are  much  interested  about  him,  as  the 
qualities  both  of  his  heart  and  head  are  very  uncommon." 
He  adds  —  "  My  third  volume  will  appear  as  soon  after 
the  others  as  the  despatch  of  the  printers  will  admit 
Some  parts  will,  I  think,  interest  you ;  particularly  the 
preservation  of  the  entire  Auld  Maitland  by  oral  tradi 
tion,  probably  from  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  or  III.  As  I 
have  never  met  with  such  an  instance,  I  must  request  you 
to  inquire  all  about  it  of  Leyden,  who  was  with  me  when  I 
received  my  first  copy.  In  the  third  volume  I  intend  to 
publish  Oadyow  Castle,  a  historical  sort  of  a  ballad  upon 
the  death  of  the  Regent  Murray,  and  besides  this,  a  long 
poem  of  my  own.  It  will  be  a  kind  of  romance  of  Bor 
der  chivalry,  in  a  light-horseman  sort  of  stanza." 

He  appears  to  have  sent  a  copy  of  Cadyow  Castle  by 
Leyden,  whose  reception  at  Mr.  Ellis's  villa,  near  Wind 
sor,  is  thus  described  in  the  next  letter  of  the  correspond 
ence  :  —  "  Let  me  thank  you,"  says  Ellis,  "  for  your 
poem,  which  Mrs.  E.  has  not  received,  and  which,  indeed, 
I  could  not  help  feeling  glad,  in  the  first  instance  (though 
we  now  begin  to  grow  very  impatient  for  it),  that  she  did 
not  receive.  Leyden  would  not  have  been  your  Ley 
den  if  he  had  arrived  like  'a  careful  citizen,  with  all  his 
packages  carefully  docketed  in  his  portmanteau.  If  on 
the  point  of  leaving  for  many  years,  perhaps  for  ever,  his 
country  and  the  friends  of  his  youth,  he  had  not  deferred 
to  the  last,  and  till  it  was  too  late,  all  that  could  be  easily 
done,  and  that  stupid  people  find  time  to  do  —  if  he  had 
not  airived  with  all  his  ideas  perfectly  bewildered  —  and 
tired  to  death,  and  sick  —  and  without  any  settled  plans 
for  futurity,  or  any  accurate  recollection  of  the  past  —  we 
should  have  felt  much  more  disappointed  than  we  were 


88  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

by  the  non*  arrival  of  your  poem,  which  he  assured  us  he 
remembered  to  have  left  somewhere  or  other,  and  there 
fore  felt  very  confident  of  recovering.  In  short,  his 
whole  air  and  countenance  told  us, —  'I  am  come  to  be 
one  of  your  friends;  and  we  immediately  took  bloa  at 
his  word." 

By  the  "  romance  of  Border  chivalry,"  which  was  de 
signed  to  form  part  of  the  third  volume  of  the  Minstrelsy, 
the  reader  is  to  understand  the  first  draught  of  The  Lay 
of  the  Last  Minstrel;  and  the  author's  desciiption  of  it  as 
being  "  in  a  light-horseman  sort  of  stanza,"  was  probably 
suggested  by  the  circumstances  under  which  the  greater 
part  of  that  original  draught  was  composed.  He  has  told 
us,  in  his  Introduction  of  1830,  that  the  poem  originated 
in  a  request  of  the  young  and  lovely  Countess  of  Dal- 
keith,  that  he  would  write  a  ballad  on  the  legend  of  Gil- 
pin  Horner  :  that  he  began  it  at  Lasswade,  and  read  the 
opening  stanzas,  as  soon  as  they  were  written,  to  his 
friends,  Erskine  and  Cranstoun :  that  their  reception  of 
these  was  apparently  so  cold  as  to  discourage  him,  and 
disgust  him  with  what  he  had  done ;  but  that  finding,  a 
few  days  afterwards,  that  the  stanzas  had  nevertheless 
excited  their  curiosity,  and  haunted  their  memory,  he  was 
encouraged  to  resume  the  undertaking.  The  scene  and 
date  of  this  resumption  1  owe  to  the  recollection  of  the 
then  Cornet  of  the  Edinburgh  light-horse.  While  the 
troop  were  on  permanent  duty  at  Musselburgh,  in  the 
autumnal  recess  of  1802,  the  Quarter-master,  during 
a  charge  on  Portobello  sands,  received  a  kick  of  a 
horse,  which  confined  him  for  three  days  to  his  lodgings. 
Mr.  Skene  found  him  busy  with  his  pen  ;  and  he  pro 
duced  before  these  three  days  expired  the  first  canto  of 
the  Lay,  very  nearly,  if  his  friend's  memory  may  be 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS JANUARY    1803.  89 

trusted,  in  the  state  in  which  it  was  ultimately  published, 
That  the  whole  poem  was  sketched  and  filled  in  with  ex 
traordinary  rapidity,  there  can  be  no  difficulty  in  believ 
ing.  He  himself  says  (in  the  Introduction  of  1830) 5  that 
after  he  had  once  got  fairly  into  the  vein,  it  proceeded  at 
the  rate  of  about  a  canto  in  a  week.  The  Lay,  however, 
like  the  Tristrem,  soon  outgrew  the  dimensions  which  he 
had  originally  contemplated ;  the  design  of  including  it  in 
the  third  volume  of  the  Minstrelsy  was  of  course  aban 
doned  ;  and  it  did  not  appear  until  nearly  three  years 
after  that  fortunate  mishap  on  the  beach  of  Portobello. 

To  return  to  Scott's  correspondence :  —  it  shows  that 
Ellis  had,  although  involved  at  the  time  in  serious  family 
afflictions,  exerted  himself  strenuously  and  effectively  in 
behalf  of  Leyden;  a  service  which  Scott  acknowledges 
most  warmly.  His  friend  writes,  too,  at  great  length, 
about  the  completion  of  the  Minstrelsy,  urging,  in  partic 
ular,  the  propriety  of  prefixing  to  it  a  good  map  of  the 
Scottish  Border  —  "  for,  in  truth,"  he  says,  "  I  have 
never  been  able  to  find  even  Ercildoune  on  any  map  in 
my  possession."  The  poet  answers  (January  30,  1803) 
—  "  The  idea  of  a  map  pleases  me  much,  but  there  are 
two  strong  objections  to  its  being  prefixed  to  this  edition. 
First,  we  shall  be  out  in  a  month,  within  which  time  it 
would  be  difficult,  I  apprehend,  for  Mr.  Arrowsmith,  la 
bouring  under  the  disadvantages  which  I  am  about  t< 
mention,  to  complete  the  map.  Secondly,  you  are  to 
know  that  I  am  an  utter  stranger  to  geometry,  surveying, 
and  all  such  inflammatory  branches  of  study,  as  Mrs. 
Malaprop  calls  them.  My  education  was  unfortunately 
interrupted  by  a  long  indisposition,  which  occasioned  my 
residing  for  about  two  years  in  the  country  with  a  good 
maiden  aunt,  who  permitted  and  encouraged  me  to  run 


90  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

about  the  fields,  as  wild  as  any  buck  that  ever  fled  from 
the  face  of  man.  Hence  my  geographical  knowledge  is 
merely  practical,  and  though  I  think  that  in  the  South 
country,  '  I  could  be  a  guide  worth  ony  twa  that  may  in 
Liddesdale  be  found,'  yet  I  believe  Hobby  Noble,  or  Kin- 
mont  Willie,  would  beat  me  at  laying  down  a  map.  1 
have,  however,  sense  enough  to  see  that  our  mode  of  ex 
ecuting  maps  in  general  is  anything  but  perfect.  The 
country  is  most  inaccurately  defined,  and  had  your  Gen 
eral  (Wade)  marched  through  Scotland  by  the  assistance 
of  Ainslie's  map,  his  flying  artillery  would  soon  have 
stuck  fast  among  our  morasses,  and  his  horse  broke  their 
knees  among  our  cairns.  Your  system  of  a  bird's-eye 
view  is  certainly  the  true  principle."  He  goes  on  to 
mention  some  better  maps  than  Ellis  seemed  to  have  con 
sulted,  and  to  inform  him  where  he  may  discover  Ercil- 
doune,  under  its  modern  form  of  Earlston,  upon  the  river 
Leader  ;  and  concludes,  "  the  map  then  must  be  deferred 
until  the  third  edition,  about  which,  I  suppose,  Longman 
thinks  courageously."  He  then  adds  —  "I  am  almost 
glad  Cadyow  Castle  is  miscarried,  as  I  have  rather  lost 
conceit  of  it  at  present,  being  engaged  on  what  I  think 
will  be  a  more  generally  interesting  legend.  I  have 
called  it  the  '  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel/  and  put  it  in  the 
mouth  of  an  old  bard,  who  is  supposed  to  have  survived 
all  his  brethren,  and  to  have  lived  down  to  1690.  The 
thing  itself  will  be  very  long,  but  I  would  willingly  have 
Bent  you  the  Introduction,  had  you  been  still  in  possession 
of  your  senatorial  privilege  ; — but  double  postage  would 
be  a  strange  innovation  on  the  established  price  of  bal 
lads,  which  have  always  sold  at  the  easy  rate  of  one  half 
penny." 

I  must  now  give  part  of  a  letter  in  which  Ley  den  re- 


VERSES    BY    LETDEN — JANUARY   1803.  91 

curs  to  the  kindness,  and  sketches  the  person  and  man 
ners  of  George  Ellis,  in  a  highly  characteristic  fashion. 
He  says  to  Scott  (January  25,  1803)  —  «  You  were,  no 
doubt,  surprised,  my  dear  sir,  that  I  gave  you  so  litfle  in 
formation  about  my  movements ;  but  it  is  only  this  day 
T  have  been  able  to  speak  of  them  with  any  precision. 
Fuch  is  the  tardiness  in  everything  connected  with  the 
India  House,  that  a  person  who  is  present  in  the  char 
acter  of  spectator  is  quite  amazed ;  but  if  we  consider  it 
as  the  centre  of  a  vast  commercial  concern,  in  comparison 
of  which  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  Great  Carthage  itself, 
must  inevitably  dwindle  into  huckster  shops,  we  are  in 
duced  to  think  of  them  with  more  patience.  Even  yet 
I  cannot  answer  you  exactly  —  being  very  uncertain 
whether  I  am  to  sail  on  the  18th  of  next  month,  or  the 
23th. 


"  Now  shal  i  telen  to  ye,  i  wis, 
Of  that  kind  Squeyere  Ellis, 

That  wonnen  in  this  cite" ; 
Courtess  he  is,  by  God  almizt! 
That  he  nis  nought  ymaked  knizt 

It  is  the  more  pitie. 

2. 

'  He  konnen  better  eche  glewe 
Than  I  konnen  to  ye  shewe, 

Baith  maist  and  least. 
So  wel  he  wirketh  in  eche  thewe 
That  where  he  commen,  I  tell  ye  trewe 
He  is  ane  welcome  guest. 


*  His  eyen  graye  as  glas  ben, 
And  his  looks  ben  alto  kene, 
Loveliche  to  paramour. 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Brown  as  acorn  ben  his  faxe, 
His  face  is  thin  as  bettel  axe 
That  dealeth  dintis  doure. 


•*  His  wit  ben  both  keene  and  sharpe, 
To  knizt  or  dame  that  carll  can  carps 

Either  in  hall  or  bower; 
And  had  I  not  this  squeyere  yfonde, 
I  had  been  at  the  se-gronde, 

Which  had  been  great  doloure. 

5. 

"  In  him  Ich  finden  non  other  euil, 
Save  that  his  nostril  so  doth  snivel 

It  is  not  myche  my  choice. 
But  than  his  wit  ben  so  perquire, 
That  thai  who  can  his  carpynge  hew 
Thai  thynke  not  of  his  voice. 


•*  To  speake  not  of  his  gentel  dame 
Ich  wis  it  war  bothe  sin  and  shame 

Lede  is  not  to  layne ; 
She  is  a  ladye  of  sich  pryce 
To  leven  in  that  dame's  service 

Meni  wer  fill  fain. 

7. 

"  Hir  wit  is  fill  kene  and  queynt, 
And  hir  stature  smale  and  gent, 

Semeleche  to  be  scene ; 
Annes,  hondes,  and  fingres  smale, 
Of  pearl  beth  eche  fingre  nale ; 
She  mizt  be  ferys  Quene. 

8. 

*  That  lady  she  wil  giv  a  scarf 
To  him  that  wold  ykillen  a  dwarf 

Churle  of  Paynim  kinde ; 

That  dwarf  he  is  so  fell  of  mode, 

Tho  ye  shold  drynk  his  hert  blode, 

Gode  wold  ze  never  finde. 


LETTER    FROM    LEYDEN APRIL    1803. 


"  That  dwarf  he  ben  beardless  and  bare 
And  weaselblowen  ben  al  his  hair, 

Like  an  ympe  or  elfe ; 
And  in  this  world  beth  al  and  hale 
Ben  nothynge  that  he  loveth  an  dele 

Safe  his  owen  selfe  " 

The  fourth  of  these  verses  refers  to  the  loss  of  the 
Hindostan,  in  which  ship  Leyden,  but  for  Mr.  Ellis'a 
interference,  must  have  sailed,  and  which  foundered  in 
the  Channel.  The  dwarf  is,  of  course,  Bitson. 

After  various  letters  of  the  same  kind,  I  find  one, 
dated  Isle  of  Wight,  April  the  1st  (1803),  the  morning 
before  Leyden  finally  sailed.  "  I  have  been  two  days 
on  board,"  he  writes,  "  and  you  may  conceive  what  an 
excellent  change  I  made  from  the  politest  society  of 
London  to  the  brutish  skippers  of  Portsmouth.  Our 
crew  consists  of  a  very  motley  party;  but  there  are 
some  of  them  very  ingenious,  and  Robert  Smith,  Syd 
ney's  brother,  is  himself  a  host.  He  is  almost  the  most 
powerful  man  I  have  met  with.  —  My  money  concerns 
I  shall  consider  you  as  trustee  of;  and  all  remittances, 
as  well  as  dividends  from  Longman,  will  be  to  your  di- 
lection.  These,  I  hope,  we  shall  soon  be  able  to  adjust 
very  accurately.  Money  may  be  paid,  but  kindness 
never.  Assure  your  excellent  Charlotte,  whom  I  shall 
over  recollect  with  affection  and  esteem,  how  much  I 
regret  that  I  did  not  see  her  before  my  departure,  and 
Bay  a  thousand  pretty  things,  for  which  my  mind  is  too 
much  agitated,  being  in  the  situation  of  Coleridge's  devil 
and  his  grannam,  '  expecting  and  hoping  the  trumpet  to 
blow.'  *  And  now,  my  dear  Scott,  adieu.  Think  of  me 

*  This  is  a  line  of  Coleridge's  jew  cFesprit  on  Mackintosh. 


94  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

with  indulgence,  and  be  certain,  that  wherever,  and  in 
whatever  situation,  John  Leyden  is,  his  heart  is  un 
changed  by  place,  and  his  soul  by  time." 

This  letter  was  received  by  Scott,  not  in  Edinburgh, 
but  in  London.  He  had  hurried  up  to  town  as  soon  as 
the  Court  of  Session  rose  for  the  spring  vacation,  in 
hopes  of  seeing  his  friend  once  more  before  he  lef 
England ;  but  he  came  too  late.  He  had,  however 
done  his  part :  he  had  sent  Leyden  £50,  through  Messrs. 
Longman,  a  week  before  ;  and  on  the  back  of  that  bill 
there  is  the  following  memorandum  :  —  "  Dr.  Leyden's 
total  debt  to  me  £150  ;  he  also  owes  £50  to  my 
uncle." 

He  thus  writes  to  Ballantyne,  on  the  21st  April 
1803:  —  "I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  accuracy  with 
which  the  Minstrelsy  is  thrown  off.  Longman  and 
Rees  are  delighted  with  the  printing.  Be  so  good  as 
to  disperse  the  following  presentation  copies,  with  '  From 
the  Editor '  on  each  :  — 

James  Hogg,  Ettrick  House,  care  of  Mr.  Oliver,  Ha- 
wick  —  by  the  carrier  —  a  complete  set. 

Thomas  Scott  (my  brother),  ditto. 

Colin  Mackenzie,  Esq.,  Prince's  Street,  third  volume 
only. 

Mrs.  Scott,  George  Street,  ditto. 

Dr.  Rutherford,  York  Place,  ditto. 

Captain  Scott,  Rosebank,  ditto. 

I  mean  all  these  to  be  ordinary  paper.  Send  one  set 
fine  paper  to  Dalkeith  House,  addressed  to  the  Duchess  • 
Another,  by  the  Inverary  carrier,  to  Lady  Charlotte 
Campbell;  the  remaining  ten,  fine  paper,  with  any  of 
Vol.  III.  which  may  be  on  fine  paper,  to  be  sent  to  me 


LONDON  —  APRIL    1803. 

6y  sea.  I  think  they  will  give  you  some  eclat  here, 
where  printing  is  so  much  valued.  I  have  settled  about 
printing  an  edition  of  the  Lay,  8vo.  with  vignettes,  pro 
vided  I  can  get  a  draughtsman  whom  I  think  well  of. 
We  may  throw  off  a  few  superb  in  quarto.  To  the 
Minstrelsy  I  mean  this  note  to  be  added,  by  way  of  ad 
vertisement  :  — '  In  the  press,  and  will  speedily  be  pub 
lished,  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  by  Walter  Scott, 
Esq.,  Editor  of  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border. 
Also,  Sir  Tristrem,  a  Metrical  Romance,  by  Thomas  of 
Ercildoune,  called  the  Rhymer,  edited  from  an  ancient 
MS.,  with  an  Introduction  and  Notes,  by  Walter  Scott, 
Esq.'  Will  you  cause  such  a  thing  to  be  appended  in 
your  own  way  and  fashion?" 

This  letter  is  dated  "No.  15,  Piccadilly  West,"  — he 
and  Mrs.  Scott  being  there  domesticated  under  the  roof 
of  the  late  M.  Charles  Dumergue,  a  man  of  very  su 
perior  abilities  and  of  excellent  education,  well  known 
as  surgeon -dentist  to  the  royal  family  —  who  had  been 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  Charpentiers  in  his  own 
early  life  in  France,  and  had  warmly  befriended  Mrs. 
Scott's  mother  on  her  first  arrival  in  England.  M. 
Dumergue's  house  was,  throughout  the  whole  period  of 
the  emigration,  liberally  opened  to  the  exiles  of  his  na 
tive  country ;  nor  did  some  of  the  noblest  of  those  un 
fortunate  refugees  scruple  to  make  a  free  use  of  his 
purse,  as  well  as  of  his  hospitality.  Here  Scott  met 
much  highly  interesting  French  society,  and  until  a  child 
of  his  own  was  established  in  London,  he  never  thought 
of  taking  up  his  abode  anywhere  else,  as  often  as  he  had 
occasion  to  be  in  town. 

The  letter  is  addressed  to  "Mr.  James  Ballantyne, 
printer,  Abbey-hill,  Edinburgh ; "  which  shows,  that  be* 


96  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

fore  the  third  volume  of  the  Minstrelsy  passed  through 
the  press,  the  migration  recommended  two  years  earlier 
had  at  length  taken  place.  "  It  was  about  the  end  of 
1802,"  says  Ballantyne  in  his  Memorandum,  "  that  I 
closed  with  a  plan  so  congenial  to  my  wishes.  I  re 
moved,  bag  and  baggage,  to  Edinburgh,  finding  accom 
modation  for  two  presses,  and  a  proof  one,  in  the  pre 
cincts  of  Holyrood-house,  then  deriving  new  lustre  and 
interest  from  the  recent  arrival  of  the  royal  exiles  of 
France.  In  these  obscure  premises  some  of  the  most 
beautiful  productions  of  what  we  called  The  Border 
Press  were  printed."  The  Memorandum  states,  that 
Scott  having  renewed  his  hint  as  to  pecuniary  assist 
ance,  as  soon  as  the  printer  found  his  finances  straitened, 
"  a  liberal  loan  was  advanced  accordingly."  Of  course 
Scott's  interest  was  constantly  exerted  in  procuring 
employment,  both  legal  and  literary,  for  his  friend's 
types. 

Heber,  and  Mackintosh,  then  at  the  height  of  his  rep 
utation  as  a  conversationist,  and  daily  advancing  also  at 
the  Bar,  had  been  ready  to  welcome  Scott  in  town  as  old 
friends ;  and  Rogers,  William  Stewart  Rose,  and  several 
other  men  of  literary  eminence,  were  at  the  same  time 
added  to  the  list  of  his  acquaintance.  His  principal 
object,  however  —  having  missed  Leyden  —  was  to  pe 
ruse  and  make  extracts  from  some  MSS.  in  the  library 
of  John  Duke  of  Roxburghe,  for  the  illustration  of  the 
Tristrem ;  and  he  derived  no  small  assistance  in  other 
researches  of  the  like  kind  from  the  collections  which  the 
indefatigable  and  obliging  Douce  placed  at  his  disposal 
Having  completed  these  labours,  he  and  Mrs.  Scott  went, 
with  Heber  and  Douce,  to  Sunninghill,  where  they  spent 
a  happy  week,  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ellis  heard  the  first  tw« 


LONDON    AND    OXFORD  —  MAY   1803.  97 

w  three  cantos  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  read 
under  an  old  oak  in  Windsor  Forest. 

I  should  not  omit  to  say,  that  Scott  was  attended  on 
this  trip  by  a  very  large  and  fine  bull-terrier,  by  name 
Camp,  and  that  Camp's  master,  and  mistress  too,  were 
delighted  by  finding  that  the  Ellises  cordially  sympa 
thized  in  their  fondness  for  this  animal,  and  indeed  for 
all  his  race.  At  parting,  Scott  promised  to  send  one 
of  Camp's  progeny,  in  the  course  of  the  season,  to  Sun- 
ninghill. 

From  thence  they  proceeded  to  Oxford,  accompanied 
by  Heber ;  and  it  was  on  this  occasion,  as  I  believe,  that 
Scott  first  saw  his  friend's  brother,  Reginald,  in  afterdays 
the  apostolic  Bishop  of  Calcutta.  He  had  just  been  de 
clared  the  successful  competitor  for  that  year's  poetical 
prize,  and  read  to  Scott  at  breakfast,  in  Brazen  Nose 
College,  the  MS.  of  his  "Palestine."  Scott  observed 
that,  in  the  verses  on  Solomon's  Temple,  one  striking 
circumstance  had  escaped  him,  namely,  that  no  tools 
were  used  in  its  erection.  Reginald  retired  for  a  few 
minutes  to  the  corner  of  the  room,  and  returned  with  the 
beautiful  lines,  — 

"  No  hammer  fell,  no  ponderous  axes  rung, 
Like  some  tall  palm  the  mystic  fabric  sprung. 
Majestic  silence,"  &c.* 

After  inspecting  the  University  and  Blenheim,  under 
she  guidance  of  the  Hebers,  Scott  returned  to  London,  as 
appears  from  the  following  letter  to  Miss  Seward,  who 
had  been  writing  to  him  on  the  subject  of  her  projected 
biography  of  Dr.  Darwin*  The  conclusion  and  date  are 
lost :  — 

*  See  "  Life  of  Bishop  Heber,  by  his  Widow,"  edition  1830,  vol.  i 
t>.  30. 

VOL.   II.  7 


98  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  I  have  been  for  about  a  fortnight  in  this  huge  and  bustling 
metropolis,  when  I  am  agreeably  surprised  by  a  packet  from 
Edinburgh,  containing  Miss  Seward's  letter.  I  am  truly  happy 
at  the  information  it  communicates  respecting  the  life  of  Dr. 
Darwin,  who  could  not  have  wished  his  fame  and  character  in 
trusted  to  a  pen  more  capable  of  doing  them  ample,  and,  above 
all,  discriminating  justice.  Biography,  the  most  interesting 
perhaps  of  every  species  of  composition,  loses  all  its  interest 
with  me,  when  the  shades  and  lights  of  the  principal  character 
are  not  accurately  and  faithfully  detailed ;  nor  have  I  much 
patience  with  such  exaggerated  daubing  as  Mr.  Hayley  has 
bestowed  upon  poor  Cowper.  I  can  no  more  sympathize  with 
a  mere  eulogist,  than  I  can  with  a  ranting  hero  upon  the  stage ; 
and  it  unfortunately  happens  that  some  of  our  disrespect  is  apt, 
rather  unjustly,  to  be  transferred  to  the  subject  of  the  pane 
gyric  in  the  one  case,  and  to  poor  Cato  in  the  other.  Unap 
prehensive  that  even  friendship  can  bias  Miss  Seward's  duty 
to  the  public,  I  shall  wait  most  anxiously  for  the  volume  her 
kindness  has  promised  me. 

"  As  for  my  third  volume,  it  was  very  nearly  printed  when  I 
left  Edinburgh,  and  must,  I  think,  be  ready  for  publication  in 
about  a  fortnight,  when  it  will  have  the  honour  of  travelling  to 
Lichfield.  I  doubt  you  will  find  but  little  amusement  in  it,  as 
there  are  a  good  many  old  ballads,  particularly  those  of  *  the 
Covenanters,'  which,  in  point  of  composition,  are  mere  drivel 
ling  trash.  They  are,  however,  curious  in  an  historical  point 
of  view,  and  have  enabled  me  to  slide  in  a  number  of  notes 
about  that  dark  and  bloody  period  of  Scottish  history.  There 
is  a  vast  convenience  to  an  editor  in  a  tale  upon  which,  without 
the  formality  of  adapting  the  notes  very  precisely  to  the  shape 
and  form  of  the  ballad,  he  may  hang  on  a  set  like  a  herald's 
coat  without  sleeves,  saving  himself  the  trouble  of  taking  meas 
ure,  and  sending  forth  the  tale  of  ancient  time,  ready  equipped 
from  the  Monmouth  Street  warehouse  of  a  commonplace  book. 
Cadyow  Castle  is  to  appear  in  volume  third. 

" 1  proceeded  thus  far  about  three  weeks  ago,  and 

lhame  to  tell,  have  left  my  epistle  unfinished  ever  since ;  yet  I 


LONDON    AND    OXFORD MAY    1803.  9 

nave  not  been  wholly  idle,  about  a  fortnight  of  that  period 
having  been  employed  as  much  to  my  satisfaction  as  any 
similar  space  of  time  during  my  life.  I  was,  the  first  week  of 
that  fortnight,  with  my  invaluable  friend  George  Ellis,  and 
spent  the  second  week  at  Oxford,  which  I  visited  for  the  first 
time.  I  was  peculiarly  fortunate  in  having  for  my  patron  at 
Oxford,  Mr.  Heber,  a  particular  friend  of  mine,  who  is  inti 
mately  acquainted  with  all,  both  animate  and  inanimate,  that 
is  worth  knowing  at  Oxford.  The  time,  though  as  much  as  I 
could  possibly  spare,  has,  I  find,  been  too  short  to  convey  to 
me  separate  and  distinct  ideas  of  all  the  variety  of  wonders 
which  I  saw.  My  memory  only  at  present  furnishes  a  grand 
but  indistinct  picture  of  towers,  and  chapels,  and  oriels,  and 
vaulted  halls,  and  libraries,  and  paintings.  I  hope,  in  a  little 
time,  my  ideas  will  develope  themselves  a  little  more  distinctly, 
otherwise  I  shall  have  profited  little  by  my  tour.  I  was  much 
flattered  by  the  kind  reception  and  notice  I  met  with  from 
some  of  the  most  distinguished  inhabitants  of  the  halls  of  Isis, 
which  was  more  than  such  a  truant  to  the  classic  page  as  my 
self  was  entitled  to  expect  at  the  source  of  classic  learning. 

"  On  my  return,  I  find  an  apologetic  letter  from  my  printer, 
saying  the  third  volume  will  be  despatched  in  a  day  or  two. 
There  has  been,  it  seems,  a  meeting  among  the  printers' 
devils ;  also  among  the  paper-makers.  I  never  heard  of 
authors  striking  work,  as  the  mechanics  call  it,  until  their 
masters  the  booksellers  should  increase  their  pay ;  but  if  such 
a  combination  could  take  place,  the  revolt  would  now  be 
general  in  all  branches  of  literary  labour.  How  much  sincere 
satisfaction  would  it  give  me  could  I  conclude  this  letter  (as  I 
once  hoped),  by  saying  I  should  visit  Lichfield,  and  pay  my 
personal  respects  to  my  invaluable  correspondent  in  my  way 
northwards ;  but  as  circumstances  render  this  impossible,  I 
shall  depute  the  poetry  of  the  olden  time  in  the  editor's  stead. 
My  '  Romance '  is  not  yet  finished.  I  prefer  it  much  to  any 
thing  I  have  done  of  the  kind."  .... 

He  was  in  Edint  urgh  by  the  middle  of  May ;  and  thus 


100  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

returns  to  his  view  of  Oxford  in  a  letter  to  his  friend  at 
Sunninghill :  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq.,  frc.  frc. 

"  Edinburgh,  25th  May  1803. 

"'  My  Dear  Ellis,  — ....  I  was  equally  delighted  with  that 
venerable  seat  of  learning,  and  flattered  by  the  polite  atten 
tion  of  Heber's  friends.  I  should  have  been  enchanted  to  have 
spent  a  couple  of  months  among  the  curious  libraries.  What 
stores  must  be  reserved  for  some  painful  student  to  bring  for 
ward  to  the  public !  Under  the  guidance  and  patronage  of 
our  good  Heber,  I  saw  many  of  the  literary  men  of  his  Alma 
Mater,  and  found  matters  infinitely  more  active  in  every  de 
partment  than  I  had  the  least  previous  idea  of.  Since  I 
returned  home,  my  time  has  been  chiefly  occupied  in  profes 
sional  labours ;  my  truant  days  spent  in  London  having  thrown 
me  a  little  behind ;  but  now,  I  hope,  I  shall  find  spare  moments 
to  resume  Sir  Tristrem  —  and  the  Lay,  which  has  acquired 
additional  value  in  my  estimation  from  its  pleasing  you.  How 
often  do  Charlotte  and  I  think  of  the  little  paradise  at  Sun 
ninghill  and  its  kind  inhabitants ;  and  how  do  we  regret,  like 
Dives,  the  gulf  which  is  placed  betwixt  us  and  friends,  with 
whom  it  would  give  us  such  pleasure  to  spend  much  of  our 
tune.  It  is  one  of  the  vilest  attributes  of  the  best  of  all  possible 
worlds,  that  it  contrives  to  split  and  separate  and  subdivide 
everything  like  congenial  pursuits  and  habits,  for  the  paltry 
purpose,  one  would  think,  of  diversifying  every  little  spot  with 
a  share  of  its  various  productions.  I  don't  know  why  the 
human  and  vegetable  departments  should  differ  so  excessively. 
Oaks  and  beeches,  and  ashes  and  elms,  not  to  mention  cab 
bages  and  turnips,  are  usually  arrayed  en  masse  ;  but  where 
do  we  meet  a  town  of  antiquaries,  a  village  of  poets,  or  a  ham 
let  of  philosophers  ?  But,  instead  of  fruitless  lamentations,  we 
fincerely  hope  Mrs.  Ellis  and  you  will  unrivet  yourselves  from 
your  forest,  and  see  how  the  hardy  blasts  of  our  mountains  wiH 
tuit  you  for  a  change  of  climate The  new  edition 


THE    MINSTRELSY    OOMP^ETEjD  —  lfcO&  /          101 

vf  i  Minstrelsy '  is  published  here,  but  not  in  London  as  yet, 
owing  to  the  embargo  on  our  shipping.  An  invasion  is  ex 
pected  from  Flushing,  and  no  measures  of  any  kind  taken  to 
prevent  or  repel  it.  Yours  ever  faithfully, 

"W.  SCOTT." 

This  letter  enclosed  a  sheet  of  extracts  from  Fordun, 
in  Scott's  handwriting ;  the  subject  being  the  traditional 
marriage  of  one  of  the  old  Counts  of  Anjou  with  a  female 
demon,  by  which  the  Scotch  chronicler  accounts  for  all 
the  crimes  and  misfortunes  of  the  English  Plantagenets. 

Messrs.  Longman's  new  edition  of  the  first  two  volumes 
of  the  Minstrelsy  consisted  of  1000  copies  —  of  volume 
third  there  were  1500.  A  complete  edition  of  1250 
copies  followed  in  1806  ;  a  fourth,  also  of  1250,  in  1810; 
a  fifth,  of  1500,  in  1812 ;  a  sixth,  of  500,  in  1820 ;  and 
since  then  it  has  been  incorporated  in  various  successive 
editions  of  Scott's  Collected  Poetry  —  to  the  extent  of 
at  least  15,000  copies  more.  Of  the  Continental  and 
American  editions  I  can  say  nothing,  except  that  they 
have  been  very  numerous.  The  book  was  soon  trans 
lated  into  German,  Danish,  and  Swedish ;  and,  the  struc 
ture  of  those  languages  being  very  favourable  to  the 
undertaking,  the  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Border  has 
thus  become  widely  naturalized  among  nations  them 
selves  rich  in  similar  treasures  of  legendary  lore.  Of 
the  extraordinary  accuracy  and  felicity  of  the  German 
version  of  Schubart,  Scott  has  given  some  specimens  in 
the  last  edition  which  he  himself  superintended  —  that 
of  1830. 

He  speaks,  in  the  Essay  to  which  I  have  referred,  as 
if  the  first  reception  of  the  Minstrelsy  on  the  south  of  the 
1  veed  had  been  cold.  "  The  curiosity  of  the  English," 
he  says,  ':  was  not  much  awakened  by  poems  in  the  rude 


J02  •       -LIFE    OF'e-JH    WALTER    SCOTT. 

garb  of  antiquity,  accompanied  with  notes  referring  to  the 
obscure  feuds  of  barbarous  clans,  of  whose  very  names 
civilized  history  was  ignorant."  In  writing  those  beau 
tiful  Introductions  of  1830,  however,  Scott,  as  I  have 
already  had  occasion  to  hint,  trusted  entirely  to  his  rec 
ollection  of  days  long  since  gone  by,  and  he  has  accord 
ingly  let  fall  many  statements,  which  we  must  take  witl 
some  allowance.  His  impressions  as  to  the  reception 
of  the  Minstrelsy  were  different,  when,  writing  to  his 
brother-in-law,  Charles  Carpenter,  on  the  3d  March  1803, 
for  the  purpose  of  introducing  Ley  den,  he  said  —  "I  have 
contrived  to  turn  a  very  slender  portion  of  literary  talents 
to  some  account,  by  a  publication  of  the  poetical  antiqui 
ties  of  the  Border,  where  the  old  people  had  preserved 
many  ballads  descriptive  of  the  manners  of  the  country 
during  the  wars  with  England.  This  trifling  collection 
was  so  well  received  by  a  discerning  public,  that,  after 
receiving  about  £100  profit  for  the  first  edition,  which 
my  vanity  cannot  omit  informing  you  went  off  in  six 
months,  I  have  sold  the  copyright  for  £500  more."  This 
13  not  the  language  of  disappointment ;  and  thtvigh  the 
edition  of  1803  did  not  move  off  quite  so  rapidly  as  the 
first,  and  the  work  did  not  perhaps  attract  much  notice 
beyond  the  more  cultivated  students  of  literature,  until 
the  Editor's  own  genius  blazed  out  in  full  splendour  in  the 
Lay,  and  thus  lent  general  interest  to  whatever  was  con 
nected  with  his  name,  I  suspect  there  never  was  much 
ground  for  accusing  the  English  public  of  regarding  the 
Minstrelsy  with  more  coldness  than  the  Scotch  —  the 
population  of  the  Border  districts  themselves  being,  of 
course,  excepted.  Had  the  sale  of  the  original  edition 
been  chiefly  Scotch,  I  doubt  whether  Messrs.  Longman 
vould  have  so  readily  offered  £500,  in  those  days  of  the 


MINSTRELSY    OF    THE    BORDER.  103 

trade  a  large  sum,  for  the  second.  Scott  had  become 
habituated,  long  before  1830,  to  a  scale  of  bookselling 
transactions,  measured  by  which  the  largest  editions  and 
copy-monies  of  his  own  early  days  appeared  insignificant ; 
but  the  evidence  seems  complete  that  he  was  well  con 
tented  at  the  time. 

He  certainly  had  every  reason  to  be  so  as  to  the  im 
pression  which  the  Minstrelsy  made  on  the  minds  of 
those  entitled  to  think  for  themselves  upon  such  a  sub 
ject.  The  ancient  ballads  in  his  collection,  which  had 
never  been  printed  at  all  before,  were  in  number  forty- 
three  ;  and  of  the  others  —  most  of  which  were  in  fact 
all  but  new  to  the  modern  reader  —  it  is  little  to  say  that 
his  editions  were  superior  in  all  respects  to  those  that  had 
preceded  them.  He  had,  I  firmly  believe,  interpolated 
hardly  a  line  or  even  an  epithet  of  his  own ;  but  his  dil 
igent  zeal  had  put  him  in  possession  of  a  variety  of  cop 
ies  in  different  stages  of  preservation ;  and  to  the  task  of 
selecting  a  standard  text  among  such  a  diversity  of  ma 
terials,  he  brought  a  knowledge  of  old  manners  and 
phraseology,  and  a  manly  simplicity  of  taste,  such  as 
had  never  before  been  united  in  the  person  of  a  poetical 
antiquary.  From  among  a  hundred  corruptions  he  seized, 
with  instinctive  tact,  the  primitive  diction  and  imagery ; 
and  produced  strains  in  which  the  unbroken  energy  of 
half-civilized  ages,  their  stern  and  deep  passions,  their 
daring  adventures  and  cruel  tragedies,  and  even  their 
rude  wild  humour,  are  reflected  with  almost  the  bright 
ness  of  a  Homeric  mirror,  interrupted  by  hardly  a  blot 
of  what  deserves  to  be  called  vulgarity,  and  totally  free 
from  any  admixture  of  artificial  sentimentalism.  As  a 
picture  of  manners,  the  Scottish  Minstrelsy  is  not  sur 
passed,  if  equalled,  by  any  similar  body  of  poetry  pre» 


104  LIFE    OP    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

served  in  any  other  country ;  and  it  unquestionably  owes 
its  superiority  in  this  respect  over  Percy's  Reliques,  to 
the  Editor's  conscientious  fidelity,  on  the  one  hand,  which 
prevented  the  introduction  of  anything  new — to  his  pure 
taste,  on  the  other,  in  the  balancing  of  discordant  recita 
tions.  His  introductory  essays  and  notes  teemed  with 
curious  knowledge,  not  hastily  grasped  for  the  occasion, 
but  gradually  gleaned  and  sifted  by  the  patient  labour  of 
years,  and  presented  with  an  easy,  unaffected  propriety 
and  elegance  of  arrangement  and  expression,  which  it 
may  be  doubted  if  he  ever  materially  surpassed  in  the 
happiest  of  his  imaginative  narrations.  I  well  remember, 
when  Waverley  was  a  new  book,  and  all  the  world  were 
puzzling  themselves  about  its  authorship,  to  have  heard 
the  Poet  of  "  The  Isle  of  Palms  "  exclaim  impatiently  — 
"  I  wonder  what  all  these  people  are  perplexing  them 
selves  with  :  have  they  forgotten  the  prose  of  the  Min 
strelsy?"  Even  had  the  Editor  inserted  none  of  his  own 
verse,  the  work  would  have  contained  enough,  and  more 
than  enough,  to  found  a  lasting  and  graceful  reputation. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied,  however,  that  the  Minstrelsy  of 
the  Scottish  Border  has  derived  a  very  large  accession  of 
interest  from  the  subsequent  career  of  its  Editor.  One 
of  the  critics  of  that  day  said  that  the  book  contained 
"  the  elements  of  a  hundred  historical  romances  ;"  —  and 
this  critic  was  a  prophetic  one.  No  person  who  has  not 
gone  through  its  volumes  for  the  express  purpose  of  com 
paring  their  contents  with  his  great  original  works,  can 
have  formed  a  conception  of  the  endless  variety  of  inci 
dents  and  images  now  expanded  and  emblazoned  by  his 
mature  art,  of  which  the  first  hints  may  be  found  either 
in  the  text  of  those  primitive  ballads,  or  in  the  notes, 
which  the  happy  rambles  of  his  youth  had  gathered  to 


MINSTRELSY    OF    THE    BORDER.  105 

gether  for  their  illustration.  In  the  edition  of  the  Min 
strelsy  published  since  his  death,  not  a  few  such  instances 
are  pointed  out ;  but  the  list  might  have  been  extended 
far  beyond  the  limits  which  such  an  addition  allowed. 
The  taste  and  fancy  of  Scott  appear  to  have  been  formed 
as  early  as  his  moral  character ;  and  he  had,  before  he 
passed  the  threshold  of  authorship,  assembled  about  him, 
in  the  uncalculating  delight  of  native  enthusiasm,  almost 
all  the  materials  on  which  his  genius  was  destined  to 
be  employed  for  the  gratification  and  instruction  of  the 
world. 


106         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT 


CHAPTER  XII. 

Contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review  —  Progress  of  the  Trifr 
trem  —  and  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  —  Visit  of 
Wordsworth  —  Publication  of  "  Sir  Tristrem." 

1803-1804. 

SHORTLY  after  the  complete  "  Minstrelsy  "  issued  from 
the  press,  Scott  made  his  first  appearance  as  a  reviewer. 
The  Edinburgh  Review  had  been  commenced  in  October 
1802,  under  the  superintendence  of  the  Rev.  Sydney 
Smith,  with  whom,  during  his  short  residence  in  Scot 
land,  he  had  lived  on  terms  of  great  kindness  and  famil 
iarity.  Mr.  Smith  soon  resigned  the  editorship  to  Mr. 
Jeffrey,  who  had  by  this  time  been  for  several  years 
among  the  most  valued  of  Scott's  friends  and  companions 
at  the  bar  ;  and,  the  new  journal  being  far  from  commit 
ting  itself  to  violent  politics  at  the  outset,  he  appreciated 
the  brilliant  talents  regularly  engaged  in  it  far  too  highly, 
not  to  be  well  pleased  with  the  opportunity  of  occasion 
ally  exercising  his  pen  in  its  service.  His  first  contribu 
tion  was  an  article  on  Southey's  Amadis  of  Gaul,  included 
in  the  number  for  October  1803.  Another,  on  Sibbald's 
Chronicle  of  Scottish  Poetry,  appeared  in  the  same  num 
ber  ;  —  a  third,  on  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer ;  a  fourth, 
»n  Ellis's  Specimens  of  Ancient  English  Poetry :  and  a 


MUSSELBURGH  — 1803.  107 

fifth,  on  the  Life  and  "Works  of  Chatterton,  followed  in 
the  course  of  1804.* 

During  the  summer  of  1803,  however,  his  chief  liter 
ary  labour  was  still  on  the  Tristrem ;  and  I  shall  pres 
ently  give  some  further  extracts  from  his  letters  to  Ellis, 
which  wrill  amply  illustrate  the  spirit  in  which  he  contin 
ued  his  researches  about  the  Seer  of  Ercildoune,  and  the 
interruptions  which  these  owed  to  the  prevalent  alarm  of 
French  invasion.  Both  as  Quartermaster  of  the  Edin 
burgh  Light-horse,  and  as  Sheriff  of  The  Forest,  he  had 
a  full  share  of  responsibility  in  the  warlike  arrangements 
to  which  the  authorities  of  Scotland  had  at  length  been 
roused ;  nor  were  the  duties  of  his  two  offices  considered 
as  strictly  compatible  by  Francis  Lord  Napier,  then  Lord- 
Lieutenant  of  Selkirkshire ;  for  I  find  several  letters  in 
which  his  Lordship  complains  that  the  incessant  drills 
and  musters  of  Musselburgh  and  Portobello  prevented 
the  Sheriff  from  attending  county  meetings  held  at  Sel 
kirk  in  the  course  of  this  summer  and  autumn,  for  the 
purpose  of  organizing  the  trained  bands  of  the  Forest, 
on  a  scale  hitherto  unattempted.  Lord  Napier  strongly 
urges  the  propriety  of  his  resigning  his  connexion  with 
the  Edinburgh  troop,  and  fixing  his  summer  residence 
somewhere  within  the  limits  of  his  proper  jurisdiction  ; 
nay,  he  goes  so  far  as  to  hint,  that  if  these  suggestions 
should  be  neglected,  it  must  be  his  duty  to  state  the  case 
to  the  Government.  Scott  could  not  be  induced  (least 
of  all  by  a  threat),  while  the  fears  of  invasion  still  pre 
vailed,  to  resign  his  place  among  his  old  companions  of 

*  Scott's  contributions  to  our  periodical  literature  have  been,  with 
some  trivial  exceptions,  included  in  the  recent  collection  of  his  Miscel 
laneous  Prose  Writings. 


108  LIFE    OF    SIK    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  the  voluntary  band  ; "  but  he  seems  to  have  presently 
acquiesced  in  the  propriety  of  the  Lord-Lieu  tenant's 
advice  respecting  a  removal  from  Lasswade  to  Ettrick 
Forest. 

The  following  extract  is  from  a  letter  written  at  Mus- 
selburgh  during  this  summer  or  autumn  :  — 

"Miss  Seward's  acceptable  favour  reaches  me  in  a  place, 
and  at  a  time,  of  great  bustle,  as  the  corps  of  voluntary  cav 
alry  to  which  I  belong  is  quartered  for  a  short  time  in  this  vil 
lage,  for  the  sake  of  drilling  and  discipline.  Nevertheless,  had 
your  letter  announced  the  name  of  the  gentleman  who  took 
the  trouble  of  forwarding  it,  I  would  have  made  it  my  business 
to  find  him  out,  and  to  prevail  on  him,  if  possible,  to  spend  a 
day  or  two  with  us  in  quarters.  We  are  here  assuming  a  very 
military  appearance.  Three  regiments  of  militia,  with  a  for 
midable  park  of  artillery,  are  encamped  just  by  us.  The  Ed 
inburgh  troop,  to  which  I  have  the  honour  to  be  quartermaster, 
consists  entirely  of  young  gentlemen  of  family,  and  is,  of 
course,  admirably  well  mounted  and  armed.  There  are  other 
four  troops  in  the  regiment,  consisting  of  yeomanry,  whose  iron 
faces  and  muscular  forms  announce  the  hardness  of  the  climate 
against  which  they  wrestle,  and  the  powers  which  nature  has 
given  them  to  contend  with  and  subdue  it.  These  corps  have 
been  easily  raised  in  Scotland,  the  farmers  being  in  general  a 
high-spirited  race  of  men,  fond  of  active  exercises,  and  patient 
of  hardship  and  fatigue.  For  myself,  I  must  own  that  to  one 
who  has,  like  myself,  la  tete  un  pen  exaltee,  the  *  pomp  and 
circumstance  of  war '  gives,  for  a  time,  a  very  poignant  and 
pleasing  sensation.  The  imposing  appearance  of  cavalry,  in 
particular,  and  the  rush  which  marks  their  onset,  appear  to  me 
to  partake  highly  of  the  sublime.  Perhaps  I  am  the  more 
attached  to  this  sort  of  sport  of  swords,  because  my  health 
requires  much  active  exercise,  and  a  lameness  contracted  in 
childhood  renders  it  inconvenient  for  me  to  take  it  otherwise 


LETTER   TO    MISS    SEWARD.  109 

than  on  horseback.  I  have,  too,  a  hereditary  attachment  to 
the  animal  —  not,  I  natter  myself,  of  the  common  jockey  cast, 
but  because  I  regard  him  as  the  kindest  and  most  generous  of 
the  subordinate  tribes.  I  hardly  even  except  the  dogs ;  at 
least  they  are  usually  so  much  better  treated,  that  compassion 
for  the  steed  should  be  thrown  into  the  scale  when  we  weigh 
their  comparative  merits.  My  wife  (a  foreigner)  never  sees  a 
horse  ill-used  without  asking  what  that  poor  horse  has  done  in 
his  state  of  pre-existence  ?  I  would  fain  hope  they  have  been 
carters  or  hackney-coachmen,  and  are  only  experiencing  a  re 
tort  of  the  ill-usage  they  have  formerly  inflicted.  What  think 
you?" 

It  appears  that  Miss  Seward  had  sent  Scott  some  ob 
scure  magazine  criticism  on  his  "  Minstrelsy,"  in  which 
the  censor  had  condemned  some  phrase  as  naturally  sug 
gesting  a  low  idea.  The  lady's  letter  not  having  been 
preserved,  I  cannot  explain  farther  the  sequel  of  that 
from  which  I  have  been  quoting.  Scott  says,  how 
ever — 

"  I  am  infinitely  amused  with  your  sagacious  critic.  God 
wot,  I  have  often  admired  the  vulgar  subtlety  of  such  minds 
as  can  with  a  depraved  ingenuity  attach  a  mean  or  disgusting 
sense  to  an  epithet  capable  of  being  otherwise  understood,  and 
more  frequently,  perhaps,  used  to  express  an  elevated  idea. 
In  many  parts  of  Scotland  the  word  virtue  is  limited  entirely 
to  industry  ;  and  a  young  divine  who  preached  upon  the  moral 
beauties  of  virtue  was  considerably  surprised  at  learning  that 
the  whole  discourse  was  supposed  to  be  a  panegyric  upon  a 
particular  damsel  who  could  spin  fourteen  spindles  of  yarn  in 
the  course  of  a  week.  This  was  natural ;  but  your  literary 
critic  has  the  merit  of  going  very  far  a-field  to  fetch  home  his 
degrading  association." 

To  return  to  the  correspondence  with  Ellis  —  Scott 


110  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

writes  thus  to  him  in  July  —  "I  cannot  pretend  imme 
diately  to  enter  upon  the  serious  discussion  which  you 
propose  respecting  the  age  of  *  Sir  Tristrem  ; '  but  yet, 
as  it  seems  likely  to  strip  Thomas  the  Prophet  of  the 
honours  due  to  the  author  of  the  English  '  Tristrem,'  I 
cannot  help  hesitating  before  I  can  agree  to  your  theory ; 
—  and  here  my  doubt  lies.  Thomas  of  Ercildoune, 
called  the  Rhymer,  is  a  character  mentioned  by  almost 
every  Scottish  historian,  and  the  date  of  whose  existence 
is  almost  as  well  known  as  if  we  had  the  parish  register. 
Now,  his  great  reputation,  and  his  designation  of  Rymour, 
could  only  be  derived  from  his  poetical  performances; 
and  in  what  did  these  consist  excepting  in  the  Romance 
of  '  Sir  Tristrem,'  mentioned  by  Robert  de  Brunne  ?  I 
hardly  think,  therefore,  we  shall  be  justified  in  assuming 
the  existence  of  an  earlier  Thomas,  who  would  be,  in 
fact,  merely  the  creature  of  our  system.  I  own  I  am 
not  prepared  to  take  this  step,  if  I  can  escape  otherwise 
from  you  and  M.  de  la  Ravaillere  —  and  thus  I  will  try 
it.  M.  de  la  R.  barely  informs  us  that  the  history  of  Sir 
Tristrem  was  known  to  Chretien  de  Troys  in  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century,  and  to  the  King  of  Navarre  in  the 
beginning  of  the  thirteenth.  Thus  far  his  evidence  goes, 
and  I  think  not  one  inch  farther  —  for  it  does  not  estab 
lish  the  existence  either  of  the  metrical  romance,  as  you 
suppose,  or  of  the  prose  romance,  as  M.  de  la  R.  much 
more  erroneously  supposes,  at  that  very  early  period.  If 
the  story  of  Sir  Tristrem  was  founded  in  fact,  and  if, 
which  I  have  all  along  thought,  a  person  of  this  name 
really  swallowed  a  dose  of  cantharides  intended  to  stim 
ulate  the  exertions  of  his  uncle,  a  petty  monarch  of 
Cornwall,  and  involved  himself  of  course  in  an  intrigue 
with  his  aunt,  \  hese  facts  must  have  taken  place  during 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS JULY  1803.  Ill 

i  very  early  period  of  English  history,  perhaps  about  the 
time  of  the  Heptarchy.  Now,  if  this  be  once  admitted, 
it  is  clear  that  the  raw  material  from  which  Thomas 
wove  his  web,  must  have  been  current  long  before  his 
day,  and  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  Chretien  and  the 
King  of  Navarre  refer,  not  to  the  special  metrical  ro 
mance  contained  in  Mr.  Douce's  fragments,  but  to  the 
general  story  of  Sir  Tristrem,  whose  love  and  misfor 
tunes  were  handed  down  by  tradition  as  a  historical  fact. 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  supposing  a  tale  of  this  kind  to 
have  passed  from  the  Armoricans,  or  otherwise,  into  the 
mouths  of  the  French ;  as,  on  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to 
have  been  preserved  among  the  Celtic  tribes  of  the  Bor 
der,  from  whom,  in  all  probability,  it  was  taken  by  their 
neighbour,  Thomas  of  Ercildoune.  If  we  suppose,  there 
fore,  that  Chretien  and  the  King  allude  only  to  the  gen 
eral  and  well-known  story  of  Tristrem,  and  not  to  the 
particular  edition  of  which  Mr.  Douce  has  some  fragments 
—  (and  I  see  no  evidence  that  any  such  special  allusion 
to  these  fragments  is  made)  —  it  will  follow  that  they  may 
be  as  late  as  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  that 
the  Thomas  mentioned  in  them  may  be  the  Thomas  of 
whose  existence  we  have  historical  evidence.  In  short, 
the  question  is,  shall  Thomas  be  considered  as  a  land 
mark  by  which  to  ascertain  the  antiquity  of  the  frag 
ments,  or  shall  the  supposed  antiquity  of  the  fragments 
oe  held  a  sufficient  reason  for  supposing  an  earlier 
Thomas  ?  For  aught  yet  seen,  I  incline  to  my  former 
opinion,  that  those  fragments  are  coeval  with  the  ipsissi- 
mm  Thomas.  I  acknowledge  the  internal  evidence,  of 
which  you  are  so  accurate  a  judge,  weighs  more  with 
me  than  the  reference  to  the  King  of  Navarre ;  but, 
after  alJ,  the  extreme  difficulty  of  judging  of  style,  so 


112         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

as  to  bring  us  within  sixty  or  seventy  years,  m^st 
be  fully  considered.  Take  notice,  I  have  never  plead 
ed  the  matter  so  high  as  to  say,  that  the  Auchinleck 
MS.  contains  the  very  words  devised  by  Thomas  the 
Rhymer.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  always  thought  it  one 
of  the  spurious  copies  in  queint  Inglis,  of  which  Robert 
de  Brunne  so  heavily  complains.  But  this  will  take 
little  from  the  curiosity,  perhaps  little  from  the  antiquity, 
of  the  romance.  Enough  of  Sir  T.  for  the  present.  — 
How  happy  it  will  make  us  if  you  can  fulfil  the  expec 
tation  you  hold  out  of  a  northern  expedition.  Whether 
in  the  cottage  or  at  Edinburgh,  we  will  be  equally  happy 
to  receive  you,  and  show  you  all  the  lions  of  our  vicinity. 
Charlotte  is  hunting  out  music  for  Mrs.  E.,  but  I  intend 
to  add  Johnson's  collection,  which,  though  the  tunes  are 
simple,  and  often  bad  sets,  contains  much  more  original 
Scotch  music  than  any  other." 

About  this  time,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ellis,  and  their  friend 
Douce,  were  preparing  for  a  tour  into  the  North  of  Eng 
land  ;  and  Scott  was  invited  and  strongly  tempted  to  join 
them  at  various  points  of  their  progress,  particularly  at 
the  Grange,  near  Rotherham,  in  Yorkshire,  a  seat  of  the 
Earl  of  Emngham.  But  he  found  it  impossible  to  escape 
again  from  Scotland,  owing  to  the  agitated  state  of  the 
couiitry.  —  On  returning  to  the  cottage  from  an  excur 
sion  to  his  Sheriffship,  he  thus  resumes  :  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"Lasswade,  August  27, 1803. 

"  Dear  Ellis, — My  conscience  has  been  thumping  me  as  hard 
as  if  it  had  studied  under  Mendoza,  for  letting  your  kind 
favour  remain  so  long  unanswered.  Nevertheless,  in  this  it  is, 
like  Launcelot  Gobbo's,  but  a  hard  kind  of  conscience,  as  it 


BETTER    TO    ELLIS  —  1803.  118 

must  know  how  much  I  have  been  occupied  with  Armies  of 
Reserve,  and  Militia,  and  Pikemen,  and  Sharpshooters,  who 
are  to  descend  from  Ettrick  Forest  to  the  confusion  of  all 
invaders.  The  truth  is,  that  this  country  has  for  once  experi 
enced  that  the  pressure  of  external  danger  may  possibly  pro 
duce  internal  unanimity ;  and  so  great  is  the  present  military 
zeal,  that  I  really  wish  our  rulers  would  devise  some  way  of 
calling  it  into  action,  were  it  only  on  the  economical  principle 
of  saving  so  much  good  courage  from  idle  evaporation.  —  I  am 
interrupted  by  an  extraordinary  accident,  nothing  less  than  a 
volley  of  small  shot  fired  through  the  window,  at  which  my 
wife  was  five  minutes  before  arranging  her  flowers.  By 
Camp's  assistance,  who  run  the  culprit's  foot  like  a  Liddes- 
dale  bloodhound,  we  detected  an  unlucky  sportsman,  whose 
awkwardness  and  rashness  might  have  occasioned  very  serious 
mischief — so  much  for  interruption.  —  To  return  to  Sir  Tris- 
trem.  As  for  Mr.  Thomas's  name,  respecting  which  you  state 
some  doubts,*  I  request  you  to  attend  to  the  following  particu 
lars  :  —  In  the  first  place,  surnames  were  of  very  late  intro 
duction  into  Scotland,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  that 
they  became  in  general  a  hereditary  distinction,  until  after  the 
time  of  Thomas  the  Rhymer  ;  previously  they  were  mere  per 
sonal  distinctions  peculiar  to  the  person  by  whom  they  were 
borne,  and  dying  along  with  him.  Thus  the  children  of  Alan 
Durward  were  not  called  Dunoard,  because  they  were  not  Osti- 
am,  the  circumstance  from  which  he  derived  the  name.  When 
the  surname  was  derived  from  property,  it  became  naturally 
hereditary  at  a  more  early  period,  because  the  distinction  ap 
plied  equally  to  the  father  and  the  son.  The  same  happenec 
with  patronymics,  both  because  the  name  of  the  father  is  usually 
given  to  the  son ;  so  that  Walter  Fitzwalter  would  have  been  my 
son's  name  in  those  times  as  well  as  my  own ;  and  also  because 
a  cian  often  takes  a  sort  of  generaJ  patronymic  from  one  com 
mon  ancestor,  as  Macdonald,  &c.  &c.  But  though  these 

*  Mr.  Ellis  had  hinted  that  "Rymer  might  not  more  necessarily  indi 
cate  an  actual  poet,  than  the  name  of  Taylor  does  in  modern  times  an 
actual  knight  of  the  thimble." 


114  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

classes  of  surnames  become  hereditary  at  an  early  period,  yet, 
in  the  natural  course  of  things,  epithets  merely  personal  are 
much  longer  of  becoming  a  family  distinction.*  But  I  do  not 
trust,  by  any  means,  to  this  general  argument ;  because  the 
charter  quoted  in  the  Minstrelsy  contains  written  evidence, 
that  the  epithet  of  Rymour  was  peculiar  to  our  Thomas,  and 
was  dropped  by  his  son,  who  designs  himself  simply,  Thomas 
of  Erceldoune,  son  of  Thomas  the  Rymour  of  Erceldoune ; 
which  I  think  is  conclusive  upon  the  subject.  In  all  this 
discussion,  I  have  scorned  to  avail  myself  of  the  tradition 
of  the  country,  as  well  as  the  suspicious  testimony  of  Boece, 
Dempster,  &c.,  grounded  probably  upon  that  tradition,  which 
uniformly  affirms  the  name  of  Thomas  to  have  been  Learmont 
or  Leirmont,  and  that  of  the  Rhymer  a  personal  epithet.  This 
circumstance  may  induce  us,  however,  to  conclude  that  some 
of  his  descendants  had  taken  that  name  —  certain  it  is  that 
his  castle  is  called  Leirmont's  Tower,  and  that  he  is  as  well 
known  to  the  country  people  by  that  name,  as  by  the  appel 
lation  of  the  Rhymer. 

*  The  whole  of  this  subject  has  derived  much  illustration  from  the 
recent  edition  of  the  "Ragman's  Roll,"  a  contribution  to  the  Banna- 
tyne  Club  of  Edinburgh  by  two  of  Sir  Walter  Scott's  mos't  esteemed 
friends,  the  Lord  Chief  Commissioner  Adam  and  Sir  Samuel  Shepherd. 
That  record  of  the  oaths  of  fealty  tendered  to  Edward  I.,  during  his 
Scotch  usurpation,  furnishes,  indeed,  very  strong  confirmation  of  the 
views  which  the  Editor  of  "  Sir  Tristrem  "  had  thus  early  adopted  con 
cerning  the  origin  of  surnames  in  Scotland.  The  landed  gentry,  over 
most  of  the  country,  seem  to  have  been  generally  distinguished  by  the 
surnames  still  borne  by  their  descendants  —  it  is  wonderful  how  little 
the  land  seems  to  have  changed  hands  in  the  course  of  so  many  centu 
ries.  But  the  towns'  people  have,  with  few  exceptions,  designations 
apparently  indicating  the  actual  trade  of  the  individual ;  and  in  many 
instances,  there  is  distinct  evidence  that  the  plan  of  transmitting  such 
names  had  not  been  adopted ;  for  example,  Thomas  the  Tailor  is  de 
scribed  as  son  of  Thomas  the  Smith,  or  vice  versa.  The  chief  magis 
trates  of  the  burghs  appear,  however,  to  have  been,  in  most  cases 
younger  sons  of  the  neighbouring  gentry,  and  have  of  course  their 
hereditary  designations.  This  singular  document,  so  often  quoted  and 
referred  to,  was  never  before  printed  in  extenso. 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS 1803.  115 

"  Having  cleared  up  this  matter,  as  I  think,  to  every  one's 
iatisfaction,  unless  to  those  resembling  not  Thomas  himself, 
but  his  namesake  the  Apostle,  I  have,  secondly,  to  show  that 
my  Thomas  is  the  Tomas  of  Douce's  MS.  Here  I  must  again 
refer  to  the  high  and  general  reverence  in  which  Thomas  ap 
pears  to  have  been  held,  as  is  proved  by  Robert  de  Brunne ; 
but  above  all,  as  you  observe,  to  the  extreme  similarity  be 
twixt  the  French  and  English  poems,  with  this  strong  circum 
stance,  that  the  mode  of  telling  the  story  approved  by  the 
French  minstrel,  under  the  authority  of  his  Tomas,  is  the  very 
mode  in  which  my  Thomas  has  told  it.  Would  you  desire 
better  sympathy? 

"  I  lately  met  by  accident  a  Cornish  gentleman,  who  had 
taken  up  his  abode  in  Selkirkshire  for  the  sake  of  fishing  — 
and  what  should  his  name  be  but  Caerlion?  You  will  not 
doubt  that  this  interested  me  very  much.  He  tells  me  that 
there  is  but  one  family  of  the  name  in  Cornwall,  or  as  far  as 
ever  he  heard,  anywhere  else,  and  that  they  are  of  great  an 
tiquity.  Does  not  this  circumstance  seem  to  prove  that  there 
existed  in  Cornwall  a  place  called  Caerlion,  giving  name  to 
that  family  ?  Caerlion  would  probably  be  Castrum  Leonense, 
the  chief  town  of  Liones,  which  in  every  romance  is  stated  to 
have  been  Tristrem's  country,  and  from  which  he  derived  his 
surname  of  Tristrem  de  Liones.  This  district,  as  you  notice  in 
the  notes  on  the  Fabliaux,  was  swallowed  up  by  the  sea.  I 
need  not  remind  you  that  all  this  tends  to  illustrate  the  Caer- 
lioun  mentioned  by  Tomas,  which  I  always  suspected  to  be  a 
very  different  place  from  Caerlion  on  Uske  —  which  is  no  sea 
port.  How  I  regret  the  number  of  leagues  which  prevented 
my  joining  you  and  the  sapient  Douce,  and  how  much  ancient 
lore  I  have  lost.  Where  I  have  been,  the  people  talked  more 
of  the  praises  of  Ryno  and  Fillan  (not  Ossian's  heroes,  but  two 
Forest  greyhounds  which  I  got  in  a  present)  than,  I  verily 
believe,  they  would  have  done  of  the  prowesses  of  Sir  Tris- 
fcrem,  or  of  Esplandian,  had  either  of  them  appeared  to  lead 
on  the  levy  en  masse.  Yours  ever, 

"  W.  SCOTT." 


116  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

Ellis  says  in  reply  — 

"My  dear  Scott,  I  must  begin  by  congratulating  you  on 
Mrs.  Scott's  escape ;  Camp,  if  he  had  had  no  previous  title  to 
immortality,  would  deserve  it,  for  his  zeal  and  address  in  de 
tecting  the  stupid  marksman,  who,  while  he  took  aim  at  a  bird 
on  a  tree,  was  so  near  shooting  your  fair  'bird  in  bower.'  If 
there  were  many  such  shooters,  it  would  become  then  a  suffi 
cient  excuse  for  the  reluctance  of  Government  to  furnish  arms 
indifferently  to  all  volunteers.  In  the  next  place,  I  am  glad 
to  hear  that  you  are  disposed  to  adopt  my  channel  for  trans 
mitting  the  tale  of  Tristrem  to  Chretien  de  Troye.  The  more 
I  have  thought  on  the  subject,  the  more  I  am  convinced  that 
the  Normans,  long  before  the  Conquest,  had  acquired  from  the 
Britons  of  Armorica  a  considerable  knowledge  of  our  old  Brit 
ish  fables,  and  that  this  led  them,  after  the  Conquest,  to  in 
quire  after  such  accounts  as  were  to  be  found  in  the  country 
where  the  events  are  supposed  to  have  taken  place.  I  am  sat 
isfied,  from  the  internal  evidence  of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's 
History,  that  it  must  have  been  fabricated  in  Bretagne,  and 
that  he  did,  as  he  asserts,  only  translate  it.  Now,  as  Marie, 
who  lived  about  a  century  later,  certainly  translated  also  from 
the  Breton  a  series  of  lays  relating  to  Arthur  and  his  knights, 
it  will  follow  that  the  first  poets  who  wrote  in  France,  such  as 
Chretien,  &c.,  must  have  acquired  their  knowledge  of  our  tra 
ditions  from  Bretagne.  Observe,  that  the  pseudo-Turpin,  who 
is  supposed  to  have  been  anterior  to  Geoffrey,  and  who,  on 
that  supposition,  cannot  have  borrowed  from  him,  mentions, 
among  Charlemagne's  heroes,  Hoel  (the  hero  of  Geoffrey  also), 
4de  quo  canitur  cantilena  usque  ad  hodiernum  diem.'  Now, 
if  Thomas  was  able  to  establish  his  story  as  the  most  authentic, 
even  by  the  avowal  of  the  French  themselves,  and  if  the  sketch 
of  that  story  was  previously  known,  it  must  have  been  be 
cause  he  wrote  in  the  country  which  his  hero  was  supposed  to 
have  inhabited ;  and  on  the  same  grounds  the  Norman  min- 
gtrels  here,  and  even  their  English  successors,  were  allowed  to 
fill  up,  with  as  many  circumstances  as  they  thought  proper 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ELLIS 1803.  117 

the  tales  of  which  the  Armorican  Bretons  probably  furnished 
the  first  imperfect  outline. 

"  What  you  tell  me  about  your  Cornish  fisherman  is  very 
curious;  and  I  think  with  you  that  little  reliance  is  to  be  placed 
on  our  Welsh  geography  —  and  that  Caerlion  on  Uske  is  by  no 
means  the  Caerlion  of  Tristrem.  Few  writers  or  readers  have 
hitherto  considered  sufficiently,  that  from  the  moment  when 
Hengist  first  obtained  a  settlement  in  the  Isle  of  Thanet,  that 
settlement  became  England,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  country 
became  Wales ;  that  these  divisions  continued  to  represent 
different  proportions  of  the  island  at  different  periods ;  but 
that  Wales,  during  the  whole  Heptarchy,  and  for  a  long  time 
after,  comprehended  the  whole  western  coast  very  nearly  from 
Cornwall  to  Dunbretton ;  and  that  this  whole  tract,  of  which 
the  eastern  frontier  may  be  easily  traced  for  each  particular 
period,  preserved  most  probably  to  the  age  of  Thomas  a  com 
munity  of  language,  of  manners,  and  traditions. 

"  As  your  last  volume  announces  your  Lay,  as  well  as  Sir 
Tristrem,  as  in  the  press,  I  begin,  in  common  with  all  your 
friends,  to  be  uneasy  about  the  future  disposal  of  your  time. 
Having  nothing  but  a  very  active  profession,  and  your  military 
pursuits,  and  your  domestic  occupations,  to  think  of,  and  Ley- 
den  having  monopolized  Asiatic  lore,  you  will  presently  be 
quite  an  idle  man  !  You  are,  however,  still  in  time  to  learn 
Erse,  and  it  is,  I  am  afraid,  very  necessary  that  you  should  do 
so,  in  order  to  stimulate  my  laziness,  which  has  hitherto  made 
o  progress  whatever  in  Welsh. 

"  Your  ever  faithful,  G.  E. 

"  P.  S.  —  Is  Camp  married  yet  ?  " 

Ellis  had  projected  some  time  before  this  an  edition  of 
the  Welsh  MaUnogion*  in  which  he  was  to  be  assisted 
by  Mr.  Owen,  the  author  of  the  "  Welsh  and  English 
Dictionary,"  "  Cambrian  Biography,"  &c. 

*  The  Mabinogion  have  at  last  been  translaf  ed,  and  are  now  in  the 
course  of  publication,  in  a  very  beautiful  form,  by  the  Lpt(?  y  Charlott* 
Uuest.  [1839.] 


ti8  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  I  am  very  sorry,"  Scott  says  (September  14),  "  that  you 
jlag  over  those  wild  and  interesting  tales.  I  hope,  if  you  will 
not  work  yourself  (for  which  you  have  so  little  excuse,  having 
both  the  golden  talents  and  the  golden  leisure  necessary  for 
study),  you  will  at  least  keep  Owen  to  something  that  is 
rational  —  I  mean  to  iron  horses,  and  magic  cauldrons,  and 
Bran  the  Blessed,  with  the  music  of  his  whole  army  upon  his 
shoulders,  and,  in  short,  to  something  more  pleasing  and  profit 
able  than  old  apophthegms,  triads,  and  '  blessed  burdens  of 
the  womb  of  the  isle  of  Britain.'  Talking  of  such  burdens 
Camp  has  been  regularly  wedded  to  a  fair  dame  in  the  neigh 
bourhood  ;  but  notwithstanding  the  Italian  policy  of  locking  the 
lady  in  a  stable,  she  is  suspected  of  some  inaccuracy ;  but  we 
suspend  judgment,  as  Othello  ought  in  all  reason  to  have  done, 
till  we  see  the  produce  of  the  union.  As  for  my  own  employ 
ment,  I  have  yet  much  before  me ;  and  as  the  beginning  of  let 
ting  out  ink  is  like  the  letting  out  of  water,  I  daresay  I  shall 
go  on  scribbling  one  nonsense  or  another  to  the  end  of  the 
chapter.  People  may  say  this  and  that  of  the  pleasure  of 
fame  or  of  profit  as  a  motive  of  writing.  I  think  the  only 
pleasure  is  in  the  actual  exertion  and  research,  and  I  would 
no  more  write  upon  any  other  terms  than  I  would  hunt  merely 
to  dine  upon  hare-soup.  At  the  same  time,  if  credit  and  profit 
came  unlocked  for,  I  would  no  more  quarrel  with  them  than 
with  the  soup.  I  hope  this  will  find  you  and  Mrs.  Ellis  safely 
and  pleasantly  settled. 

"  —  By  the  way,  while  you  are  in  his  neighbourhood,  I  hope 
you  will  not  fail  to  inquire  into  the  history  of  the  valiant  Moor 
of  Moorhall  and  the  Dragon  of  Wantley.  As  a  noted  bur 
lesque  upon  the  popular  romance,  the  ballad  has  some  curiosity 
and  merit.  —  Ever  yours,  W.  S." 

Mr.  Ellis  received  this  letter  where  Scott  hoped  it 
would  reach  him,  at  the  s^at  of  Lord  Effingham ;  and 
lie  answers,  on  the  3d  of  October  — 

"  The  beauty  of  this  part  of  the  country  is  such  as  to  indem 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ELLIS 1803.  119 

aif)  die  traveller  for  a  few  miles  of  very  indifferent  road,  and 
the  tedious  process  of  creeping  up  and  almost  sliding  down  a 
succession  of  high  hills ;  —  and  in  the  number  of  picturesque 
landscapes  by  which  we  are  encompassed,  the  den  of  the 
dragon  which  you  recommended  to  our  attention  is  the  most 
superlatively  beautiful  and  romantic.  You  are,  I  suppose 
aware  that  this  same  den  is  the  very  spot  from  whence  Lad^ 
Mary  Wortley  Montague  wrote  many  of  her  early  letters 
and  it  seems  that  an  old  housekeeper,  who  lived  there  till  last 
year,  remembered  to  have  seen  her,  and  dwelt  with  great 
pleasure  on  the  various  charms  of  her  celebrated  mistress ;  so 
that  its  wild  scenes  have  an  equal  claim  to  veneration  from  the 
admirers  of  wit  and  gallantry,  and  the  far-famed  investigators 
of  remote  antiquity.  With  regard  to  the  original  Dragon,  1 
have  met  with  two  different  traditions.  One  of  these  (which 
I  think  is  preserved  by  Percy)  states  him  to  have  been  a 
wicked  attorney,  a  relentless  persecutor  of  the  poor,  who  was 
at  length,  fortunately  for  his  neighbours,  ruined  by  a  law-suit 
which  he  had  undertaken  against  his  worthy  and  powerful 
antagonist  Moor  of  Moorhall.  The  other  legend,  which  is  cur 
rent  in  the  Wortley  family,  states  him  to  have  been  a  most 
formidable  drinker,  whose  powers  of  inglutition,  strength  of 
stomach,  and  stability  of  head,  had  procured  him  a  long  series 
of  triumphs  over  common  visitants,  but  who  was  at  length 
fairly  drunk  dead  by  the  chieftain  of  the  opposite  moors.  It 
must  be  confessed  that  the  form  of  the  den,  a  cavern  cut  in 
the  rock,  and  very  nearly  resembling  a  wine  or  ale  cellar, 
tends  to  corroborate  this  tradition ;  but  I  am  rather  tempted 
to  believe  that  both  the  stories  were  invented  apres  coup,  and 
that  the  supposed  dragon  was  some  wolf  or  other  destructive 
animal,  who  was  finally  hunted  down  by  Moor  of  Moorhall, 
after  doing  considerable  mischief  to  the  flocks  and  herds  of  his 
superstitious  neighbours. 

"  The  present  house  appears  to  have  grown  to  its  even  now 
moderate  size  by  successive  additions  to  a  very  small  loggt 
(lodge),  built  by  '  a  gentle  knight,  Sir  Thomas  Wortley/  IL 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.,  for  the  pleasure,  as  an  old  inscrip- 


120  LIFE    OF    SIK    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tion  in  the  present  scullery  testifies,  of  '  listening  to  the  Hartea 
bell.'  Its  site  is  on  the  side  of  a  very  high  rocky  hill,  covered 
with  oaks  (the  weed  of  the  country),  and  overhanging  the 
river  Don,  which  in  this  place  is  little  more  than  a  mountain 
torrent,  though  it  becomes  navigable  a  few  miles  lower  at 
Sheffield.  A  great  part  of  the  road  from  hence  (which  is 
eeven  miles  distant)  runs  through  forest  ground,  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that  the  whole  was  at  no  distant  period  covered  with 
wood,  because  the  modern  improvements  of  the  country,  the 
result  of  flourishing  manufactories,  have  been  carried  on  almost 
within  our  own  tune  in  consequence  of  the  abundance  of  coal 
which  here  breaks  out  in  many  places  even  on  the  surface.  On 
the  opposite  side  of  the  river  begin  almost  immediately  the 
extensive  moors  which  strike  along  the  highest  land  of  York 
shire  and  Derbyshire,  and  following  the  chain  of  hills,  prob 
ably  communicated  not  many  centuries  ago  with  those  of  Nor 
thumberland,  Cumberland,  and  Scotland.  I  therefore  doubt 
whether  the  general  face  of  the  country  is  not  better  evidence 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  monster  than  the  particular  appearance 
of  the  cavern ;  and  am  inclined  to  believe  that  Moor  of  Moor- 
hall  was  a  hunter  of  wild  beasts,  rather  than  of  attorneys  or 
hard  drinkers. 

"  You  are  unjust  in  saying  that  I  flag  over  the  Mabinogion 
I  have  been  very  constantly  employed  upon  my  preface,  and 
was  proceeding  to  the  last  section  when  I  set  off  for  this  place 
—  so  you  see  I  am  perfectly  exculpated,  and  all  over  as  white 
as  snow.  Anne  being  a  true  aristocrat,  and  considering  purity 
of  blood  as  essential  to  lay  the  foundation  of  all  the  virtues 
she  expects  to  call  out  by  a  laborious  education  of  a  true  son 
of  Camp  —  she  highly  approves  the  strict  and  even  prudish 
severity  with  which  you  watch  over  the  morals  of  his  bride, 
ind  expects  you,  inasmuch  as  all  the  good  knights  she  has  read 
of  have  been  remarkable  for  their  incomparable  beauty,  not 
to  neglect  that  important  requisite  in  selecting  her  future 
guardian.  We  possess  a  vulgar  dog  (a  pointer),  to  whom  it 
is  intended  to  commit  the  charge  of  our  house  during  our  al> 
sence,  and  to  whom  I  mean  to  give  orders  to  repel  by  force  any 


WOKTLEY-HALL  —  OCTOBER    1803-  121 

attempts  of  our  neighbours  during  the  times  that  I  shall  be 
occupied  in  preparing  hare-soup ;  but  Fitz-Camp  will  be  her 
companion,  and  she  trusts  that  you  will  strictly  examine  him 
while  yet  a  varlet,  and  only  send  him  up  when  you  think  him 
likely  to  become  a  true  knight.  Adieu  —  mille  choses. 

«  G.  E." 

Scott  tells  Ellis  in  reply  (October  14),  that  he  was 
"  infinitely  gratified  with  his  account  of  Wortley  Lodge 
and  the  Dragon,"  and  refers  him  to  the  article  "  Kem- 
pion,"  in  the  Minstrelsy,  for  a  similar  tradition  respecting 
an  ancestor  of  the  noble  house  of  Somerville.  The 
reader  can  hardly  need  to  be  reminded  that  the  gentle 
knight,  Sir  Thomas  Wortley's,  love  of  hearing  the  deer 
bell  was  often  alluded  to  in  Scott's  subsequent  writings. 
He  goes  on  to  express  his  hope,  that  next  summer  will 
be  a  "  more  propitious  season  for  a  visit  to  Scotland. 
The  necessity  of  the  present  occasion,"  he  says,  "  has 
kept  almost  every  individual,  however  insignificant,  to 
his  post.  God  has  left  us  entirely  to  our  own  means 
of  defence,  for  we  have  not  above  one  regiment  of  the 
line  in  all  our  ai>oient  kingdom.  In  the  mean  while, 
we  are  doing  the  best  we  can  to  prepare  ourselves  for 
$.  contest,  which,  perhaps,  is  not  far  distant.  A  beacon 
light,  communicating  with  that  of  Edinburgh  Castle,  is 
just  erecting  in  front  of  our  quiet  cottage.  My  field 
equipage  is  ready,  and  I  want  nothing  but  a  pipe  and  a 
schnurbartchen  to  convert  me  into  a  complete  hussar.* 
Charlotte,  ^.th  the  infantry  (of  the  household  troops,  I 

*  Schnurbartchen  is  German  for  mustachio.  It  appears  from  a  page 
of  an  early  note-book  previously  transcribed,  that  Scott  had  been 
sometimes  a  smoker  of  tobacco  in  the  first  days  of  his  light-horse 
manship.  He  had  laid  aside  the  habit  at  the  time  when  this  letter 
was  written;  but  he  twice  again  resumed  i,  though  he  never  carried 
die  indulgence  to  any  excess. 


122  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

mean),  is  to  beat  her  retreat  into  Ettrick  Forest,  where, 
if  the  Tweed  is  in  his  usual  wintry  state  of  flood,  she 
may  weather  out  a  descent  from  Ostend.  Next  year  I 
hope  all  this  will  be  over,  and  that  not  only  I  shall  have 
the  pleasure  of  receiving  you  in  peace  and  quiet,  but 
also  of  going  with  you  through  every  part  of  Caledonia, 
in  which  you  can  possibly  be  interested.  Friday  se'en- 
night  our  corps  takes  the  field  for  ten  days  —  for  the 
second  time  within  three  months  —  which  may  explain 
the  military  turn  of  my  epistle. 

"  Poor  Ritson  is  no  more.  All  his  vegetable  soups 
and  puddings  have  not  been  able,  to  avert  the  evil  day, 
which,  I  understand,  was  preceded  by  madness.  It  must 
be  worth  while  to  inquire  who  has  got  his  MSS.,  —  I 
mean  his  own  notes  and  writings.  The  'Life  of  Arthur,' 
for  example,  must  contain  many  curious  facts  and  quo 
tations,  which  the  poor  defunct  had  the  power  of  assem 
bling  to  an  astonishing  degree,  without  being  able  to  com 
bine  anything  like  a  narrative,  or  even  to  deduce  one 
useful  inference  —  witness  his  '  Essay  on  Romance  and 
Minstrelsy,'  which  reminds  one  of  a  heap  of  rubbish, 
which  had  either  turned  out  unfit  for  the  architect's  pur 
pose,  or  beyond  his  skill  to  make  use  of.  The  ballads 
he  had  collected  in  Cumberland  and  Northumberland, 
too,  would  greatly  interest  me.  If  they  have  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  any  liberal  collector,  I  dare  say  I  might  be 
indulged  with  a  sight  of  them.  Pray  inquire  about  this 
matter. 

"  Yesterday  Charlotte  and  I  had  a  visit  which  we  owe 
to  Mrs.  E.  A  rosy  lass,  the  sister  of  a  bold  yeoman 
in  our  neighbourhood,  entered  our  cottage,  towing  in  a 
monstrous  sort  of  bull-dog,  called  emphatically  Cerberus, 
whom  she  came  on  the  part  of  her  brother  to  beg  oui 


LASSWADE  —  OCTOBER   1803.  123 

acceptance  of,  understanding  we  were  anxious  to  have  a 
Bon  of  Camp.  Cerberus  was  no  sooner  loose  (a  pleasure 
which,  I  suspect,  he  had  rarely  enjoyed,)  than  his  father 
(suppose)  and  he  engaged  in  a  battle  which  might  have 
been  celebrated  by  the  author  of  the  '  Unnatural  Com 
bat,'  and  which,  for  aught  I  know,  might  have  turned 
out  a  combat  a  I'outrance,  if  I  had  not  interfered  with 
a  horse-whip,  instead  of  a  baton,  as  juge  de  Camp.  Th£ 
odds  were  indeed  greatly  against  the  stranger  knight  — 
two  fierce  Forest  greyhounds  having  arrived,  and,  con 
trary  to  the  law  of  arms,  stoutly  assailed  him.  I  hope 
to  send  you  a  puppy  instead  of  this  redoubtable  Cer 
berus.  Love  to  Mrs.  E.  — W.  S." 

After  giving  Scott  some  information  about  Ritson's 
literary  treasures,  most  of  which,  as  it  turned  out,  had 
been  disposed  of  by  auction  shortly  before  his  death, 
Mr.  Ellis  (10th  November)  returns  to  the  charge  about 
Tristrem  and  True  Thomas.  "You  appear,"  he  says, 
"  to  have  been  for  some  time  so  military,  that  I  am 
afraid  the  most  difficult  and  important  part  of  your 
original  plan,  viz.  your  History  of  Scottish  poetry,  will 
again  be  postponed,  and  must  be  kept  for  some  future 
publication.  I  am,  at  this  moment,  much  in  want  of  two 
such  assistants  as  you  and  Leyden.  It  seems  to  me,  that 
if  I  had  some  local  knowledge  of  that  wicked  Ettrick 
Forest,  I  could  extricate  myself  tolerably  —  but  as  it  is, 
although  I  am  convinced  that  my  general  idea  is  tolera 
bly  just,  I  am  unable  to  guide  my  elephants  in  that  quiet 
and  decorous  step-by-step  march  which  the  nature  of 
such  animals  requires  through  a  country  of  which  I 
don't  know  any  of  the  roads.  My  comfort  is,  that  you 
cannot  publish  Tristrem  without  a  preface,  —  that  you 
?an't  write  one  without  giving  me  some  assistance,  —  and 


124  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that  you  must  finish  the  said  preface  long  before  I  go  to 
press  with  my  Introduction." 

This  was  the  Introduction  to  Ellis's  "  Specimens  of 
Ancient  English  Romances,"  in  which  he  intended  to 
prove,  that  as  Valentia  was,  during  several  ages,  the  ex 
posed  frontier  of  Roman  Britain  towards  the  unsubdued 
tribes  of  the  North,  and  as  two  whole  legions  were  ac 
cordingly  usually  quartered  there,  while  one  besides  suf 
ficed  for  the  whole  southern  part  of  the  island,  the  man 
ners  of  Valentia,  which  included  the  district  of  Ettrick 
Forest,  must  have  been  greatly  favoured  by  the  con 
tinued  residence  of  so  many  Roman  troops.  "It  is 
probable,  therefore,"  he  says,  in  another  letter,  "  that  the 
civilisation  of  the  northern  part  became  gradually  the 
most  perfect.  That  country  gave  birth,  as  you  have 
observed,  to  Merlin,  and  to  Aneurin,  —  who  was  proba 
bly  the  same  as  the  historian  Gildas.  It  seems  to  have 
given  education  to  Taliessin — it  was  the  country  of  Bede 
and  Adonnan." 

I  shall  not  quote  more  on  this  subject,  as  the  reader 
may  turn  to  the  published  essay  for  Mr.  Ellis's  matured 
opinions  respecting  it.  To  return  to  his  letter  of  No 
vember  10th  1803,  he  proceeds:  —  "And  now  let  me 
ask  you  about  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  That,  I 
think,  may  go  on  as  well  in  your  tent,  amidst  the  clang 
of  trumpets  and  the  dust  of  the  field,  as  in  your  quiet 
cottage  —  perhaps  indeed  still  better  —  nay,  I  am  not 
sure  whether  a  real  invasion  would  not  be,  as  far  as  your 
poetry  is  concerned,  a  thing  to  be  wished." 

It  was  in  the  September  of  this  year  that  Scott  first 
*aw  Wordsworth.  Their  common  acquaintance,  Stod- 
dart,  had  so  often  talked  of  them  to  each  other,  tha/ 


WORDSWORTH SEPTEMBER    1803.  125 

they  met  as  if  they  had  not  been  strangers ;  and  they 
parted  friends. 

Mr.  and  Miss  Wordsworth  had  just  completed  that 
tour  in  the  Highlands,  of  which  so  many  incidents  have 
since  been  immortalized,  both  in  the  poet's  verse  and  in 
the  hardly  less  poetical  prose  of  his  sister's  Diary.  On 
the  morning  of  the  17th  of  September,  having  left  their 
carriage  at  Rosslyn,  they  walked  down  the  valley  to 
Lasswade,  and  arrived  there  before  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott 
had  risen.  "  We  were  received,"  Mr.  Wordsworth  has 
told  me,  "  with  that  frank  cordiality  which,  under  what 
ever  circumstances  I  afterwards  met  him,  always  marked 
his  manners  ;  and,  indeed,  I  found  him  then  in  every 
respect  —  except,  perhaps,  that  his  animal  spirits  were 
somewhat  higher  —  precisely  the  same  man  that  you 
knew  him  in  later  life ;  the  same  lively,  entertaining 
conversation,  full  of  anecdote,  and  averse  from  disquisi 
tion ;  the  same  unaffected  modesty  about  himself;  the 
same  cheerful  and  benevolent  and  hopeful  views  of  man 
and  the  world.  He  partly  read  and  partly  recited, 
sometimes  in  an  enthusiastic  style  of  chant,  the  first 
four  cantos  of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel ;  and  the 
novelty  of  the  manners,  the  clear  picturesque  descrip 
tions,  and  the  easy  glowing  energy  of  much  of  the  verse, 
greatly  delighted  me." 

After  this  he  walked  with  the  tourists  to  Rosslyn,  and 
promised  to  meet  them  in  two  days  at  Melrose.  The 
night  before  they  reached  Melrose  they  slept  at  the  little 
quiet  inn  of  Clovenford,  where,  on  mentioning  his  name, 
they  were  received  with  all  sorts  of  attention  and  kind 
ness,  —  the  landlady  observing  that  Mr.  Scott,  "  who 
was  a  very  clever  gentleman,"  was  an  old  friend  of  the 
house,  and  usually  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  there  during 


126  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  fishing  season ;  but,  indeed,  says  Mr.  Wordsworth, 
"  wherever  we  named  him,  we  found  the  word  acted  as 
an  open  sesamum  ;  and  I  believe,  that  in  the  character 
of  the  Sheriff's  friends,  we  might  have  counted  on  a 
hearty  welcome  under  any  roof  in  the  Border  country." 

He  met  them  at  Melrose  on  the  19th,  and  escorted 
them  through  the  Abbey,  pointing  out  all  its  beauties, 
and  pouring  out  his  rich  stores  of  history  and  tradition. 
They  then  dined  and  spent  the  evening  together  at  the 
inn ;  but  Miss  Wordsworth  observed  that  there  was  some 
difficulty  about  arranging  matters  for  the  night,  "the 
landlady  refusing  to  settle  anything  until  she  had  ascer 
tained  from  the  Sheriff  himself  that  he  had  no  objection 
to  sleep  in  the  same  room  with  William'1  Scott  was 
thus  far  on  his  way  to  the  Circuit  Court  at  Jedburgh,  in 
his  capacity  of  Sheriff,  and  there  his  new  friends  again 
joined  him  ;  but  he  begged  that  they  would  not  enter  the 
court,  "  for,"  said  he,  "  I  really  would  not  like  you  to  see 
the  sort  of  figure  I  cut  there."  They  did  see  him  casu 
ally,  however,  in  his  cocked  hat  and  sword,  marching 
in  the  Judge's  procession  to  the  sound  of  one  cracked 
trumpet,  and  were  then  not  surprised  that  he  should 
have  been  a  little  ashamed  of  the  whole  ceremonial.  He 
introduced  to  them  his  friend  William  Laidlaw,  who  was 
attending  the  court  as  a  juryman,  and  who,  having  read 
some  of  Wordsworth's  verses  in  a  newspaper,  was  ex 
ceedingly  anxious  to  be  of  the  party,  when  they  explored 
at  leisure,  all  the  law-business  being  over,  the  beautiful 
valley  of  the  Jed,  and  the  ruins  of  the  Castle  of  Fernie- 
herst,  the  original  fastness  of  the  noble  family  of  Lothiaa 
The  grove  of  stately  ancient  elms  about  and  below  the 
ruin  was  seen  to  great  advantage  in  a  fine,  grey,  breezy 
Hutumnal  afternoon ;  and  Mr.  Wordsworth  happened  to 


WORDSWORTH SEPTEMBER    1803.  127 

Bay,  "  What  life  there  is  in  trees  !  "  —  "  How  different," 
said  Scott,  "  was  the  feeling  of  a  very  intelligent  young 
lady,  born  and  bred  in  the  Orkney  Islands,  who  lately 
came  to  spend  a  season  in  this  neighbourhood !  She  told 
me  nothing  in  the  mainland  scenery  had  so  much  dis 
appointed  her  as  woods  and  trees.  She  found  them  so 
dead  and  lifeless,  that  she  could  never  help  pining  after 
the  eternal  motion  and  variety  of  the  ocean.  And  so 
back  she  has  gone,  and  I  believe  nothing  will  ever  tempt 
her  from  the  wind-swept  Orcades  again." 

Next  day  they  all  proceeded  together  up  the  Teviot  to 
Hawick,  Scott  entertaining  his  friends  with  some  legend 
or  ballad  connected  with  every  tower  or  rock  they  passed. 
He  made  them  stop  for  a  little  to  admire  particularly  a 
scene  of  deep  and  solemn  retirement,  called  Home's  Pool, 
from  its  having  been  the  daily  haunt  of  a  contemplative 
schoolmaster,  known  to  him  in  his  youth ;  and  at  Kirk- 
ton  he  pointed  out  the  little  village  schoolhouse,  to  which 
his  friend  Leyden  had  walked  six  or  eight  miles  every 
day  across  the  moors,  "when  a  poor  barefooted  boy." 
From  Hawick,  where  they  spent  the  night,  he  led  them 
next  morning  to  the  brow  of  a  hill,  from  which  they  could 
see  a  wide  range  of  the  Border  mountains,  Uuberslaw, 
the  Carter,  and  the  Cheviots ;  and  lamented  that  neither 
their  engagements  nor  his  own  would  permit  them  to 
make  at  this  time  an  excursion  into  the  wilder  glens  of 
Liddesdale,  "  where,"  said  he,  "  I  have  strolled  so  often 
and  so  long,  that  I  may  say  I  have  a  home  in  every  farm 
house."  "  And,  indeed,"  adds  Mr.  Wordsworth,  "  where- 
ever  we  went  with  him,  he  seemed  to  know  everybody, 
=md  everybody  to  know  and  like  him."  Here  they 
parted  —  the  Wordsworths  to  pursue  their  journey  home 
ward  by  Eskdale  —  he  to  return  to  Lasswade. 


128  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  impression  on  Mr.  Wordsworth's  mind  wa,;,  that 
on  the  whole  he  attached  much  less  importance  to  his 
literary  labours  or  reputation  than  to  his  bodily  sports, 
exercises,  and  social  amusements ;  and  yet  he  spoke  of 
his  profession  as  if  he  had  already  given  up  almost  all 
hope  of  rising  by  it ;  and  some  allusion  being  made  to  its 
profits,  observed  that  "  he  was  sure  he  could,  if  he  chose, 
get  more  money  than  he  should  ever  wish  to  have  from 
the  booksellers."  * 

This  confidence  in  his  own  literary  resources  appeared 
to  Mr.  Wordsworth  remarkable  —  the  more  so,  from  the 
careless  way  in  which  its  expression  dropt  from  him.  As 
to  his  despondence  concerning  the  Bar,  I  confess  his  fee- 
book  indicates  much  less  ground  for  such  a  feeling  than 
I  should  have  expected  to  discover  there.  His  practice 
brought  him,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  session  of  1796-7, 
£144  10s. ;  —  its  proceeds  fell  down,  in  the  first  year  of  his 
married  life,  to  £79  17s. ;  but  they  rose  again  *in  1798-9, 
to  £135  9s. ;  amounted,  in  1799-1800,  to  £129  13s. ;  in 
1800-1,  to  £170;  in  1801-2,  to  £202  12s.;  and  in  the 
session  that  had  just  elapsed  (which  is  the  last  included 
in  the  record  before  me),  to  £228  18s. 

On  reaching  his  cottage  in  Westmoreland,  Wordsworth 
addressed  a  letter  to  Scott,  from  which  I  must  quote  a 
few  sentences.  It  is  dated  Grasmere,  October  16,  1803. 
"  We  had  a  delightful  journey  home,  delightful  weather, 
and  a  sweet  country  to  travel  through.  We  reached  our 
little  cottage  in  high  spirits,  and  thankful  to  God  for  all 
his  bounties.  My  wife  and  child  were  both  well,  and  as 
I  need  not  say,  we  had  all  of  us  a  happy  meeting 

*  I  have  drawn  up  the  account  of  this  meeting  from  my  recollection 
'•artly  of  Mr.  Wordsworth's  conversation  —  partly  from  that  of  hii 
•ister's  charming  "  Diary,"  which  he  was  so  kind  as  to  read  over  \A 
«ne  on  the  16th  May  1836. 


WORDSWORTH OCTOBER    1803.  129 

We  passed  Branxholme  —  your  Branxholme,  we  sup 
posed  —  about  four  miles  on  this  side  of  Ha  wick.  It 
looks  better  in  your  poem  than  in  its  present  realities. 
The  situation,  however,  is  delightful,  and  makes  amends 
for  an  ordinary  mansion.  The  whole  of  the  Teviot  and 
the  pastoral  steeps  about  Mosspaul  pleased  us  exceed 
ingly.  The  Esk  below  Langholm  is  a  delicious  river, 
and  we  saw  it  to  great  advantage.  We  did  not  omit 
noticing  Johnnie  Armstrong's  Keep ;  but  his  hanging 
place,  to  our  great  regret,  we  missed.  We  were,  indeed, 
most  truly  sorry  that  we  could  not  have  you  along  with 
us  into  Westmoreland.  The  country  was  in  its  full 
glory  —  the  verdure  of  the  valleys,  in  which  we  are  so 
much  superior  to  you  in  Scotland,  but  little  tarnished  by 
the  weather,  and  the  trees  putting  on  their  most  beautiful 
looks.  My  sister  was  quite  enchanted,  and  we  often  said 
to  each  other,  What  a  pity  Mr.  Scott  is  not  with  us !  ... 
I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  Coleridge  and  Southey  at 
Keswick  last  Sunday.  Southey,  whom  I  never  saw 
much  of  before,  I  liked  much  :  he  is  very  pleasant  in  his 
manner,  and  a  man  of  great  reading  in  old  books,  poetry, 
chronicles,  memoirs,  &c.  &c.,  particularly  Spanish  and 

Portuguese My  sister  and  I  often  talk  of  the  happy 

days  that  we  spent  in  your  company.  Such  things  do 
not  occur  often  in  life.  If  we  live  we  shall  meet  again  ; 
that  is  my  consolation  when  I  think  of  these  things. 
Scotland  and  England  sound  like  division,  do  what  ye 
can ;  but  we  really  are  but  neighbours,  and  if  you  were 
no  farther  off,  and  in  Yorkshire,  we  should  think  so. 
Farewell.  God  prosper  you,  and  all  that  belongs  to  you. 
Your  sincere  friend,  for  such  I  will  call  myself,  though 
*low  to  use  a  word  of  such  solemn  meaning  to  any  one, 
»— W.  WORDSWORTH." 

VOL.   H.  9 


130  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  poet  then  transcribes  his  noble  Sonnet  on  Neid- 
path  Castle,  of  which  Scott  had,  it  seems,  requested  a 
copy.  In  the  MS.  it  stands  somewhat  differently  from 
the  printed  edition  ;  but  in  that  original  shape  Scott  al 
ways  recited  it,  and  few  lines  in  the  language  were  more 
frequently  in  his  mouth. 

I  have  already  said  something  of  the  beginning  of 
Scott's  acquaintance  with  "  the  Ettrick  Shepherd." 
Shortly  after  their  first  meeting,  Hogg,  coming  into  Ed 
inburgh  with  a  flock  of  sheep,  was  seized  with  a  sudden 
ambition  of  seeing  himself  in  type,  and  he  wrote  out  that 
same  night  "  Willie  and  Katie,"  and  a  few  other  ballads, 
already  famous  in  the  Forest,  which  some  obscure  book 
seller  gratified  him  by  printing  accordingly ;  but  they 
appear  to  have  attracted  no  notice  beyond  their  original 
sphere.  Hogg  then  made  an  excursion  into  the  High 
lands,  in  quest  of  employment  as  overseer  of  some  ex 
tensive  sheep-farm ;  but,  though  Scott  had  furnished  him 
with  strong  recommendations  to  various  friends,  he  re 
turned  without  success.  He  printed  an  account  of  his 
travels,  however,  in  a  set  of  letters  in  the  Scots  Maga 
zine,  which,  though  exceedingly  rugged  and  uncouth,  had 
abundant  traces  of  the  native  shrewdness  and  genuine 
poetical  feeling  of  this  remarkable  man.  These  also 
failed  to  excite  attention  ;  but,  undeterred  by  such  disap 
pointments,  the  Shepherd  no  sooner  read  the  third  vol 
ume  of  the  "  Minstrelsy,"  than  he  made  up  his  mind  that 
the  Editor's  "  Imitations  of  the  Ancients  "  were  by  no 
means  what  they  should  have  been.  "  Immediately,"  he 
says,  in  one  of  his  many  Memoirs  of  himself,  "  I  chose  a 
number  of  traditional  facts,  and  set  about  imitating  the 
manner  of  the  ancients  myself."  These  imitations  he 
transmitted  to  Scott,  who  warmly  praised  the  many  strik 


THE    ETTRICK    SHEPHERD 1803.  131 

ing  beauties  scattered  over  their  rough  surface.  The 
next  time  that  Hogg's  business  carried  him  to  Edin 
burgh,  he  waited  upon  Scott,  who  invited  him  to  dinner 
in  Castle  Street,  in  company  with  William  Laidlaw,  who 
happened  also  to  be  in  town,  and  some  other  admirers  of 
the  rustic  genius.  When  Hogg  entered  the  drawing- 
room,  Mrs.  Scott,  being  at  the  time  in  a  delicate  state  of 
health,  was  reclining  on  a  sofa.  The  Shepherd,  after 
being  presented,  and  making  his  best  bow,  forthwith  took 
possession  of  another  sofa  placed  opposite  to  hers,  and 
stretched  himself  thereupon  at  all  his  length  ;  for,  as  he 
said  afterwards,  "  I  thought  I  could  never  do  wrong  to 
copy  the  lady  of  the  house."  As  his  dress  at  this  period 
was  precisely  that  in  which  any  ordinary  herdsman  at 
tends  cattle  to  the  market,  and  as  his  hands,  moreover, 
bore  most  legible  marks  of  a  recent  sheep-smearing,  the 
lady  of  the  house  did  not  observe  with  perfect  equanim 
ity  the  novel  usage  to  which  her  chintz  was  exposed. 
The  Shepherd,  however,  remarked  nothing  of  all  this  — 
dined  heartily  and  drank  freely,  and,  by  jest,  anecdote, 
and  song,  afforded  plentiful  merriment  to  the  more  civ 
ilized  part  of  the  company.  As  the  liquor  operated, 
his  familiarity  increased  and  strengthened ;  from  "  Mr. 
Scott,"  he  advanced  to  "  Sherra,"  and  thence  to  "  Scott," 
"  Walter,"  and  "  Wattie,"  —  until,  at  supper,  he  fairly 
convulsed  the  whole  party  by  addressing  Mrs.  Scott  as 
«  Charlotte." 

The  collection  entitled  "  The  Mountain  Bard "  was 
eventually  published  by  Constable,  in  consequence  of 
Scott's  recommendation,  and  this  work  did  at  last  afford 
Hogg  no  slender  share  of  the  popular  reputation  for 
jvliich  he  had  so  long  thirsted.  It  is  not  my  business, 
aowever,  to  pursue  the  details  of  his  story.  What  I 


132  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

havt  written  was  only  to  render  intelligible  the  following 
letter :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Castle  Street,  Edinburgh. 
u  Ettrick-House,  December  24, 1803. 

"Dear  Mr.  Scott,  —  I  have  been  very  impatient  to  hear 
from  you.  There  is  a  certain  affair  of  which  you  and  I  talked 
a  little  in  private,  and  which  must  now  be  concluded,  tha 
naturally  increaseth  this. 

"  I  am  afraid  that  I  was  at  least  half-seas  over  the  night  I 
was  with  you,  for  I  cannot,  for  my  life,  recollect  what  passed 
when  it  was  late ;  and,  there  being  certainly  a  small  vacuum 
in  my  brain,  which,  when  empty,  is  quite  empty,  but  is  some 
times  supplied  with  a  small  distillation  of  intellectual  matter 
—  this  must  have  been  empty  that  night,  or  it  never  could 
have  been  taken  possession  of  by  the  fumes  of  the  liquor  so 
easily.  If  I  was  in  the  state  in  which  I  suspect  that  I  was,  I 
must  have  spoke  a  very  great  deal  of  nonsense,  for  which  I 
beg  ten  thousand  pardons.  I  have  the  consolation,  however, 
of  remembering  that  Mrs.  Scott  kept  in  company  all  or  most 
of  the  time,  which  she  certainly  could  not  have  done,  had  I 
been  very  rude.  I  remember,  too,  of  the  filial  injunction  you 
gave  at  parting,  cautioning  me  against  being  ensnared  by  the 
loose  women  in  town.  I  am  sure  I  had  not  reason  enough  left 
at  that  time  to  express  either  the  half  of  my  gratitude  for  the 
kind  hint,  or  the  utter  abhorrence  I  inherit  at  those  seminaries 
of  lewdness. 

"  You  once  promised  me  your  best  advice  in  the  first  lawsuit 
in  which  I  had  the  particular  happiness  of  being  engaged.  I 
am  now  going  to  ask  it  seriously  in  an  affair,  in  which,  I  am 
sure,  we  will  both  take  as  much  pleasure.  It  is  this :  —  I  have 
as  many  songs  beside  me,  which  are  certainly  the  worst  of 
my  productions,  as  will  make  about  one  hundred  pages  close 
printed,  and  about  two  hundred,  printed  as  the  Minstrelsy  is. 
Now,  although  I  will  not  proceed  without  your  consent  and 
•idvice,  yet  I  would  have  you  to  understand  that  I  expect  it 


THE    ETTRICK    SHEPHERD 1803.  133 

And  have  the  scheme  much  at  heart  at  present.  The  first 
thing  that  suggested  it,  was  their  extraordinary  repute  in  Et- 
trick  and  its  neighbourhood,  and  being  everlastingly  plagued 
with  writing  copies,  and  promising  scores  which  I  never  meant 
to  perform.  As  my  last  pamphlet  was  never  known,  save  to  a 
few  friends,  I  wish  your  advice  what  pieces  of  it  are  worth 
preserving.  The  '  Pastoral '  I  am  resolved  to  insert,  as  I  am 
k  Sandy  Tod.'  As  to  my  manuscripts,  they  are  endless  ;  and 
as  I  doubt  you  will  disapprove  of  publishing  them  wholesale, 
and  letting  the  good  help  off  the  bad,  I  think  you  must  trust 
to  my  discretion  in  the  selection  of  a  few.  I  wish  likewise  to 
know  if  you  think  a  graven  image  on  the  first  leaf  is  any  rec 
ommendation  ;  and  if  we  might  front  the  songs  with  a  letter 
to  you,  giving  an  impartial  account  of  my  manner  of  life  and 
education,  and,  which  if  you  pleased  to  transcribe,  putting  He 
for  I.  Again,  there  is  no  publishing  a  book  without  a  patron, 
and  I  have  one  or  two  in  my  eye,  and  of  which  I  will,  with  my 
wonted  assurance  to  you,  give  you  the  most  free  choice.  The 
first  is  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Advocate,  Sheriff-depute  of  Ettrick 
Forest,  which,  if  permitted,  I  will  address  you  in  a  dedication 
singular  enough.  The  next  is  Lady  Dalkeith,  which,  if  you 
approved  of,  you  must  become  the  Editor  yourself;  and  I  shall 
give  you  my  word  for  it,  that  neither  word  nor  sentiment  in  it 
shall  offend  the  most  delicate  ear.  You  will  not  be  in  the 
least  jealous,  if,  alongst  with  my  services  to  you,  I  present  my 
kindest  compliments  to  the  sweet  little  lady  whom  you  call 
Charlotte.  As  for  Camp  and  Walter  (I  beg  pardon  for  this 
pre-eminence),  they  will  not  mind  them  if  I  should  exhaust 
my  eloquence  in  compliments.  Believe  me,  Dear  Walter, 
vour  most  devoted  servant,  JAMES  HOGG." 

The  reader  will,  I  doubt  not,  be  particularly  amused 
with  one  of  the  suggestions  in  this  letter ;  namely,  that 
Scott  should  transcribe  the  Shepherd's  narrative  in  fore 
of  his  life  and  education,  and  merely  putting  "  He  "  for 
¥  I,"  adopt  it  as  his  own  composition.  James,  however. 


134  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

would  have  had  no  hesitation  about  offering  a  similar  sug 
gestion  either  to  Scott,  or  Wordsworth,  or  Byron,  at  any 
period  of  their  renown.  To  say  nothing  about  modesty, 
his  notions  of  literary  honesty  were  always  exceedingly 
loose ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  we  must  take  into  account 
his  peculiar  notions,  or  rather  no  notions,  as  to  the  proper 
limits  of  a  joke. 

Literature,  like  misery,  makes  men  acquainted  with 
strange  bed-fellows.  Let  us  return  from  the  worthy 
Shepherd  of  Ettrick  to  the  courtly  wit  and  scholar  of 
Sunninghill.  In  the  last  quoted  of  his  letters,  he  ex 
presses  his  fear  that  Scott's  military  avocations  might 
cause  him  to  publish  the  Tristrem  unaccompanied  by  his 
"  Essay  on  the  History  of  Scottish  Poetry."  It  is  need 
less  to  add  that  no  such  Essay  ever  was  completed ;  but 
I  have  heard  Scott  say  that  his  plan  had  been  to  begin 
with  the  age  of  Thomas  of  Ercildoune,  and  bring  the 
subject  down  to  his  own,  illustrating  each  stage  of  his 
progress  by  a  specimen  of  verse  —  imitating  every  great 
master's  style,  as  he  had  done  that  of  the  original  Sir 
Tristrem  in  his  "Conclusion"  Such  a  series  of  pieces 
from  his  hand  would  have  been  invaluable,  merely  as 
bringing  out  in  a  clear  manner  the  gradual  divarication 
of  the  two  great  dialects  of  the  English  tongue ;  but  see 
ing  by  his  "  Verses  on  a  Poacher,"  written  many  years 
after  this,  in  professed  imitation  of  Crabbe,  with  what 
happy  art  he  could  pour  the  poetry  of  his  own  mind  into 
the  mould  of  another  artist,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
we  have  lost  better  things  than  antiquarian  illumination 
by  the  non-completion  of  a  design  in  which  he  should 
have  embraced  successively  the  tone  and  measure  of 
Douglas,  Dunbar,  Lindesay,  Montgomerie,  Hamilton 
Ramsay,  Fergusson,  and  Burns. 


SIR   TRISTREM — 1804.  135 

The  Tristrem  was  now  far  advanced  at  press.  He  saya 
to  Ellis,  on  the  19th  March  1804  —  "As  I  had  a  world 
of  things  to  say  to  you,  I  have  been  culpably,  but  most 
naturally  silent.  When  you  turn  a  bottle  with  its  head 
downmost,  you  must  have  remarked  that  the  extreme  im 
patience  of  the  contents  to  get  out  all  at  once  greatly  im 
pedes  their  getting  out  at  all.  I  have,  however,  been 
forming  the  resolution  of  sending  a  grand  packet  with  Sir 
Tristrem,  who  will  kiss  your  hands  in  about  a  fortnight. 
I  intend  uncastrated  copies  for  you,  Heber,  and  Mr. 
Douce,  who,  I  am  willing  to  hope,  will  accept  this  mark 
of  my  great  respect  and  warm  remembrance  of  his  kind 
ness  while  in  London.  —  Pray  send  me  without  delay  the 
passage  referring  to  Thomas  in  the  French  k  Hornchild.' 
Far  from  being  daunted  with  the  position  of  the  enemy, 
I  am  resolved  to  carry  it  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet,  and, 
like  an  able  general,  to  attack  where  it  would  be  difficult 
to  defend.  Without  metaphor  or  parable,  I  am  deter 
mined,  not  only  that  my  Tomas  shall  be  the  author  of 
Tristrem,  but  that  he  shall  be  the  author  of  Hornchild 
also.  I  must,  however,  read  over  the  romance,  before  I 
can  make  my  arrangements.  Holding,  with  Bitson,  that 
the  copy  in  his  collection  is  translated  from  the  French,  I 
do  not  see  why  we  should  not  suppose  that  the  French 
had  been  originally  a  version  from  our  Thomas.  The  date 
does  not  greatly  frighten  me,  as  I  have  extended  Thomas 
of  Ercildoune's  life  to  the  three-score  and  ten  years  of  the 
Psalmist,  and  consequently  removed  back  the  date  of 
.Sir  Tristrem' to  1250.  The  French  translation  might 
be  written  for  that  matter  within  a  few  days  after  Thom 
as's  work  was  completed  —  and  I  can  allow  a  few  years. 
He  lived  on  the  Border,  already  possessed  by  Norman 
families,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Northumberland,  where 


13 G  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

there  were  many  more.  Do  you  think  the  minstrels  of 
the  Percies,  the  Vescies,  the  Morells,  the  Grais,  and  the 
De  Vaux,  were  not  acquainted  with  honest  Thomas,  their 
next  door  neighbour,  who  was  a  poet,  and  wrote  excellent 
tales  —  and,  moreover,  a  laird,  and  gave,  I  dare  be  sworn> 
good  dinners  ?  —  and  would  they  not  anxiously  translate, 
for  the  amusement  of  their  masters,  a  story  like  Horn- 
child,  so  intimately  connected  with  the  lands  in  which 
they  had  settled  ?  And  do  you  not  think,  from  the  whole 
structure  of  Hornchild,  however  often  translated  and  re 
translated,  that  it  must  have  been  originally  of  northern 
extraction  ?  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you  certain  suspicions 
I  entertain  that  Mr.  Douce's^  fragments  are  the  work  of 
one  Raoull  de  Beauvais,  who  flourished  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  and  for  whose  accommodation 
principally  I  have  made  Thomas,  to  use  a  military  phrase, 
dress  backwards  for  ten  years." 

All  this  playful  language  is  exquisitely  characteristic 
of  Scott's  indomitable  adherence  to  his  own  views.  But 
his  making  Thomas  dress  backwards  —  and  resolving 
that,  if  necessary,  he  shall  be  the  author  of  Hornchild,  as 
well  as  Sir  Tristrem  —  may  perhaps  remind  the  reader 
of  Don  Quixote's  method  of  repairing  the  headpiece 
which,  as  originally  constructed,  one  blow  had  sufficed  to 
demolish  :  — "  Not  altogether  approving  of  his  having 
broken  it  to  pieces  with  so  much  ease,  to  secure  himself 
from  the  like  danger  for  the  future,  he  made  it  over  again, 
fencing  it  with  small  bars  of  iron  within,  in  such  a  man 
ner,  that  he  rested  satisfied  of  its  strength  —  and,  without 
caring  to  make  a  fresh  experiment  on  it,  he  approved  and 
looked  upon  it  as  a  most  excellent  helmet" 

Ellis  having  made  some  observations  on  Scott's  article 
/  aon  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  which  implied  a  notion 


SIR    TRISTREM 1804.  137 

that  he  had  formed  a  regular  connexion  with  the  Edin 
burgh  Review,  he  in  the  same  letter  says  —  "I  quite 
agree  with  you  as  to  the  general  conduct  of  the  Review, 
which  savours  more  of  a  wish  to  display  than  to  instruct ; 
but  as  essays,  many  of  the  articles  are  invaluable,  and 
the  principal  conductor  is  a  man  of  very  acute  and  uni 
versal  talent.  I  am  not  regularly  connected  with  the 
work,  nor  have  I  either  inclination  or  talents  to  use  the 
critical  scalping  knife,  unless  as  in  the  case  of  Godwin, 
where  flesh  and  blood  succumbed  under  the  temptation. 
I  don't  know  if  you  have  looked  into  his  tomes,  of  which 
a  whole  edition  has  vanished  —  I  was  at  a  loss  to  know 
how,  till  I  conjectured  that,  as  the  heaviest  materials  to 
be  come  at,  they  have  been  sent  on  the  secret  expedition, 
planned  by  Mr.  Phillips  and  adopted  by  our  sapient  Gov 
ernment,  for  blocking  up  the  mouth  of  our  enemy's  har 
bours.  They  should  have  had  my  free  consent  to  take 
Phillips  and  Godwin,  and  all  our  other  lumber,  literary 
and  political,  for  the  same  beneficial  purpose.  But  in 
general,  I  think  it  ungentlemanly  to  wound  any  person's 
feelings  through  an  anonymous  publication,  unless  where 
conceit  or  false  doctrine  strongly  calls  for  reprobation. 
Where  praise  can  be  conscientiously  mingled  in  a  larger 
proportion  than  blame,  there  is  always  some  amusement 
in  throwing  together  our  ideas  upon  the  works  of  our  fel 
low-labourers,  and  no  injustice  in  publishing  them.  Or 
such  occasions,  and  in  our  way,  I  may  possibly,  once  or 
twice  a-year,  furnish  my  critical  friends  with  an  article." 
"  Sir  Tristrem  "  was  at  length  published  on  the  2d  of 
May  1804,  by  Constable,  who,  however,  expected  so  little 
popularity  for  the  work  that  the  edition  consisted  only  of 
150  copies.  These  were  sold  at  a  high  price  (two  guin 
«as),  otherwise  they  would  not  have  been  enough  to  covei 


138  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  expenses  of  paper  and  printing.  Mr.  Ellis,  and  Scott's 
other  antiquarian  friends,  were  much  dissatisfied  with 
these  arrangements ;  but  I  doubt  not  that  Constable  was 
a  better  judge  than  any  of  them.  The  work,  however, 
partook  in  due  time  of  the  favour  attending  its  editor's 
name.  In  1806,  750  copies  were  called  for ;  and  1000 
in  1811.  After  that  time  Sir  Tristrem  was  included  in 
the  collective  editions  of  Scott's  poetry ;  but  he  had  never 
parted  with  the  copyright,  merely  allowing  his  general 
publishers  to  insert  it  among  his  other  works,  whenever 
they  chose  to  do  so,  as  a  matter  of  courtesy.  It  was  not 
a  performance  from  which  he  had  ever  anticipated  any 
pecuniary  profit,  but  it  maintained  at  least,  if  it  did  not 
raise,  his  reputation  in  the  circle  of  his  fellow-antiqua 
ries  ;  and  his  own  Conclusion,  in  the  manner  of  the  origi 
nal  romance  must  always  be  admired  as  a  remarkable 
specimen  of  skill  and  dexterity. 

As  to  the  arguments  of  the  Introduction,  I  shall  not  in 
this  place  attempt  any  discussion.*  Whether  the  story 
of  Tristrem  was  first  told  in  Welsh,  Armorican,  French, 
or  English  verse,  there  can:  I  think,  be  no  doubt  that  it 
had  been  told  in  verse,  with  such  success  as  to  obtain  very 
general  renown,  by  Thomas  of  Ercildoune,  and  that  the 
copy  edited  by  Scott  was  either  the  composition  of  one 
who  had  heard  the  old  Rhymer  recite  his  lay,  or  the  iden 
tical  lay  itself.  The  introduction  of  Thomas's  name  in 
the  third  person,  as  not  the  author,  but  the  author's  au 
thority,  appears  to  have  had  a  great  share  in  convincing 
Scott  that  the  Auchinleck  MS.  contained  not  the  orig- 

*  The  critical  reader  will  find  all  the  learning  on  the  subject  brought 
together  with  much  ability  in  the  Preface  to  "  The  Poetical  Romances 
of  Tristan,  in  French,  in  Anglo-Norman,  and  in  Greek,  composed  in 
the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  Centuries  —  Edited  by  Franc/sque  Mi 
the!,'1  2  vols.  London,  1835. 


SIR    TRISTREM  —  1804.  139 

mal,  but  the  copy  of  an  English  admirer  and  contempo 
rary.  This  point  seems  to  have  been  rendered  more 
doubtful  by  some  quotations  in  the  recent  edition  of  War- 
ton's  History  of  English  Poetry ;  but  the  argument  de 
rived  from  the  enthusiastic  exclamation  "  God  help  Sir 
Tristrem  the  knight  —  he  fought  for  England,"  still 
remains ;  and  stronger  perhaps  even  than  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  modern  philologists,  is  the  total  absence  of 
any  Scottish  or  even  Northumbrian  peculiarities  in  the 
diction. 

All  this  controversy  may  be  waived  here.  Scott's 
object  and  delight  was  to  revive  the  fame  of  the  Rhymer, 
whose  traditional  history  he  had  listened  to  while  yet  an 
infant  among  the  crags  of  Smailholme.  He  had  already 
celebrated  him  in  a  noble  ballad ;  *  he  now  devoted  a 
volume  to  elucidate  a  fragment  supposed  to  be  substan 
tially  his  work  ;  and  we  shall  find  that  thirty  years  after, 
when  the  lamp  of  his  own  genius  was  all  but  spent,  it 
could  still  revive  and  throw  out  at  least  some  glimmer 
ings  of  its  original  brightness  at  the  name  of  Thomas 
of  Ercildoune.t 

«  See  Poetical  Works  (Edition  1841),  pp.  572-581. 
T  Compare  the  Fifth  Chapter  of  Castle  Dangerous.  —  Waverley  NOT- 
ik 


140  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Removal  to  Ashestiel  —  Death  of  Captain  Robert  Scott  — 
Mungo  Park  —  Completion  and  Publication  of  the  Lay  of 
the  Last  Minstrel. 

1804-1805. 

IT  has  been  mentioned,  that  in  the  course  of  the  pre 
ceding  summer,  the  Lord-Lieutenant  of  Selkirkshire  com 
plained  of  Scott's  military  zeal  as  interfering  sometimes 
with  the  discharge  of  his  shrieval  functions,  and  took 
occasion  to  remind  him,  that  the  law,  requiring  every 
Sheriff  to  reside  at  least  four  months  in  the  year  within 
his  own  jurisdiction,  had  not  hitherto  been  complied  with. 
It  appears  that  Scott  received  this  communication  with 
some  displeasure,  being  conscious  that  no  duty  of  any  im 
portance  had  ever  been  neglected  by  him ;  well  knowing 
that  the  law  of  residence  was  not  enforced  in  the  cases  of 
ttany  of  his  brother  sheriffs ;  and,  in  fact,  ascribing  his 
Lord-Lieutenant's  complaint  to  nothing  but  a  certain 
nervous  fidget  as  to  all  points  of  form,  for  which  that 
respectable  nobleman  was  notorious,  as  well  became, 
perhaps,  an  old  High  Commissioner  to  the  General  As 
sembly  of  the  Kirk.  Scott,  however,  must  have  been 
found  so  clearly  in  the  wrong,  had  the  case  been  sub 
mitted  to  the  Secretary  of  State,  and  Lord  Napier  con 
ducted  the  correspondence  with  such  courtesy,  never 
failing  to  allege  as  a  chief  argument  the  pleasure  which 


ASHESTIEL 1804.  141 

it  would  afford  himself  and  the  other  gentlemen  of  Sel 
kirkshire  to  have  more  of  their  Sheriff's  society,  that, 
while  it  would  have  been  highly  imprudent  to  persist, 
there  could  be  no  mortification  in  yielding.  He  flattered 
himself  that  his  active  habits  would  enable  him  to  main 
tain  his  connexion  with  the  Edinburgh  Cavalry  as  usual ; 
and,  perhaps,  he  also  flattered  himself,  that  residing  for 
the  summer  in  Selkirkshire  would  not  interfere  more 
seriously  with  his  business  as  a  barrister,  than  the  oc 
cupation  of  the  cottage  at  Lasswade  had  hitherto  done. 
While  he  was  seeking  about,  accordingly,  for  some 
"  lodge  in  the  Forest,"  his  kinsman  of  Harden  suggested 
that  the  tower  of  Auld  Wat  might  be  refitted,  so  as  to 
serve  his  purpose;  and  he  received  the  proposal  with 
enthusiastic  delight.  On  a  more  careful  inspection  of  the 
localities,  however,  he  became  sensible  that  he  would  be 
practically  at  a  greater  distance  from  county  business  of 
all  kinds  at  Harden,  than  if  he  were  to  continue  at  Lass- 
wade.  Just  at  this  time,  the  house  of  Ashestiel,  situated 
on  the  southern  bank  of  the  Tweed,  a  few  miles  from 
Selkirk,  became  vacant  by  the  death  of  its  proprietor, 
Colonel  Russell,  who  had  married  a  sister  of  Scott's 
mother,  and  the  consequent  dispersion  of  the  family. 
The  young  laird  of  Ashestiel,  his  cousin,  was  then  in 
India ;  and  the  Sheriff  took  a  lease  of  the  house  and 
grounds,  with  a  small  farm  adjoining.  On  the  4th  May, 
two  days  after  the  Tristrem  had  been  published,  he  says 
to  Ellis  —  "I  have  been  engaged  in  travelling  backwards 
and  forwards  to  Selkirkshire  upon  little  pieces  of  business, 
just  important  enough  to  prevent  my  doing  anything  to 
purpose.  One  great  matter,  however,  I  have  achieved, 
which  is,  procuring  myself  a  place  of  residence,  which 
will  save  me  these  teasing  migrations  in  future,  so  that 


142  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

though  I  part  with  my  sweet  little  cottage  011  the  banks 
of  the  Esk,  you  will  find  me  *  this  summer  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  ancient  Reged,  in  a  decent  farm-house  over 
hanging  the  Tweed,  and  situated  in  a  wild  pastoral  coun 
try"  And  again,  on  the  19th,  he  thus  apologizes  for  not 
having  answered  a  letter  of  the  10th :  —  "  For  more  than 
a  month  my  head  was  fairly  tenanted  by  ideas,  which, 
though  strictly  pastoral  and  rural,  were  neither  literary 
nor  poetical.  Long  sheep  and  short  sheep,  and  tups  and 
gimmjrs,  and  hogs  and  dinmonts,  had  made  a  perfect 
sheepfold  of  my  understanding,  which  is  hardly  yet 
cleared  of  them.*  —  I  hope  Mrs.  Ellis  will  clap  a  bridle 
on  her  imagination.  Ettrick  Forest  boasts  finely  shaped 
hills  and  clear  romantic  streams ;  but,  alas !  they  are 
bare,  to  wildness,  and  denuded  of  the  beautiful  natural 

*  Describing  his  meeting  with  Scott  in  the  summer  of  1801,  James 
Hogg-  says — "  During  the  sociality  of  the  evening,  the  discourse  ran 
eery  much  on  the  different  breeds  of  sheep,  that  curse  of  the  commu 
nity  of  Ettrick  Forest.  The  original  black-faced  Forest  breed  being 
always  called  the  short  sheep,  and  the  Cheviot  breed  the  long  sheep,  the 
lisputes  at  that  period  ran  very  high  about  the  practicable  profits  of 
jach.  Mr.  Scott,  who  had  come  into  that  remote  district  to  preserve 
what  fragments  remained  of  its  legendary  lore,  was  rather  bored  with 
Everlasting  questions  of  the  long  and  the  short  sheep.  So  at  length, 
putting  on  his  most  serious,  calculating  face,  he  turned  to  Mr.  Waller 
Bryden,  and  said,  '  I  am  rather  at  a  loss  regarding  the  merits  of  this 
very  important  question.  How  long  must  a  sheep  actually  measure  to 
come  under  the  denomination  of  a  long  sheep  ? '  Mr.  Bryden,  who,  in 
the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  neither  perceived  the  quiz  nor  the  reproof, 
fell  to  answer  with  great  sincerity.  '  It's  the  woo'  [wool],  sir  —  it's  the 
woo'  that  makes  the  difference.  The  lang  sheep  ha'e  the  short  woo', 
and  the  short  sheep  ha'e  the  lang  thing,  and  these  are  just  kind  o' 
names  we  gi'e  them,  like.'  Mr.  Scott  could  not  preserve  his  grave 
ace  of  strict  calculation:  it  went  gradually  awry,  and  a  hearty 
yuffaw"  [i.  e.  horselaugh]  "followed.  When  I  saw  the  very  same 
words  repeated  near  the  beginning  of  the  '  Black  Dwarf,'  how  could 
I  be  mistaken  of  the  author?" — Autobiography  prefixed  to  HOGG'I 
AUrive  Tales. 


ASHEST1EL  —  1804.  14fl 

wood  with  which  they  were  formerly  shaded.  It  is  rnoi 
tifying  to  see  that,  though  wherever  the  sheep  are  ex 
cluded,  the  copse  has  immediately  sprung  up  in  abun 
dance,  so  that  enclosures  only  are  wanting  to  restore  thf 
wood  wherever  it  might  be  useful  or  ornamental,  yef 
hardly  a  proprietor  has  attempted  to  give  it  fair  play  for 
a  resurrection.  .  .  .  You  see  we  reckon  positively  on  yoi 
—  the  more  because  our  arch-critic  Jeffrey  tells  me  thai 
he  met  you  in  London,  and  found  you  still  inclined  for  t 
northern  trip.  All  our  wise  men  in  the  north  are  re 
joiced  at  the  prospect  of  seeing  George  Ellis.  If  you 
delay  your  journey  till  July,  I  shall  then  be  free  of  the 
Courts  of  Law,  and  will  meet  you  upon  the  Border,  af 
whatever  side  you  enter." 

The  business  part  of  these  letters  refers  to  Scott's 
brother  Daniel,  who,  as  he  expresses  it,  "  having  been 
bred  to  the  mercantile  line,  had  been  obliged  by  some  un 
toward  circumstances,  particularly  an  imprudent  connex 
ion  with  an  artful  woman,  to  leave  Edinburgh  for  Liv 
erpool,  and  now  to  be  casting  his  eyes  towards  Jamaica." 
Scott  requests  Ellis  to  help  him  if  he  can,  by  introduc 
ing  him  to  some  of  his  own  friends  or  agents  in  that 
island ;  and  Ellis  furnishes  him  accordingly  with  letters 
to  Mr.  Blackburne,  a  friend  and  brother  proprietor,  who 
appears  to  have  paid  Daniel  Scott  every  possible  atten 
tion,  and  soon  provided  him  with  suitable  employment 
on  a  healthy  part  of  his  estates.  But  the  same  low 
tastes  and  habits  which  had  reduced  the  unfortunate 
^oung  man  to  the  necessity  of  expatriating  himself,  re* 
curred  after  a  brief  season  of  penitence  and  order,  and 
ixmtinued  until  he  had  accumulated  great  affliction  upon 
all  his  family. 

On  the  10th  of  June  1804,  died,  at  his  seat  of  Rose- 


144  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

bank,  Captain  Robert  Scott,  the  affectionate  uncle  whose 
name  has  often  occurred  in  this  narrative.*  "  He  was," 
says  his  nephew  to  Ellis,  on  the  18th,  "  a  man  of  univer 
sal  benevolence  and  great  kindness  towards  his  friends, 
and  to  me  individually.  His  manners  were  so  much 
tinged  with  the  habits  of  celibacy  as  to  render  them 
peculiar,  though  by  no  means  unpleasingly  so,  and  his 
profession  (that  of  a  seaman)  gave  a  high  colouring  to 
the  whole.  The  loss  is  one  which,  though  the  course 
of  nature  led  me  to  expect  it,  did  not  take  place  at 
last  without  considerable  pain  to  my  feelings.  The  ar 
rangement  of  his  affairs,  and  the  distribution  of  his  small 
fortune  among  his  relations,  will  devolve  in  a  great  meas 
ure  upon  me.  He  has  distinguished  me  by  leaving  me 
a  beautiful  little  villa  on  the  banks  of  the  Tweed,  with 
every  possible  convenience  annexed  to  it,  and  about  thir 
ty  acres  of  the  finest  land  in  Scotland.  Notwithstanding, 
however,  the  temptation  that  this  bequest  offers,  I  con 
tinue  to  pursue  my  Reged  plan,  and  expect  to  be  settled 
at  Ashestiel  in  the  course  of  a  month.  Rosebank  is  sit 
uated  so  near  the  village  of  Kelso  as  hardly  to  be  suffi 
ciently  a  country  residence  ;  besides,  it  is  hemmed  in  by 
hedges  and  ditches,  not  to  mention  Dukes  and  Lady  Dow 
agers,  which  are  bad  things  for  little  people.  It  is  ex 
pected  to  sell  to  great  advantage.  I  shall  buy  a  mountain 
farm  with  the  purchase-money,  and  be  quite  the  Laird  of 
the  Cairn  and  the  Scaur." 

Scott  sold  Rosebank   in   the  course  of  the  year  for 
£5000  ;  his  share  (being  a  ninth)  of  his  uncle's  other 

*  In  the  obituary  of  the  Scots  Magazine  for  this  month  I  find :  — 
'  Universally  regretted,  Captain  Robert  Scott  of  Rosebank,  a  gentle 
man  whose  life  afforded  an  uniform  example  of  unostentatious  charity 
vid  extensive  benevolence." 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS.  145 

property,  amounted,  I  believe,  to  about  £500 ;  and  he 
had  besides  a  legacy  of  £100  in  his  quality  of  trustee. 
This  bequest  made  an  important  change  in  his  pecuniary 
position,  and  influenced  accordingly  the  arrangements  of 
his  future  life.  Independently  of  practice  at  the  Bar, 
and  of  literary  profits,  he  was  now,  with  his  little  pat 
rimony,  his  Sheriffship,  and  about  £200  per  annum  aris 
ing  from  the  stock  ultimately  settled  on  his  wife,  in 
possession  of  a  fixed  revenue  of  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
£1000  a-year. 

On  the  1st  of  August  he  writes  10  Ellis  from  Ashestiel 
— "  Having  had  only  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  things 
to  do,  I  have  scarcely  done  anything,  and  yet  could  not 
give  myself  leave  to  suppose  that  I  had  leisure  to  write 
letters.  1st,  I  had  this  farm-house  to  furnish  from  sales, 
from  brokers'  shops,  and  from  all  manner  of  hospitals 
for  incurable  furniture.  2dly,  I  had  to  let  my  cottage 
on  the  banks  of  the  Esk.  3dfy,  I  had  to  arrange  mat 
ters  for  the  sale  of  Rosebank.  4thly,  I  had  to  go  into 
parters  with  our  cavalry,  which  made  a  very  idle  fort 
night  in  the  midst  of  all  this  business.  Last  of  all,  I 
had  to  superintend  a  removal,  or  what  we  call  a  flitting, 
which,  of  all  bores  under  the  cope  of  Heaven,  is  bore 
the  most  tremendous.  After  all  these  storms,  we  are 
now  most  comfortably  settled,  and  have  only  to  regret 
deeply  our  disappointment  at  finding  your  northern 
march  blown  up.  We  had  been  projecting  about  twen 
ty  expeditions,  and  were  pleasing  ourselves  at  Mrs. 
Ellis's  expected  surprise  on  finding  herself  so  totally 
built  in  by  mountains  as  I  am  at  the  present  writing 
hereof.  We  are  seven  miles  from  kirk  and  market, 
We  rectify  the  last  inconvenience  by  killing  our  own 
\nutton  and  poultry  ;  and  as  to  the  former,  finding  there 
VOL.  n.  10 


146         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

was  some  chance  of  my  family  turning  pagans,  \  liave 
adopted  the  goodly  practice  of  reading  prayers  every 
Sunday,  to  the  great  edification  of  my  household.  Think 
of  this,  you  that  have  the  happiness  to  be  within  two 
steps  of  the  church,  and  commiserate  those  who  dwell 
in  the  wilderness.  I  showed  Charlotte  yesterday  the 
Oatrail,  and  told  her  that  to  inspect  that  venerable  mon 
ument  was  one  main  object  of  your  intended  journey  to 
Scotland.  She  is  of  opinion  that  ditches  must  be  more 
scarce  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Windsor  Forest  than  she 
had  hitherto  had  the  least  idea  of." 

Ashestiel  will  be  visited  by  many  for  his  sake,  as  long 
as  Waverley  and  Marmion  are  remembered.  A  more 
beautiful  situation  for  the  residence  of  a  poet  could  not 
be  conceived.  The  house  was  then  a  small  one,  but, 
compared  with  the  cottage  at  Lasswade,  its  accommoda 
tions  were  amply  sufficient.  You  approached  it  through 
in  old-fashioned  garden,  with  holly  hedges,  and  broad, 
green,  terrace  walks.  On  one  side,  close  under  the  win 
dows,  is  a  deep  ravine,  clothed  with  venerable  trees,  down 
which  a  mountain  rivulet  is  heard,  more  than  seen,  in  its 
progress  to  the  Tweed.  The  river  itself  is  separated 
from  the  high  bank  on  which  the  house  stands  only  by 
a  narrow  meadow  of  the  richest  verdure.  Opposite,  and 
all  around,  are  the  green  hills.  The  valley  there  is  nar 
row,  and  the  aspect  in  every  direction  is  that  of  perfect 
pastoral  repose.  The  heights  immediately  behind  are 
thDse  which  divide  the  Tweed  from  the  Yarrow  ;  and 
the  latter  celebrated  stream  lies  within  an  easy  ride,  in 
the  course  of  which  the  traveller  passes  through  a  va 
riety  of  the  finest  mountain  scenery  in  the  south  of 
Scotland.  No  town  is  within  seven  miles  but  Selkirk, 
tfhich  was  then  still  smaller  and  quieter  than  it  is  now 


ASHESTIEL  —  JAMES   HOGG.  147 

there  was  hardly  even  a  gentleman's  family  within  \  isit- 
ing  distance,  except  at  Yair,  a  few  miles  lower  on  the 
Tweed,  the  ancient  seat  of  the  Pringles  of  Whytbank, 
and  at  Bowhill,  between  the  Yarrow  and  Ettrick,  where 
the  Earl  of  Dalkeith  used  occasionally  to  inhabit  a  small 
shooting-lodge,  which  has  since  grown  into  a  magnificent 
ducal  residence.  The  country  all  around,  with  here  and 
there  an  insignificant  exception,  belongs  to  the  Buccleuch 
estate  ;  so  that,  whichever  way  he  chose  to  turn,  the  bard 
of  the  clan  had  ample  room  and  verge  enough,  and  all 
appliances  to  boot,  for  every  variety  of  field  sport  that 
might  happen  to  please  his  fancy ;  and  being  then  in  the 
prime  vigour  of  manhood,  he  was  not  slow  to  profit  by 
these  advantages.  Meantime,  the  concerns  of  his  own 
little  farm,  and  the  care  of  his  absent  relation's  woods, 
gave  him  healthful  occupation  in  the  intervals  of  the 
chase ;  and  he  had  long,  solitary  evenings  for  the  unin 
terrupted  exercise  of  his  pen ;  perhaps,  on  the  whole, 
better  opportunities  of  study  than  he  had  ever  enjoyed 
before,  or  was  to  meet  with  elsewhere  in  later  days. 

When  he  first  examined  Ashestiel,  with  a  view  to 
being  his  cousin's  tenant,  he  thought  of  taking  home 
James  Hogg  to  superintend  the  sheep-farm,  and  keep 
watch  over  the  house  also  during  the  winter.  I  am 
not  able  to  tell  exactly  in  what  manner  this  proposal 
fell  to  the  ground.  In  January  1804,  the  Shepherd 
writes  to  him:  —  "I  have  no  intention  of  waiting  for 
so  distant  a  prospect  as  that  of  being  manager  of  your 
farm,  though  I  have  no  doubt  of  our  joint  endeavour 
proving  successful,  nor  yet  of  your  willingness  to  em 
ploy  me  in  that  capacity.  His  grace  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
xleuch  hath  at  present  a  farm  vacant  in  Eskdale,  and  I 
have  been  importuned  by  friends  to  get  a  letter  from 


148  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

you  and  apply  for  it.  You  can  hardly  be  conscious 
what  importance  your  protection  hath  given  me  already, 
not  only  in  mine  own  eyes,  but  even  in  those  of  othei  s. 
You  might  write  to  him,  or  to  any  of  the  family  you  are 
best  acquainted  with,  stating  that  such  and  such  a  char 
acter  was  about  leaving  his  native  country  for  want  of 
a  residence  in  the  farming  line."  I  am  very  doubtful 
Sf  Scott — however  willing  to  encounter  the  risk  of  em 
ploying  Hogg  as  his  own  grieve  or  bailiff — would  have 
felt  himself  justified  at  this,  or  indeed  at  any  time,  in 
recommending  him  as  the  tenant  of  a  considerable  farm 
on  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  estate.  But  I  am  also  quite 
at  a  loss  to  comprehend  how  Hogg  should  have  conceived 
it  possible,  at  this  period,  when  he  certainly  had  no  cap* 
ital  whatever,  that  the  Duke's  Chamberlain  should  agree 
to  accept  him  for  a  tenant,  on  any  attestation,  however 
strong,  as  to  the  excellence  of  his  character  and  inten 
tions.  Be  that  as  it  may,  if  Scott  made  the  application 
which  the  Shepherd  suggested,  it  failed.  So  did  a  ne 
gotiation  which  he  certainly  did  enter  upon  about  the 
same  time  with  the  late  Earl  of  Caernarvon  (then  Lord 
Porchester),  through  that  nobleman's  aunt,  Mrs.  Scott  of 
Harden,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  for  Hogg  the  situa 
tion  of  bailiff  on  one  of  his  Lordship's  estates  in  the  west 
of  England ;  and  such,  I  believe,  was  the  result  of  sev 
eral  other  attempts  of  the  same  kind  with  landed  propri 
etors  nearer  home.  Perhaps  the  Shepherd  had  already 
set  his  heart  so  much  on  taking  rank  as  a  farmer  in  hia 
own  district,  that  he  witnessed  the  failure  of  any  such  ne 
gotiations  with  indifference.  As  regards  the  management 
rf  Ashestiel,  I  find  no  trace  of  that  proposal  having  ever 
been  renewed. 

In  truth,  Scott  had  hardly  been  a  week  in  possession 


MUNGO    PARK  —  1804  1-49 

of  his  new  domains,  before  he  made  acquaintance  with  a 
character  much  better  suited  to  his  purpose  than  James 
Hogg  ever  could  have  been.  I  mean  honest  Thomas 
Purdie,  his  faithful  servant  —  his  affectionately  devoted 
humble  friend  from  this  time  until  death  parted  them. 
Tom  was  first  brought  before  him,  in  his  capacity  of 
Sheriff,  on  a  charge  of  poaching,  when  the  poor  fellow 
gave  such  a  touching  account  of  his  circumstances, — 
a  wife,  and  I  know  not  how  many  children,  depending 
on  his  exertions  —  work  scarce  and  grouse  abundant,  — 
and  all  this  with  a  mixture  of  odd  sly  humour,  —  that 
the  Sheriff's  heart  was  moved.  Tom  escaped  the  pen 
alty  of  the  law  —  was  taken  into  employment  as  shep 
herd,  and  showed  such  zeal,  activity,  and  shrewdness  in 
that  capacity,  that  Scott  never  had  any  occasion  to  re 
pent  of  the  step  he  soon  afterwards  took,  in  promoting 
him  to  the  position  which  had  been  originally  offered  to 
James  Hogg. 

It  was  also  about  the  same  time  that  he  took  into  his 
service  as  coachman  Peter  Mathieson,  brother-in-law  to 
Thomas  Purdie,  another  faithful  servant,  who  never  af 
terwards  left  him,  and  still  survives  his  kind  master. 
Scott's  awkward  management  of  the  little  phaeton  had 
exposed  his  wife  to  more  than  one  perilous  overturn, 
before  he  agreed  to  set  up  a  close  carriage,  and  call  in  the 
assistance  of  this  steady  charioteer. 

During  this  autumn  Scott  formed  the  personal  acquaint 
ance  of  Mungo  Park,  the  celebrated  victim  of  African 
discovery.  On  his  return  from  his  first  expedition,  Park 
endeavoured  to  establish  himself  as  a  medical  practitioner 
in  the  town  of  Ha  wick,  but  the  drudgeries  of  that  calling 
in  such  a  district  soon  exhausted  his  ardent  temper,  and 
he  was  now  living  in  seclusion  in  his  native  cottage  at 


150  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Fowlsheils  on  the  Yarrow,  nearly  opposite  Newark  Cas 
tie.  His  brother,  Archibald  Park  (then  tenant  of  a 
large  farm  on  the  Buccleuch  estate),  a  man  remarkable 
for  strength  both  of  mind  and  body,  introduced  the  trav 
eller  to  the  Sheriff.  They  soon  became  much  attached 
to  each  other ;  and  Scott  supplied  some  interesting  an 
ecdotes  of  their  brief  intercourse,  to  Mr.  Wishaw,  the 
editor  of  Park's  posthumous  Journal,  with  which  I  shall 
blend  a  fev>  minor  circumstances,  gathered  from  him  in 
conversation  long  afterwards.  "  On  one  occasion,"  he 
says,  "  the  traveller  communicated  to  him  some  very 
remarkable  adventures  which  had  befallen  him  in  Af 
rica,  but  which  he  had  not  recorded  in  his  book."  On 
Scott's  asking  the  cause  of  this  silence,  Mungo  answered, 
"  That  in  all  cases  where  he  had  information  to  commu 
nicate,  which  he  thought  of  importance  to  the  public, 
he  had  stated  the  facts  boldly,  leaving  it  to  his  readers 
to  give  such  credit  to  his  statements  as  they  might  ap 
pear  justly  to  deserve  ;  but  that  he  would  not  shock  their 
faith,  or  render  his  travels  more  marvellous,  by  introduc 
ing  circumstances,  which,  however  true,  were  of  little 
or  no  moment,  as  they  related  solely  to  his  own  personal 
adventures  and  escapes."  This  reply  struck  Scott  as 
highly  characteristic  of  the  man;  and  though  strongly 
tempted  to  set  down  some  of  these  marvels  for  Mr. 
Wishaw's  use,  he  on  reflection  abstained  from  doing  so, 
holding  it  unfair  to  record  what  the  adventurer  had  de 
liberately  chosen  to  suppress  hi  his  own  narrative.  He 
confirms  the  account  given  by  Park's  biographer,  of  his 
cold  and  reserved  manners  to  strangers  ;  and  in  partic 
ular,  of  his  disgust  with  the  indirect  questions  which  curi 
ous  visitors  would  often  put  to  him  upon  the  subject  of 
his  travels.  "  This  practice,"  said  Mungo,  "  exposes  ma 


MUNGO    PARK  —  1804.  151 

to  two  risks  ;  either  that  I  may  not  understand  the  ques 
tions  meant  to  be  put,  or  that  my  answers  to  them  may 
be  misconstrued ; "  and  he  contrasted  such  conduct  with 
the  frankness  of  Scott's  revered  friend,  Dr.  Adam  Fer- 
gusson,  who,  the  very  first  day  the  traveller  dined  with 
him  at  Hallyards,  spread  a  large  map  of  Africa  on  the 
table,  and  made  him  trace  out  his  progress  thereupon, 
inch  by  inch,  questioning  him  minutely  as  to  every  step 
he  had  taken.  "  Here,  however,"  says  Scott,  "  Dr.  F. 
was  using  a  privilege  to  which  he  was  well  entitled  by 
his  venerable  age  and  high  literary  character,  but  which 
could  not  have  been  exercised  with  propriety  by  any 
common  stranger." 

Calling  one  day  at  Fowlsheils,  and  not  finding  Park 
at  home,  Scott  walked  in  search  of  him  along  the  banks 
of  the  Yarrow,  which  in  that  neighbourhood  passes  over 
various  ledges  of  rock,  forming  deep  pools  and  eddies 
between  them.  Presently  he  discovered  his  friend  stand 
ing  alone  on  the  bank,  plunging  one  stone  after  another 
into  the  water,  and  watching  anxiously  the  bubbles  as 
they  rose  to  the  surface.  "  This,"  said  Scott,  "  appears 
but  an  idle  amusement  for  one  who  has  seen  so  much 
stirring  adventure."  "  Not  so  idle,  perhaps,  as  you  sup 
pose,"  answered  Mungo :  —  "  This  was  the  manner  in 
which  I  used  to  ascertain  the  depth  of  a  river  in  Africa 
before  I  ventured  to  cross  it — judging  whether  the  at 
tempt  would  be  safe,  by  the  time  the  bubbles  of  air  took 
to  ascend."  At  this  time  Park's  intention  of  a  second 
expedition  had  never  been  revealed  to  Scott ;  but  he 
instantly  formed  the  opinion  that  these  experiments  on 
Yarrow  were  connected  with  some  such  purpose. 

His  thoughts  had  always  continued  to  be  haunted  with 
Africa.  He  told  Scott,  that  whenever  he  awoke  sud- 


152  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

denly  in  the  night,  owing  to  a  nervous  disorder  with 
which  he  was  troubled,  he  fancied  himself  still  a  pris 
oner  in  the  tent  of  Ali ;  but  when  the  poet  expressed 
some  surprise  that  he  should  design  again  to  revisit 
those  scenes,  he  answered,  that  he  would  rather  brave 
Africa  and  all  its  horrors,  than  wear  out  his  life  in  long 
and  toilsome  rides  over  the  hills  of  Scotland,  for  which 
the  remuneration  was  hardly  enough  to  keep  soul  and 
body  together. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  autumn,  when  about  to  quit 
his  country  for  the  last  time,  Park  paid  Scott  a  farewell 
visit,  and  slept  at  Ashestiel.  Next  morning  his  host 
accompanied  him  homewards  over  the  wild  chain  of 
hills  between  the  Tweed  and  the  Yarrow.  Park  talked 
much  of  his  new  scheme,  and  mentioned  his  determina 
tion  to  tell  his  family  that  he  had  some  business  for  a  day 
or  two  in  Edinburgh,  and  send  them  his  blessing  from 
thence,  without  returning  to  take  leave.  He  had  mar 
ried,  not  long  before,  a  pretty  and  amiable  woman  ;  and 
when  they  reached  the  Williamhope  ridge,  "  the  autum 
nal  mist  floating  heavily  and  slowly  down  the  valley  of 
the  Yarrow,"  presented  to  Scott's  imagination  "  a  striking 
emblem  of  the  troubled  and  uncertain  prospect  which  his 
undertaking  afforded."  He  remained,  however,  unshaken, 
and  at  length  they  reached  the  spot  at  which  they  had 
agreed  to  separate.  A  small  ditch  divided  the  moor  from 
the  road,  and,  in  going  over  it,  Park's  horse  stumbled,  and 
nearly  fell.  "  I  am  afraid,  Mungo,"  said  the  Sheriff, 
"  that  is  a  bad  omen."  To  which  he  answered,  smiling, 
"Freits  (omens)  follow  those  who  look  to  them."  With 
this  expression  Muugo  struck  the  spurs  into  his  horse, 
and  Scott  never  saw  him  again.  His  parting  proverb, 
by  the  way,  was  probably  suggested  by  one  of  the  Border 


LAI     OF    THE    LAST    MINS1HEL.  153 

ballads,  in  which  species  of  lore  he  was  almost  as  great  a 
proficient  as  the  Sheriff  himself ;  for  we  read  in  "  Edom 
o'  Gordon,"  - 

"  Them  look  to  freits,  my  master  dear, 
Then  freits  will  follow  them." 

I  must  not  omit  that  George  Scott,  the  unfortunate 
companion  of  Park's  second  journey,  was  the  son  of  a 
tenant  on  the  Buccleuch  estate,  whose  skill  in  drawing 
having  casually  attracted  the  Sheriff's  attention,  he  was 
recommended  by  him  to  the  protection  of  the  family,  and 
by  this  means  established  in  a  respectable  situation  in  the 
Ordnance  department  of  the  Tower  of  1  jondon  ;  but  the 
stories  of  his  old  acquaintance  Mungo  Park's  discoveries, 
had  made  such  an  impression  on  his  fancy,  that  nothing 
could  prevent  his  accompanying  him  on  the  fatal  expedi 
tion  of  1805. 

The  brother  of  Mungo  Park  remained  in  Scott's  neigh 
bourhood  for  some  years,  and  was  frequently  his  compan 
ion  in  his  mountain  rides.  Though  a  man  of  the  most 
dauntless  temperament,  he  was  often  alarmed  at  Scott's 
reckless  horsemanship.  "  The  de'il's  in  ye,  Sherra/'  he 
would  say ;  "  ye'll  never  halt  till  they  bring  you  hame 
with  your  feet  foremost."  He  rose  greatly  in  favour,  in 
consequence  of  the  gallantry  with  which  he  assisted  the 
Sheriff  in  seizing  a  gipsy,  accused  of  murder,  from  amidst 
a  group  of  similar  desperadoes,  on  whom  they  had  come 
unexpectedly  in  a  desolate  part  of  the  country. 

To  return  to  The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel :  —  Ellis, 
understanding  it  to  be  now  nearly  ready  for  the  press, 
writes  to  Scott,  urging  him  to  set  it  forth  with  some  en 
graved  illustrations  —  if  possible,  after  Flaxman,  whose 
splendid  designs  from  Homer  had  shortly  before  made 
their  appearance.  He  answers,  August  21  —  "  I  ohould 


154  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

have  liked  very  much  to  have  had  appropriate  embellish 
merits.  Indeed,  we  made  some  attempts  of  the  kind,  but 
they  did  not  succeed.  I  should  fear  Flaxman's  genius  is 
too  classic  to  stoop  to  body  forth  my  Gothic  Borderers. 
"Would  there  not  be  some  risk  of  their  resembling  the 
antique  of  Homer's  heroes,  rather  than  the  iron  race  of 
Salvator?  After  all,  perhaps,  nothing  is  more  difficult 
than  for  a  painter  to  adopt  the  author's  ideas  of  an  imag 
inary  character,  especially  when  it  is  founded  on  tradi 
tions  to  which  the  artist  is  a  stranger.  I  should  like  at 
least  to  be  at  his  elbow  when  at  work.  I  wish  very 
much  I  could  have  sent  you  the  Lay  while  in  MS.,  tc 
have  had  the  advantage  of  your  opinion  and  corrections. 
But  Ballantyne  galled  my  kibes  so  severely  during  an 
unusual  fit  of  activity,  that  I  gave  him  the  whole  story  in 

a  sort  of  pet  both  with  him  and  with  it I  have 

lighted  upon  a  very  good  amanuensis  for  copying  such 
matters  as  the  Lay  le  Frain,  &c.  He  was  sent  down 
here  by  some  of  the  London  booksellers  in  a  half-starved 
state,  but  begins  to  pick  up  a  little.  ...  I  am  just  about 
to  set  out  on  a  grand  expedition  of  great  importance  to 
my  comfort  in  this  place.  You  must  know  that  Mr. 
Plummer,  my  predecessor  in  this  county,  was  a  good  an 
tiquary,  and  left  a  valuable  collection  of  books,  which  he 
entailed  with  the  estate,  the  first  successors  being  three 
of  his  sisters,  at  least  as  old  and  musty  as  any  Caxton  or 
Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  his  library.  Now  I  must  contrive 
to  coax  those  watchful  dragons  to  give  me  admittance 
into  this  garden  of  the  Hesperides.  I  suppose  they 
trouble  the  volumes  as  little  as  the  dragon  did  the  golden 
pippins  ;  but  they  may  not  be  the  more  easily  soothed  on 
that  account.  However,  I  set  out  on  my  quest  like  a 
preux  chwalier,  taking  care  to  leave  Camp,  for  dirtying 


ASHESTIKL  —  1804.  155 

the  carpet,  and  to  carry  the  greyhounds  with  me,  -whose 
appearance  will  indicate  that  hare  soup  may  be  forthcom 
ing  in  due  season.  By  the  way,  did  I  tell  you  that  Fitz- 
Camp  is  dead,  and  another  on  the  stocks  ?  As  our  stu 
pid  postman  might  mistake  jReged,  address,  as  per  date, 
Ashestiel,  Selkirk,  by  Berwick." 

I  believe  the  spinsters  of  Sunderland  Hall  proved  very 
generous  dragons  ;  and  Scott  lived  to  see  them  succeeded 
in  the  guardianship  of  Mr.  Plummer's  literary  treasures 
by  an  amiable  young  gentleman  of  his  own  name  and 
family.  The  half-starved  amanuensis  of  this  letter  was 
Henry  Weber,  a  laborious  German,  of  whom  we  shall 
hear  more  hereafter.  With  regard  to  the  pictorial  em 
bellishments  contemplated  for  the  first  edition  of  the  Lay 
of  the  Last  Minstrel,  I  believe  the  artist  in  whose  de- 
cigns  the  poet  took  the  greatest  interest  was  Mr.  Mas- 
querier,  now  of  Brighton,  with  whom  he  corresponded  at 
some  length  on  the  subject ;  but  his  distance  from  that 
ingenious  gentleman's  residence  was  inconvenient,  and 
the  booksellers  were  probably  impatient  of  delay,  when 
the  MS.  was  once  known  to  be  in  the  hands  of  the 
printer. 

There  is  a  circumstance  which  must  already  have 
struck  such  of  my  readers  as  knew  the  author  in  his  lat 
ter  days,  namely,  the  readiness  with  which  he  seems  to 
have  communicated  this  poem,  in  its  progress,  not  only 
to  his  own  familiar  friends,  but  to  new  and  casual  ac 
quaintances.  We  shall  find  him  following  the  same 
course  with  his  Marmion  —  but  not,  I  think,  with  any 
of  his  subsequent  works.  His  determination  to  consult 
the  movements  of  his  own  mind  alone  in  the  conduct  of 
his  pieces,  was  probably  taken  before  he  began  the  Lay ; 
and  he  soon  resolved  to  trust  for  the  detection  of  minof 


156  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

inaccuracies  to  two  persons  only  —  James  Ballantyne  and 
William  Erskine.  The  printer  was  himself  a  man  of 
considerable  literary  talents :  his  own  style  had  the  incu 
rable  faults  of  pomposity  and  affectation,  but  his  eye  for 
more  venial  errors  in  the  writings  of  others  was  quick, 
and,  though  his  personal  address  was  apt  to  give  a  stran 
ger  the  impression  of  insincerity,  he  was  in  reality  an 
honest  man,  and  conveyed  his  mind  on  such  matters  with 
equal  candour  and  delicacy  during  the  whole  of  Scott's 
brilliant  career.  In  the  vast  majority  of  instances  he 
found  his  friend  acquiesce  at  once  in  the  propriety  of  his 
suggestions  ;  nay,  there  certainly  were  cases,  though  rare, 
in  which  his  advice  to  alter  things  of  much  more  conse 
quence  than  a  word  or  a  rhyme,  was  frankly  tendered, 
and  on  deliberation  adopted  by  Scott.  Mr.  Erskine  was 
the  referee  whenever  the  poet  hesitated  about  taking  the 
hints  of  the  zealous  typographer;  and  his  refined  taste 
and  gentle  manners  rendered  his  critical  alliance  highly 
valuable.  With  two  such  faithful  friends  within  his 
reach,  the  author  of  the  Lay  might  safely  dispense 
with  sending  his  MS.  to  be  revised  even  by  George 
Ellis. 

Before  he  left  Ashestiel  for  the  winter  session,  the 
printing  of  the  poem  had  made  considerable  progress. 
Ellis  writes  to  him  on  the  10th  November,  complain- 
mg  of  bad  health,  and  adds  —  "  Tu  quid  agis  ?  I  sup 
pose  you  are  still  an  inhabitant  of  Reged,  and  being 
there,  it  is  impossible  that  your  head  should  have  been 
solely  occupied  by  the  ten  thousand  cares  which  you  are 
likely  to  have  in  common  with  other  mortals,  or  even  by 
the  Lay,  which  must  have  been  long  since  completed,  but 
must  have  started  during  the  summer  new  projects  suf 
ficient  to  employ  the  lives  of  half-a-dozen  patriarchs, 


LITERARY    FEUD.  157 

Pray  tell  me  all  about  it,  for  as  the  present  state  of  my 
frame  precludes  me  from  mucj  activity,  I  want  to  enjoy 
that  of  my  friends."  Scott  answers  from  Edinburgh  :  — 
"  I  fear  you  fall  too  much  into  the  sedentary  habits  inci 
dent  to  a  literary  life,  like  my  poor  friend  Plummer,  who 
used  to  say  that  a  walk  from  the  parlour  to  the  garden 
once  a-day  was  sufficient  exercise  for  any  rational  being, 
and  that  no  one  but  a  fool  or  a  fox-hunter  would  take 
more.  I  wish  you  could  have  had  a  seat  on  Hassan's 
tapestry,  to  have  brought  Mrs.  Ellis  and  you  soft  and 
fair  to  Ashestiel,  where,  with  farm  mutton  at  4  p.  M., 
and  goat's  whey  at  6  A.  M.,  I  think  we  could  have  re-es 
tablished  as  much  embonpoint  as  ought  to  satisfy  a  poeti 
cal  antiquary.  As  for  my  country  amusements,  I  have 
finished  the  Lay,  with  which  and  its  accompanying  notes 
the  press  now  groans ;  but  I  have  started  nothing  except 
some  scores  of  hares,  many  of  which  my  gallant  grey 
hounds  brought  to  the  ground." 

Ellis  had  also  touched  upon  a  literary  feud  then  raging 
between  Scott's  allies  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and  the 
late  Dr.  Thomas  Young,  illustrious  for  inventive  genius, 
displayed  equally  in  physical  science  and  in  philologi 
cal  literature.  A  northern  critic,  whoever  he  was,  had 
treated  with  merry  contempt  certain  discoveries  in  natu 
ral  philosophy  and  the  mechanical  arts,  more  especially 
that  of  the  undulating  theory  of  light,  which  ultimately 
conferred  on  Young's  name  one  of  its  highest  distinctions. 
"  He  had  been  for  some  time,"  says  Ellis,  "  lecturer  at 
the  Royal  Institution ;  and  having  determined  to  publish 
his  lectures,  he  had  received  from  one  of  the  booksellers 
the  offer  of  £1000  for  the  copyright.  He  was  actually 
preparing  for  the  press,  when  the  bookseller  came  to  hin^ 
and  told  him  that  the  ridicule  thrown  by  the  Edinburgh 


158  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Review  on  some  papers  of  his  in  the  Philosophical  Trans 
actions,  had  so  frightened  the  whole  trade  that  he  must 
request  to  be  released  from  his  bargain.  This  conse 
quence,  it  is  true,  could  not  have  been  foreseen  by  the 
reviewer,  who,  however,  appears  to  have  written  from 
feelings  of  private  animosity;  and  I  still  continue  to 
think,  though  I  greatly  admire  the  good  taste  of  the  lit 
erary  essays,  and  the  perspicuity  of  the  dissertations  on 
political  economy,  that  an  apparent  want  of  candour  is 
too  generally  the  character  of  a  work  which,  from  its 
independence  on  the  interests  of  booksellers,  might  have 
been  expected  to  be  particularly  free  from  this  defect." 
Scott  rejoins  —  "I  am  sorry  for  the  very  pitiful  catas 
trophe  of  Dr.  Young's  publication,  because,  although  I  am 
altogether  unacquainted  with  the  merits  of  the  contro 
versy,  one  must  always  regret  so  very  serious  a  conse 
quence  of  a  diatribe.  The  truth  is,  that  these  gentlemen 
reviewers  ought  often  to  read  over  the  fable  of  the  boys 
and  frogs,  and  should  also  remember  it  is  much  more  easy 
to  destroy  than  to  build,  to  criticise  than  to  compose. 
While  on  this  subject,  I  kiss  the  rod  of  my  critic  in  the 
Edinburgh,  on  the  subject  of  the  price  of  Sir  Tristrem ; 
it  was  not  my  fault,  however,  that  the  public  had  it  not 
cheap  enough,  as  I  declined  taking  any  copy-money,  or 
share  in  the  profits  ;  and  nothing,  surely,  was  as  reason 
able  a  charge  as  I  could  make." 

On  the  30th  December  he  resumes  — "  The  Lay  is 
now  ready,  and  will  probably  be  in  Longman  and  Rees's 
hands  shortly  after  this  comes  to  yours.  I  have  charged 
them  to  send  you  a  copy  by  the  first  conveyance,  and 
shall  be  impatient  to  know  whether  you  think  the  entire 
piece  corresponds  to  that  which  you  have  already  seen, 
I  would  also  fain  send  a  copy  to  Gifford,  by  way  of  intro 


LETTER    FROM    ELLIS.  159 

duction.  My  reason  is  that  I  understand  he  is  about  to 
publish  an  editiou  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  I 
think  I  could  offer  him  the  use  of  some  miscellaneous 
notes,  which  T  made  long  since  on  the  margin  of  their 
works.*  Besides,  I  have  a  good  esteem  of  Mr.  Gifford 
as  a  manly  English  poet,  very  different  from  most  of  our 
modern  versifiers.  —  We  are  so  fond  of  Reged,  that  we 
are  just  going  to  set  out  for  our  farm  in  the  middle  of  a 
snow-storm  ;  all  that  we  have  to  comfort  ourselves  with 
is,  that  our  march  has  been  ordered  with  great  military 
talent  —  a  detachment  of  minced  pies  and  brandy  having 
preceded  us.  In  case  we  are  not  buried  in  a  snow- 
wreath,  our  stay  will  be  but  short.  Should  that  event 
happen,  we  must  wait  the  thaw." 

Ellis,  not  having  as  yet  received  the  new  poem,  an 
swers,  on  the  9th  January  1805  —  "I  look  daily  and 
with  the  greatest  anxiety  for  the  Last  Minstrel  —  of 
which  I  still  hope  to  see  a  future  edition  decorated  with 
designs  a  la  Flaxman,  as  the  Lays  of  Homer  have 
already  been.  I  think  you  told  me  that  Sir  Tristrem 
had  not  excited  much  sensation  in  Edinburgh.  As  I 
have  not  been  in  London  this  age,  I  can't  produce  the 
contrary  testimony  of  our  metropolis.  But  I  can  pro 
duce  one  person,  and  that  one  worth  a  considerable  num 
ber,  who  speaks  of  it  with  rapture,  and  says,  *  I  am  only 
sorry  that  Scott  has  not  (and  I  am  sure  he  has  not)  told 
us  the  whole  of  his  creed  on  the  subject  of  Tomas,  and 
the  other  early  Scotch  Minstrels.  I  suppose  he  was 

*  It  was  his  Massinger  that  Gifford  had  at  this  time  in  hand.  His 
Ben  Jonson  followed,  and  then  his  Ford.  Some  time  later,  he  pro 
jected  editions,  both  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  and  of  Shakspeare: 
but,  to  the  fijrievous  misfortune  of  literature,  died  without  having  com 
pleted  either  of  them.  We  shall  see  presently  what  became  of  Scott's 
Notes  on  Beaumont,  and  Fletcher. 


160  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

afraid  of  the  critics,  and  determined  to  say  very  little 
more  than  he  was  able  to  establish  by  incontestable 
proofs.  I  feel  infinitely  obliged  to  him  for  what  he  has 
told  us,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  I  con 
sider  Sir  T.  as  by  far  the  most  interesting  wcrk  that  has 
as  yet  been  published  on  the  subject  of  our  earliest  poets 
and,  indeed,  such  a  piece  of  literary  antiquity  as  no  one 
could  have,  a  priori,  supposed  to  exist.'  This  is  Frere 
—  our  ex-ambassador  for  Spain,  whom  you  would  delight 
to  know,  and  who  would  delight  to  know  you.  It  is  re 
markable  that  you  were,  I  believe,  the  most  ardent  of  all 
the  admirers  of  his  old  English  version  of  the  Saxon 
Ode ;  *  and  he  is,  per  contra,  the  warmest  panegyrist  of 
your  Conclusion,  which  he  can  repeat  by  heart,  and 
affirms  to  be  the  very  best  imitation  of  old  English  at 
present  existing.  I  think  I  can  trust  you  for  having 
concluded  the  Last  Minstrel  with  as  much  spirit  as  it 
was  begun  —  if  you  have  been  capable  of  anything  un 
worthy  of  your  fame  amidst  the  highest  mountains  of 
Reged,  there  is  an  end  of  all  inspiration." 

Scott  answers  —  "  Frere  is  so  perfect  a  master  of  the 
ancient  style  of  composition,  that  I  would  rather  have  his 

*  "  I  have  only  met,  in  my  researches  into  these  matters,"  says  Scott 
in  1830,  "  with  one  poem,  which,  if  it  had  heen  produced  as  ancient, 
could  not  have  been  detected  on  internal  evidence.  It  is  the  War  Song 
upon  the  Victory  at  Brunnanburgh,  translated  from  the  Anglo-Saxon 
into  Anglo-Norman,  by  the  Eight  Hon.  John  Hookham  Frere.  See 
Ellis's  Specimens  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  vol.  i.  p.  32.  The  accom 
plished  editor  tell  us,  that  this  very  singular  poem  was  intended  as  an 
imitation  of  the  style  and  language  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and  was 
written  during  the  controversy  occasioned  by  the  poems  attributed  to 
Rowley.  Mr.  Ellis  adds  —  '  The  reader  will  probably  hear  with  soma 
surprise,  that  this  singular  instance  of  critical  ingenuity  was  the  com 
position  of  an  Eton  schoolboy.'  "  —  Essay  on  Imitations  of  the  Ancient 
Ballad,  p.  19. 


JOHN    HOOKHAM    FRERE.  161 

suffrage  than  that  of  a  whole  synod  of  your  vulgar  anti 
quaries.  The  more  I  think  on  our  system  of  the  origin 
of  Romance,  the  more  simplicity  and  uniformity  it  seems 
to  possess ;  and  though  I  adopted  it  late  and  with  hesita 
tion,  I  believe  I  shall  never  see  cause  to  abandon  it.  Yet 
I  am  awar3  of  the  danger  of  attempting  to  prove,  where 
proof*  are  but  scanty,  and  probable  suppositions  must  be 
placed  in  lieu  of  them.  I  think  the  Welsh  antiquaries 
have  considerably  injured  their  claims  to  confidence,  by 
attempting  to  detail  very  remote  events  with  all  the  ac 
curacy  belonging  to  the  facts  of  yesterday.  You  will 
hear  one  of  them  describe  you  the  cut  of  Llywarch  Hen's 
beard,  or  the  whittle  of  Urien  Reged,  as  if  he  had 
trimmed  the  one,  or  cut  his  cheese  with  the  other. 
These  high  pretensions  weaken  greatly  our  belief  in  the 
Welsh  poems,  which  probably  contain  real  treasures. 
'Tis  a  pity  some  sober-minded  man  will  not  take  the 
trouble  to  sift  the  wheat  from  the  chaff,  and  give  us  a 
good  account  of  their  MSS.  and  traditions.  Pray,  what 
is  become  of  the  Mabinogion?  It  is  a  proverb,  that 
children  and  fools  talk  truth,  and  I  am  mistaken  if  even 
the  same  valuable  quality  may  not  sometimes  be  ex 
tracted  out  of  the  tales  made  to  entertain  both.  I  pre 
sume,  while  we  talk  of  childish  and  foolish  tales,  that 
the  Lay  is  already  with  you,  although,  in  these  points, 
Long-manum  est  errare.  Pray  inquire  for  your  copy." 

In  the  first  week  of  January  1805,  "The  Lay"  was 
published  ;  and  its  success  at  once  decided  that  literature 
should  form  the  main  business  of  Scott's  life. 

In  his  modest  Introduction  of  1830,  he  had  himself 
told  us  all  that  he  thought  the  world  would  ever  desire  to 
know  of  the  origin  and  progress  of  this  his  first  great 
original  production.  The  present  Memoir,  however  haa 

VOL.   II.  11 


162  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

already  included  many  minor  particulars,  for  which  1 
believe  no  student  of  literature  will  reproach  the  com 
piler.  I  shall  not  mock  the  reader  with  many  words  as 
to  the  merits  of  a  poem  which  has  now  kept  its  place  for 
nearly  a  third  of  a  century ;  but  one  or  two  additional 
remarks  on  the  history  of  the  composition  may  be  par 
doned. 

It  is  curious  to  trace  the  small  beginnings  and  gradual 
development  of  his  design.  The  lovely  Countess  of 
Dalkeith  hears  a  wild  rude  legend  of  Border  diablerie, 
and  sportively  asks  him  to  make  it  the  subject  of  a  bal 
lad.  He  had  been  already  labouring  in  the  elucidation 
of  the  "  quaint  Inglis  "  ascribed  to-  an  ancient  seer  and 
bard  of  the  same  district,  and  perhaps  completed  his  own 
sequel,  intending  the  whole  to  be  included  in  the  third 
volume  of  the  Minstrelsy.  He  assents  to  Lady  Dal- 
keith's  request,  and  casts  about  for  some  new  variety 
of  diction  and  rhyme,  which  might  be  adopted  without 
impropriety  in  a  closing  strain  for  the  same  collection. 
Sir  John  Stoddart's  casual  recitation,  a  year  or  two  be 
fore,  of  Coleridge's  unpublished  Christabel,  had  fixed  the 
music  of  that  noble  fragment  in  his  memory  ;  and  it 
occurs  to  him,  that  by  throwing  the  story  of  Gilpin  Hor- 
ner  into  somewhat  of  a  similar  cadence,  he  might  produce 
such  an  echo  of  the  later  metrical  romance,  as  would 
serve  to  connect  his  Conclusion  of  the  primitive  Sir  Tris- 
trem  with  his  imitations  of  the  common  popular  ballad  in 
tho  Gray  Brother  and  Eve  of  St.  John.  A  single  scene 
of  feudal  festivity  in  the  hall  of  Branksome,  disturbed  by 
some  pranks  of  a  nondescript  goblin,  was  probably  all 
that  he  contemplated ;  but  his  accidental  confinement 
in  the  midst  of  a  volunteer  camp  gave  him  leisure  to 
meditate  his  theme  to  the  sound  of  the  bugle ;  —  and 


LAY    OF    THE    LAST    MINSTREL.  163 

luddenly  there  flashes  on  him  the  idea  of  extending  hia 
simple  outline,  so  as  to  embrace  a  vivid  panorama  of  that 
old  Border  life  of  war  and  tumult,  and  all  earnest  pas 
sions,  with  which  his  researches  on  the  "  Minstrelsy " 
had  by  degrees  fed  his  imagination,  until  every  the  mi 
nutest  feature  had  been  taken  home  and  realized  with 
unconscious  intenseness  of  sympathy ;  so  that  he  had  won 
for  himself  in  the  past,  another  world,  hardly  less  com 
plete  or  familiar,J;han  the  present.  Erskine  or  Cranstoun 
suggests  that  he  would  do  well  to  divide  the  poem  into 
cantos,  and  prefix  to  each  of  them  a  motto  explanatory 
of  the  action,  after  the  fashion  of  Spenser  in  the  Faery 
Queen.  He  pauses  for  a  moment  —  and  the  happiest 
conception  of  the  framework  of  a  picturesque  narrative 
that  ever  occurred  to  any  poet  —  one  that  Homer  might 
have  envied  —  the  creation  of  the  ancient  harper,  starts 
to  life.  By  such  steps  did  the  "  Lay  of  the  Last  Min 
strel  "  grow  out  of  the  "  Minstrelsy  of  the  Scottish  Bor 
der." 

A  word  more  of  its  felicitous  machinery.  It  was  at 
Bowhill  that  the  Countess  of  Dalkeith  requested  a  ballad 
on  Gilpin  Homer.  The  ruined  castle  of  Newark  closely 
adjoins  that  seat,  and  is  now  indeed  included  within  its 
pleasance.  Newark  had  been  the  chosen  residence  of 
the  first  Duchess  of  Buccleuch,  and  he  accordingly  shad 
ows  out  his  own  beautiful  friend  in  the  person  of  her 
lord's  ancestress,  the  last  of  the  original  stock  of  that 
great  house  ;  himself  the  favoured  inmate  of  Bowhill, 
introduced  certainly  to  the  familiarity  of  its  circle  in  con 
sequence  of  his  devotion  to  the  poetry  of  a  bypast  age,  in 
that  of  an  aged  minstrel,  u  the  last  of  all  the  race,"  seek 
ing  shelter  at  the  gate  of  Newark,  in  days  when  many  an 
adherent  of  the  fallen  cause  of  Stewart, — his  own  bearded 


164  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ancestor,  who  had  fought  at  KilliekranMe,  among  the  rest, 
—  owed  their  safety  to  her  who 

"  In  pride  of  power,  in  beauty's  bloom, 
Had  wept  o'er  Monmouth's  bloody  tomb-" 

The  arch  allusions  which  run  through  all  these  Intro* 
ductions,  without  in  the  least  interrupting  the  truth  and 
graceful  pathos  of  their  main  impression,  seem  to  me  ex 
quisitely  characteristic  of  Scott,  whose  delight  and  pride 
was  to  play  with  the  genius  which  nevertheless  mastered 
him  at  will.  For,  in  truth,  what  is  it  that  gives  to  all  his 
works  their  unique  and  marking  charm,  except  the  match 
less  effect  which  sudden  effusions  of  the  purest  heart- 
blood  of  nature  derive  from  their  being  poured  out,  to 
all  appearance  involuntarily,  amidst  diction  and  sentiment 
cast  equally  in  the  mould  of  the  busy  world,  and  the 
seemingly  habitual  desire  to  dwell  on  nothing  but  what 
might  be  likely  to  excite  curiosity,  without  too  much  dis 
turbing  deeper  feelings,  in  the  saloons  of  polished  life  ? 
Such  outbursts  come  forth  dramatically  in  all  his  writings  -, 
but  in  the  interludes  and  passionate  parentheses  of -the 
Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  we  have  the  poet's  own  inner 
soul  and  temperament  laid  bare  and  throbbing  before  us. 
Even  here,  indeed,  he  has  a  mask,  and  he  trusts  it  —  but 
fortunately  it  is  a  transparent  one. 

Many  minor  personal  allusions  have  been  explained  in 
the  notes  to  the  last  edition  of  the  "  Lay."  It  was  hardly 
necessary  even  then  to  say  that  the  choice  of  the  hero 
had  been  dictated  by  the  poet's  affection  for  the  living 
descendants  of  the  Baron  of  Cranstoun  ;  and  now  — 
.lone  who  have  perused  the  preceding  pages  can  doubt 
that  he  had  dressed  out  his  Margaret  of  Branksome  in 
the  form  and  features  of  his  own  first  love.  This  poem 
may  be  considered  as  the  "  bright  consummate  flower  * 


LAY    OP    THE    LAST    MINSTREL.  1G5 

in  which   all  the  dearest  dreams  of  his  youthful  fancy 
had  at  length  found  expansion  for  their  strength,  spirit, 
tenderness,  and  beauty. 
In  the  closing  lines  — 

"  Hush'd  is  the  harp  —  the  Minstrel  gone; 
And  did  he  wander  forth  alone  ? 
Alone,  in  indigence  and  age, 
To  linger  out  his  pilgrimage  ? 
No !  — close  beneath  proud  Newark's  tower 
Arose  the  Minstrel's  humble  bower,"  &c. — 

—  in  these  charming  lines  he  has  embodied  what  was,  at 
the  time  when  he  penned  them,  the  chief  day-dream  of 
Ashestiel.  From  the  moment  that  his  uncle's  death 
placed  a  considerable  sum  of  ready  money  at  his  com 
mand,  he  pleased  himself,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the  idea 
of  buying  a  mountain  farm,  and  becoming  not  only  the 
"  sheriff "  (as  he  had  in  former  days  delighted  to  call 
himself),  but  "  the  laird  of  the  cairn  and  the  scaur." 
While  he  was  "  labouring  poucement  at  the  Lay  "  (as  in 
one  of  his  letters  he  expresses  it),  during  the  recess  of 
1804,  circumstances  rendered  it  next  to  certain  that  the 
small  estate  of  Broadmeadows,  situated  just  over  against 
the  ruins  of  Newark,  on  the  northern  bank  of  the  Yar 
row,  would  soon  be  exposed  to  sale ;  and  many  a  time 
did  he  ride  round  it  in  company  with  Lord  and  Lady 
Dalkeith, 

"  When  summer  smiled  on  sweet  Bowhill," 

surveying  the  beautiful  little  domain  with  wistful 
*nd  anticipating  that 

"  There  would  he  sing  achievement  high 
And  circumstance  of  chivalry, 
Till  the  'rapt  traveller  would  stay, 
Forgetful  of  the  closing  day ; 


66  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

And  noble  youths,  the  strain  to  hear, 
Forget  the  hunting  of  the  deer ; 
And  Yarrow,  as  he  rolled  along, 
Bear  burden  to  the  Minstrel's  song." 

I  consider  it  as,  in  one  point  of  view,  the  greatest  mis* 
fortune  of  his  life  that  this  vision  was  not  realized ;  but 
the  success  of  the  poem  itself  changed  "  the  spirit  of  his 
dream."  The  favour  which  it  at  once  attained  had  not 
been  equalled  in  the  case  of  any  one  poem  of  considera 
ble  length  during  at  least  two  generations  :  it  certainly 
had  not  been  approached  in  the  case  of  any  narrative 
poem  since  the  days  of  Dryden.  Before  it  was  sent  to 
the  press  it  had  received  warm  commendation  from  the 
ablest  and  most  influential  critic  of  the  time ;  but  when 
Mr.  Jeffrey's  reviewal  appeared,  a  month  after  publica 
tion,  laudatory  as  its  language  was,  it  scarcely  came  up 
to  the  opinion  which  had  already  taken  root  in  the  public 
mind.  It,  however,  quite  satisfied  the  author  ;  and  were 
I  at  liberty  to  insert  some  letters  which  passed  between 
them  in  the  course  of  the  summer  of  1805,  it  would  be 
seen  that  their  feelings  towards  each  other  were  those  of 
mutual  confidence  and  gratitude.  Indeed,  a  severe  domes 
tic  affliction  which  about  this  time  befell  Mr.  Jeffrey, 
called  out  the  expression  of  such  sentiments  on  both  sides 
in  a  very  touching  manner. 

I  abstain  from  transcribing  the  letters  which  conveyed 
to  Scott  the  private  opinions  of  persons  themselves  emi 
nently  distinguished  in  poetry  ;  but  I  think  it  just  to 
gtate,  that  I  have  not  discovered  in  any  of  them  —  no, 
not  even  in  those  of  Wordsworth  or  Campbell  —  a  strain 
of  approbation  higher  on  the  whole  than  that  of  the  chief 
professional  reviewer  of  the  period.  When  the  happy 
days  of  youth  are  over,  even  the  most  genial  and  gener 


LAY    OF    THE    LAST    MINSTREL.  167 

ous  of  minds  are  seldom  able  to  enter  into  the  strains 
of  a  new  poet  with  that  full  and  open  delight  which  he 
awakens  in  the  bosoms  of  the  rising  generation  about 
him.  Their  deep  and  eager  sympathies  have  already 
been  drawn  upon  to  an  extent  of  which  the  prosaic  part 
of  the  species  can  never  have  any  conception  ;  and  when 
the  fit  of  creative  inspiration  has  subsided,  they  are  apt 
to  be  rather  cold  critics  even  of  their  own  noblest  appeals 
to  the  simple  primary  feelings  of  their  kind.  Miss  Aw 
ard's  letter,  on  this  occasion,  has  been  since  included  in 
the  printed  collection  of  her  correspond*  nee ;  but  per 
haps  the  reader  may  form  a  sufficient  notion  of  its  tenor 
from  the  poet's  answer  —  which,  at  all  events,  he  will  be 
amused  to  compare  with  the  Introduction  of  1830  :  — 

"  To  Miss  Seward,  Lichfeld. 

"  Edinburgh,  21st  March  1805. 

"  My  Dear  Miss  Seward,  —  I  am  truly  happy  that  you  found 
any  amusement  in  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  It  has  great 
faults,  of  which  no  one  can  be  more  sensible  than  I  am  myself. 
Above  all,  it  is  deficient  in  that  sort  of  continuity  which  a 
story  ought  to  have,  and  which,  were  it  to  write  again,  I  would 
endeavour  to  give  it.  But  I  began  and  wandered  forward, 
like  one  in  a  pleasant  country,  getting  to  the  top  of  one  hill  to 
see  a  prospect,  and  to  the  bottom  of  another  to  enjoy  a  shade ; 
and  what  wonder  if  my  course  has  been  devious  and  desultory, 
and  many  of  my  excursions  altogether  unprofitable  to  the  ad 
vance  of  my  journey  ?  The  Dwarf  Page  is  also  an  excres 
cence,  and  I  plead  guilty  to  all  the  censures  concerning  him. 
The  truth  is,  he  has  a  history,  and  it  is  this :  The  story  of 
Gilpin  Horner  was  told  by  an  old  gentleman  to  Lady  Dalkeith, 
and  she,  much  diverted  with  his  actually  believing  so  grotesque 
a  tale,  insisted  that  I  should  make  it  into  a  Border  ballad.  I 
don't  know  if  ever  you  saw  my  lovely  chieftainess  —  if  you 
lave,  you  must  be  aware  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  one  to 


1€8  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

refuse  her  request,  as  she  has  more  of  the  angel  in  face  and 
temper  than  any  one  alive ;  so  that  if  she  had  asked  me  to 
write  a  ballad  on  a  broomstick,  I  must  have  attempted  it.  I 
began  a  few  verses,  to  be  called  the  Goblin  Page ;  and  they 
lay  long  by  me,  till  the  applause  of  some  friends  whose  judg 
ment  I  valued  induced  me  to  resume  the  poem ;  so  on  I  wrote, 
knowing  no  more  than  the  man  in  the  moon  how  I  was  to  end. 
At  length  the  story  appeared  so  uncouth,  that  I  was  fain  to 
put  it  into  the  mouth  of  my  old  Minstrel  —  lest  the  nature  of 
it  should  be  misunderstood,  and  I  should  be  suspected  of  set 
ting  up  a  new  school  of  poetry,  instead  of  a  feeble  attempt  to 
imitate  the  old.  In  the  process  of  the  romance,  the  page,  in 
tended  to  be  a  principal  person  in  the  work,  contrived  (from 
the  baseness  of  his  natural  propensities  I  suppose)  to  slink 
down  stairs  into  the  kitchen,  and  now  he  must  e'en  abide 
there. 

"I  mention  these  circumstances  to  you,  and  to  any  one 
whose  applause  I  value,  because  I  am  unwilling  you  should 
suspect  me  of  trifling  with  the  public  in  malice  prepense.  As 
to  the  herd  of  critics,  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  pay  much  at 
tention  to  them ;  for,  as  they  do  not  understand  what  I  call 
poetry,  we  talk  in  a  foreign  language  to  each  other.  Indeed, 
many  of  these  gentlemen  appear  to  me  to  be  a  sort  of  tinkers, 
who,  unable  to  make  pots  and  pans,  set  up  for  menders  of  them, 
and,  God  knows,  often  make  two  holes  in  patching  one.  The 
sixth  canto  is  altogether  redundant ;  for  the  poem  should  cer 
tainly  have  closed  with  the  union  of  the  lovers,  when  the  in 
terest,  if  any,  was  at  an  end.  But  what  could  I  do  ?  I  had 
my  book  and  my  page  still  on  my  hands,  and  must  get  rid  of 
them  at  all  events.  Manage  them  as  I  would,  their  catas 
trophe  must  have  been  insufficient  to  occupy  an  entire  canto ; 
so  I  was  fain  to  eke  it  out  with  the  songs  of  the  minstrels.  I 
will  now  descend  from  the  confessional,  which  I  think  I  have 
occupied  long  enough  for  the  patience  of  my  fair  confessor.  I 
&m  happy  you  are  disposed  to  give  me  absolution,  notwith- 
gtanding  all  my  sins. 

*  TVe  have  a  new  poet  come  forth   amongst  us  —  Jamef 


ELLIS  AND  FRERE  ON  THE  LAY.        169 

Graham,  author  of  a  poem  called  the  Sabbath,  which  I  admire 
very  much.  If  I  can  find  an  opportunity,  I  will  send  you  a 
copy.  Your  affectionate  humble  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Ellis  does  not  seem  to  have  written  at  any  length 
on  the  subject  of  the  Lay,  until  he  had  perused  the  arti 
cle  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  He  then  says  —  "  Though 
I  had  previously  made  up  my  mind,  or  rather  perhaps 
because  I  had  done  so,  I  was  very  anxious  to  compare 
my  sentiments  with  those  of  the  Edinburgh  critic,  and  I 
found  that  in  general  we  were  perfectly  agreed,  though 
there  are  parts  of  the  subject  which  we  consider  from 
very  different  points  of  view.  Frere,  with  whom  I  had 
not  any  previous  communication  about  it,  agrees  with 
me  ;  and  trusting  very  much  to  the  justice  of  his  poeti 
cal  feelings,  I  feel  some  degree  of  confidence  in  my  own 
judgment  —  though  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Jeffrey,  whose 
criticism  I  admire  upon  the  whole  extremely,  as  being 
equally  acute  and  impartial,  and  as  exhibiting  the  fairest 
judgment  respecting  the  work  that  could  be  formed  by 
the  mere  assistance  of  good  sense  and  general  taste,  with 
out  that  particular  sort  of  taste  which  arises  from  the 
study  of  romantic  compositions. 

"  What  Frere  and  myself  think,  must  be  stated  in  the 
shape  of  a  hypercriticism  —  that  is  to  say,  of  a  review 
of  the  reviewer.  We  say  that  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Min- 
etrel  is  a  work  sui  generis,  written  with  the  intention  of 
exhibiting  what  our  old  romances  do  indeed  exhibit  in 
point  of  fact,  but  incidentally,  and  often  without  the  wish, 
or  rather  contrary  to  the  wish  of  the  author  ;  —  viz.  the 
manners  of  a  particular  age ;  and  that  therefore,  if  it 
does  this  truly,  and  is  at  the  same  time  capable  of  keep- 
uig  the  steady  attention  of  the  reader,  it  is  so  far  perfect, 


170  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

This  is  also  a  poem,  and  ought  therefore  to  contain  a 
great  deal  of  poetical  merit.  This  indeed  it  does  by  the 
admission  of  the  reviewer,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that 
he  has  shown  much  real  taste  in  estimating  the  most  beau 
tiful  passages ;  but  he  finds  fault  with  many  of  the  lines 
as  careless,  with  some  as  prosaic,  and  contends  that  the 
story  is  not  sufficiently  full  of  incident,  and  that  one  of 
the  incidents  is  borrowed  from  a  merely  local  supersti 
tion,  &c.  &c.  To  this  we  answer  —  1st,  That  if  the  Lay 
were  intended  to  give  any  idea  of  the  Minstrel  composi 
tions,  it  would  have  been  a  most  glaring  absurdity  to 
have  rendered  the  poetry  as  perfect  and  uniform  as  the 
works  usually  submitted  to  modern  readers  —  and  as  in 
telling  a  story,  nothing,  or  very  little,  would  be  lost, 
though  the  merely  connecting  part  of  the  narrative  were 
in  plain  prose,  the  reader  is  certainly  no  loser  by  the  in 
correctness  of  the  smaller  parts.  Indeed,  who  is  so  une 
qual  as  Dryden  ?  It  may  be  said,  that  he  was  not  inten 
tionally  so  —  but  to  be  very  smooth  is  very  often  to  be 
tame ;  and  though  this  should  be  admitted  to  be  a  less 
important  fault  than  inequality  in  a  common  modern 
poem,  there  can  be  no  doubt  with  respect  to  the  necessity 
of  subjecting  yourself  to  the  latter  fault  (if  it  is  one)  in 
an  imitation  of  an  ancient  model.  2c?,  Though  it  is  nat 
urally  to  be  expected  that  many  readers  will  expect  an 
almost  infinite  accumulation  of  incidents  in  a  romance, 
this  is  only  because  readers  in  general  have  acquired  all 
their  ideas  on  the  subject  from  the  prose  romances,  which 
commonly  contained  a  farrago  of  metrical  stories.  The 
only  thing  essential  to  a  romance  was,  that  it  should  be 
believed  by  the  hearers.  Not  only  tournaments,  but  bat 
tles,  are  indeed  accumulated  in  some  of  our  ancient  ro- 
raances,  because  tradition  had  of  course  ascribed  to  every 


ELLIS    AND    FKERE    ON    THE    LAY.  171 

great  conqueror  a  great  number  of  conquests,  and  the 
minstrel  would  have  been  thought  deficient,  if,  in  a  war 
like  age,  he  had  omitted  any  military  event.  But  in 
other  respects  a  paucity  of  incident  is  the  general  char 
acteristic  of  our  minstrel  poems.  3c?,  With  respect  to 
the  Goblin  Page,  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  that  the  su 
perstition  on  which  this  is  founded  should  be  universally 
or  even  generally  current.  It  is  quite  sufficient  that  it 
should  exist  somewhere  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
castle  where  the  scene  is  placed ;  and  it  cannot  fairly  be 
required,  that  because  the  goblin  is  mischievous,  all  his 
tricks  should  be  directed  to  the  production  of  general 
evil.  The  old  idea  of  goblins  seems  to  have  been,  that 
they  were  essentially  active,  and  careless  about  the  mis 
chief  they  produced,  rather  than  providentially  malicious. 
"  We  therefore  (i.  e.  Frere  and  myself )  dissent  from 
all  the  reviewer's  objections  to  these  circumstances  in  the 
narrative  ;  but  we  entertain  some  doubts  about  the  pro 
priety  of  dwelling  so  long  on  the  Minstrel  songs  in  the 
last  canto.  I  say  we  doubt,  because  we  are  not  aware  of 
your  having  ancient  authority  for  such  a  practice  ;  but 
though  the  attempt  was  a  bold  one,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not 
usual  to  add  a  whole  canto  to  a  story  which  is  already 
finished,  we  are  far  from  wishing  that  you  had  left  it  un- 
attempted.  I  must  tell  you  the  answer  of  a  philosopher 
(Sir  Henry  Englefield)  to  a  friend  of  his  who  was  criti 
cising  the  obscurity  of  the  language  used  in  the  Minstrel. 
*  I  read  little  poetry,  and  often  am  in  doubt  whether  I 
exactly  understand  the  poet's  meaning;  but  I  found,  after 
reading  the  Minstrel  three  times,  that  I  understood  it  all 
perfectly.'  '  Three  times  ? '  replied  his  friend.  '  Yes, 
certainly  ;  the  first  time  I  discovared  that  there  was  a 
great  deal  of  meaning  in  it ;  a  second  would  have  cleared 


172  LIFE    OF   SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

it  all  up,  but  that  I  was  run  away  with  by  the  beautiful 
passages,  which  distracted  my  attention ;  the  third  time  I 
skipped  over  these,  and  only  attended  to  the  scheme  and 
structure  of  the  poem,  with  which  I  am  delighted.'  At 
this  conversation  I  was  present,  and  though  I  could  not 
help  smiling  at  Sir  Henry's  mode  of  reading  poetry,  was 
pleased  to  see  the  degree  of  interest  which  he  took  in 
the  narrative." 

Mr.  Morritt  informs  me,  that  he  well  remembers  the 
dinner  where  this  conversation  occurred,  and  thinks  Mr. 
Ellis  has  omitted  in  his  report  the  best  thing  that  Sir 
Harry  Englefield  said,  in  answer  to  one  of  the  Dii  Mi- 
norum  Gentium,  who  made  himself  conspicuous  by  the 
severity  of  his  censure  on  the  verbal  inaccuracies  and 
careless  lines  of  The  Lay.  "  My  dear  sir,"  said  the 
Baronet,  "  you  remind  me  of  a  lecture  on  sculpture, 
which  M.  Falconet  delivered  at  Rome,  shortly  after  com 
pleting  the  model  of  his  equestrian  statue  of  Czar  Peter, 
now  at  Petersburg.  He  took  for  his  subject  the  celebrat 
ed  horse  of  Marcus  Aurelius  in  the  Capitol,  and  pointed 
out  as  many  faults  in  it  as  ever  a  jockey  did  in  an  ani 
mal  he  was  about  to  purchase.  But  something  came  over 
him,  vain  as  he  was,  when  he  was  about  to  conclude  the 
harangue.  He  took  a  long  pinch  of  snuff,  and  eyeing  his 
own  faultless  model,  exclaimed  with  a  sigh  —  Cependant, 
Messieurs,  il  faut  avouer  que  cette  vilaine  bete  la  est  vi« 
,  et  que  la  mienne  est  morte" 

To  return  to  Ellis's  letter,  I  fancy  most  of  my  readers 
agree  with  me  in  thinking  that  Sir  Henry  Engle- 
field's  method  of  reading  and  enjoying  poetry  waa  more 
to  be  envied  than  smiled  at ;  and  in  doubting  whether 
posterity  will  ever  dispute  about  the  "  propriety  "  of  the 
Canto  which  includes  the  Ballad  of  Rosabelle  and  tha 


LAY    OF    THE    LAST    MINSTREL.  173 

Requiem  of  Melrose.  The  friendly  hypercritics  seem,  I 
confess,  to  have  judged  the  poem  on  principles  not  less 
pedantic,  though  of  another  kind  of  pedantry,  than  those 
which  induced  the  critic  to  pronounce  that  its  great  pre 
vailing  blot  originated  in  "  those  local  partialities  of  the 
author,"  which  had  induced  him  to  expect  general  interest 
and  sympathy  for  such  personages  as  his  "  Johnstones, 
Elliots,  and  Armstrongs."  "  Mr.  Scott,"  said  Jeffrey, 
"  must  either  sacrifice  his  Border  prejudices,  or  offend  his 
readers  in  the  other  parts  of  the  empire."  It  might  have 
been  answered  by  Ellis  or  Frere,  that  these  Border  clans 
figured  after  all  on  a  scene  at  least  as  wide  as  the  Troad ; 
and  that  their  chiefs  were  not  perhaps  inferior,  either  in 
rank  or  power,  to  the  majority  of  the  Homeric  kings ; 
but  even  the  most  zealous  of  its  admirers  among  the  pro 
fessed  literators  of  the  day  would  hardly  have  ventured 
to  suspect  that  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  might  have 
no  prejudices  to  encounter  but  their  own.  It  was  des 
tined  to  charm  not  only  the  British  empire,  but  the  whole 
civilized  world ;  and  had,  in  fact,  exhibited  a  more  Ho 
meric  genius  than  any  regular  epic  since  the  days  of 
Homer. 

"  It  would  be  great  affectation,"  says  the  Introduction 
of  1830,  "not  to  own  that  the  author  expected  some  suc 
cess  from  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  The  attempt  to 
return  to  a  more  simple  and  natural  poetry  was  likely  to 
be  welcomed,  at  a  time  when  the  public  had  become  tired 
of  heroic  hexameters,  with  all  the  buckram  and  binding 
that  belong  to  them  in  modern  days.  But  whatever  might 
have  been  his  expectations,  whether  moderate  or  unreason- 
ible,  the  result  left  them  far  behind ;  for  among  those  who 
smiled  on  the  adventurous  minstrel  were  numbered  the 
great  names  of  William  Pitt  and  Charles  Fox.  Neither 


174  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

was  the  extent  of  the  sale  inferior  to  the  character  of  the 
judges  who  received  the  poem  with  approbation.  Up 
wards  of  30,000  copies  were  disposed  of  by  the  trade  ; 
and  the  author  had  to  perform  a  task  difficult  to  human 
vanity,  when  called  upon  to  make  the  necessary  deduc 
tions  from  his  own  merits,  in  a  calm  attempt  to  accoun 
for  its  popularity." 

Through  what  channel  or  in  what  terms  Fox  made 
known  his  opinion  of  the  Lay,  I  have  failed  to  ascertain. 
Pitt's  praise,  as  expressed  to  his  niece,  Lady  Hester  Stan 
hope,  within  a  few  weeks  after  the  poem  appeared,  was 
repeated  by  her  to  Mr.  William  Stewart  Rose,  who,  of 
course,  communicated  it  forthwith  to  the  author  ;  and  not 
long  after,  the  Minister,  in  conversation  with  Scott's  early 
friend  the  Right  Hon.  William  Dundas,  signified  that  it 
would  give  him  pleasure  to  find  some  opportunity  of  ad 
vancing  the  fortunes  of  such  a  writer.  "  I  remember," 
writes  this  gentleman,  "  at  Mr.  Pitt's  table  in  1805,  the 
Chancellor  asked  me  about  you  and  your  then  situation, 
and  after  I  had  answered  him,  Mr.  Pitt  observed  - —  '  He 
can't  remain  as  he  is,'  and  desired  me  to  '  look  to  it.' 
He  then  repeated  some  lines  from  the  Lay,  describing  the 
old  harper's  embarrassment  when  asked  to  play,  and  said 
• — '  This  is  a  sort  of  thing  which  I  might  have  expected 
in  painting,  but  could  never  have  fancied  capable  of  being 
given  in  poetry.'  "  * 

It  is  agreeable  to  know  that  this  great  statesman  and 
accomplished  scholar  awoke  at  least  once  from  his  sup 
posed  apathy  as  to  the  elegant  literature  of  his  own  time. 

The  poet  has  under-estimated  even  the  patent  and  tan 
gible  evidence  of  his  success.  The  first  edition  of  the 

*  Letter  dated  April  25th,  1818,  and  indorsed  by  Scott,  "  William 
Vundas  —  a  very  kind  letter.'11 


LAY    OF    THE    LAST    MINSTREL.  175 

Lay  was  a  magnificent  quarto,  750  copies  ;  but  this  was 
soon  exhausted,  and  there  followed  an  octavo  impressioi 
of  1500  ;  in  1806,  two  more,  one  of  2000  copies,  another 
of  2250 ;  in  1807,  a  fifth  edition,  of  2000,  and  a  sixth,  of 
3000;  in  1808,  3550;  in  1809,  3000  —  a  small  edition 
in  quarto  (the  ballads  and  lyrical  pieces  being  then  an 
nexed  to  it)  —  and  another  octavo  edition  of  3250  ;  in 
1811,  3000;  in  1812,  3000;  in  1816,  3000;  in  1823, 
1000.  A  fourteenth  impression  of  2000  foolscap  ap 
peared  in  1825  ;  and  besides  all  this,  before  the  end  of 
1836,  11,000  copies  had  gone  forth  in  the  collected  edi 
tions  of  his  poetical  works.  Thus,  nearly  forty-four 
thousand  copies  had  been  disposed  of  in  this  country, 
and  by  the  legitimate  trade  alone,  before  he  superin 
tended  the  edition  of  1830,  to  which  his  biographical 
introductions  were  prefixed.  In  the  history  of  British 
Poetry  nothing  had  ever  equalled  the  demand  for  the 
Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel. 

The  publishers  of  the  first  edition  were  Longman  and 
Co.  of  London,  and  Archibald  Constable  and  Co.  of  Ed 
inburgh;  which  last  house,  however,  had  but  a  small  share 
in  the  adventure.  The  profits  were  to  be  divided  equally 
between  the  author  and  his  publishers ;  and  Scott's  moiety 
was  £169  6s.  Messrs.  Longman,  when  a  second  edi 
tion  was  called  for,  offered  £500  for  the  copyright ;  this 
was  accepted,  but  they  afterwards,  as  the  Introduction 
says,  u  added  £100  in  their  own  unsolicited  kindness.  It 
was  handsomely  given  to  supply  the  loss  of  a  fine  horse 
which  broke  down  suddenly  while  the  author  was  riding 
with  one  of  the  worthy  publishers."  This  worthy  pub 
lisher  was  Mr.  Owen  Rees,  and  the  gallant  steed,  to 
•vhom  a  desperate  leap  in  the  coursing-field  proved  fa 
tal,  was,  I  believe,  Captain,  the  immediate  successor  of 


176  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Lenore,  as  Scott's  charger  in  the  volunteer  cavalry ;  Cap 
tain  was  replaced  by  Lieutenant.  The  author's  whole 
share,  then,  in  the  profits  of  the  Lay,  came  to  £769  6s. 
Mr.  Rees'  visit  to  Ashestiel  occurred  in  the  autumn. 
The  success  of  the  poem  had  already  been  decisive ;  and 
fresh  negotiations  of  more  kinds  than  one  were  at  this 
time  in  progress  between  Scott  and  various  booksellers' 
houses,  both  of  Edinburgh  and  London. 


PARTNERSHIP    WITH    BALL ANT YNE.  177 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Partnership  with  James  Ballantyne  —  Literary  Projects  —  Edi 
tion  of  the  British  Poets  —  Edition  of  the  Ancient  English 
Chronicles,  8fc.  fyc.  —  Edition  of  Dryden  undertaken  —  Earl 
Moira  Commander  of  the  Forces  in  Scotland  —  Sham  Bat 
tles  —  Articles  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  —  Commencement 
of  Waverley  —  Letter  on  Ossian  —  Mr.  Skene's  Reminis 
cences  of  Ashestiel  —  Excursion  to  Cumberland — Alarm 
of  Invasion  —  Visit  of  Mr.  Southey  —  Correspondence  on 
Dryden  with  Ellis  and  Wordsworth. 

1805. 

MR.  BALLANTYNE,  in  his  Memorandum,  says,  that 
very  shortly  after  the  publication  of  the  Lay,  he  found 
himself  obliged  to  apply  to  Mr.  Scott  for  an  advance  of 
money ;  his  own  capital  being  inadequate  for  the  busi 
ness  which  had  been  accumulated  on  his  press,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  reputation  it  had  acquired  for  beauty 
and  correctness  of  execution.  Already,  as  we  have 
seen,  Ballantyne  had  received  "  a  liberal  loan  ; "  —  "  and 
now,"  says  he,  "  being  compelled,  maugre  all  delicacy, 
to  renew  my  application,  he  candidly  answered  that  he 
was  not  quite  sure  that  it  would  be  prudent  for  him  to 
comply,  but  in  order  to  evince  his  entire  confidence  in 
me,  he  was  willing  to  make  a  suitable  advance  to  be 
admitted  as  a  third-sharer  of  my  business."  In  truth, 
tJcott  now  embarked  in  Ballantyne's  concern  almost  the 

VOL.  II.  12 


178  LIFE    OF    Silt    WALTER    SCOTT. 

whole  of  the  capital  which  he  had  a  few  months  before 
designed  to  invest  in  the  purchase  of  Broadmeadows. 
Dis  aliter  visum. 

I  have,  many  pages  back,  hinted  my  suspicion  that  he 
had  formed  some  distant  notion  of  such  an  alliance,  as 
early  as  the  date  of  Ballantyne's  projected  removal  from 
Kelso  to  Edinburgh  ;  and  his  Introduction  to  the  Lay, 
in  1830,  appears  to  leave  little  doubt  that  the  hope  o/ 
ultimately  succeeding  at  the  Bar  had  waxed  very  faint, 
before  the  third  volume  of  the  Minstrelsy  was  brought 
out  in  1803.  When  that  hope  ultimately  vanished  al 
together,  perhaps  he  himself  would  not  have  found  i* 
easy  to  tell.  The  most  important  of  men's  opinions, 
views,  and  projects,  are  sometimes  taken  up  in  so  very 
gradual  a  manner,  and  after  so  many  pauses  of  hesita 
tion  and  of  inward  retractation,  that  they  themselves 
are  at  a  loss  to  trace  in  retrospect  all  the  stages  through 
which  their  minds  have  passed.  We  see  plainly  that 
Scott  had  never  been  fond  of  his  profession,  but  that, 
conscious  of  his  own  persevering  diligence,  he  ascribed 
his  scanty  success  in  it  mainly  to  the  prejudices  of  the 
Scotch  solicitors  against  employing,  in  weighty  causes 
at  least,  any  barrister  supposed  to  be  strongly  imbued 
with  the  love  of  literature  ;  instancing  the  career  of 
his  friend  Jeffrey  as  almost  the  solitary  instance  within 
his  experience  of  such  prejudices  being  entirely  over 
come.  Had  Scott,  to  his  strong  sense  and  dexterous 
ingenuity,  his  well-grounded  knowledge  of  the  jurispru 
dence  of  his  country,  and  his  admirable  industry,  added 
a  brisk  and  ready  talent  for  debate  and  declamation,  I 
can  have  no  doubt  that  his  triumph  over  the  prejudices 
alluded  to  would  have  been  as  complete  as  Mr.  Jeffrey's 
nor  in  truth  do  I  much  question  that,  had  one  really 


PARTNERSHIP  WITH  BALLANTYNE.        179 

great  and  interesting  case  been  submitted  no  his  sole 
care  and  management,  the  result  would  have  been  to 
place  his  professional  character  for  skill  and  judgment, 
and  variety  of  resource,  on  so  firm  a  basis,  that  even 
his  rising  celebrity  as  a  man  of  letters  could  not  have 
seriously  disturbed  it.  Nay,  I  think  it  quite  possible, 
that  had  he  been  intrusted  with  one  such  case  after  his 
reputation  was  established,  and  he  had  been  compelled 
to  do  his  abilities  some  measure  of  justice  in  his  own 
secret  estimate,  he  might  have  displayed  very  consid 
erable  powers  even  as  a  forensic  speaker.  But  no 
opportunities  of  this  engaging  kind  having  ever  been 
presented  to  him  —  after  he  had  persisted  for  more  than 
ten  years  in  sweeping  the  floor  of  the  Parliament  House, 
without  meeting  with  any  employment  but  what  would 
have  suited  the  dullest  drudge,  and  seen  himself  termly 
and  yearly  more  and  more  distanced  by  contemporaries 
for  whose  general  capacity  he  could  have  had  little  re 
spect  —  while,  at  the  same  time,  he  already  felt  his 
own  position  in  the  eyes  of  society  at  large  to  have  been 
signally  elevated  in  consequence  of  his  extra-professional 
exertions  —  it  is  not  wonderful  that  disgust  should  have 
gradually  gained  upon  him,  and  that  the  sudden  blaze 
and  tumult  of  renown  which  surrounded  the  author  of 
the  Lay  should  have  at  last  determined  him  to  concen 
trate  all  his  ambition  on  the  pursuits  which  had  alone 
brought  him  distinction.  It  ought  to  be  mentioned,  that 
the  business  in  George's  Square,  once  extensive  and  lu 
crative,  had  dwindled  away  in  the  hands  of  his  brother 
Thomas,  whose  varied  and  powerful  talents  were  unfor 
tunately  combined  with  some  tastes  by  no  means  favour 
able  to  the  successful  prosecution  of  his  prudent  father's 
vocation  ;  so  that  very  possibly  even  the  humble  employ- 


180  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ment  of  which,  during  his  first  years  at  the  Bar,  Scott 
had  at  least  a  sure  and  respectable  allowance,  was  by  this 
time  much  reduced.  I  have  not  his  fee-books  of  later 
date  than  1803  :  it  is,  however,  my  impression  from  the 
whole  tenor  of  his  conversation  and  correspondence,  thai 
after  that  period  he  had  not  only  not  advanced  as  a  pro 
fessional  man,  but  had  been  retrograding  in  nearly  the 
same  proportion  that  his  literary  reputation  advanced. 

We  have  seen  that,  before  he  formed  his  contract  with 
Ballantyne,  he  was  in  possession  of  such  a  fixed  income 
as  might  have  satisfied  all  his  desires,  had  he  not  found 
his  family  increasing  rapidly  about  him.  Even  as  that 
was,  with  nearly  if  not  quite  £1000  per  annum,  he  might 
perhaps  have  retired  not  only  from  the  Bar,  but  from 
Edinburgh,  and  settled  entirely  at  Ashestiel  or  Broad- 
meadows,  without  encountering  what  any  man  of  hi* 
station  and  habits  ought  to  have  considered  as  an  impru 
dent  risk.  He  had,  however,  no  wish  to  cut  himself  off 
from  the  busy  and  intelligent  society  to  which  he  had 
been  hitherto  accustomed ;  and  resolved  not  to  leave  the 
Bar  until  he  should  have  at  least  used  his  best  efforts 
for  obtaining,  in  addition  to  his  Shrievalty,  one  of  those 
Clerkships  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Edinburgh,  which  are 
usually  considered  as  honourable  retirements  for  advo 
cates  who,  at  a  certain  standing,  finally  give  up  all  hopes 
of  reaching  the  dignity  of  the  Bench.  "  I  determined, 
hs  says,  "  that  literature  should  be  my  staff  but  not  my 
crutch,  and  that  the  profits  of  my  literary  labour,  how 
ever  convenient  otherwise,  should  not,  if  I  could  help  it, 
become  necessary  to  my  ordinary  expenses.  Upon  such 
a  post  an  author  might  hope  to  retreat,  without  any  per 
ceptible  alteration  of  circumstances,  whenever  the  time 
should  arrive  that  the  public  grew  weary  of  his  endea? 


PARTNERSHIP    WITH    BALL  ANT  YNK.  181 

ours  to  please,  or  he  himself  should  tire  of  the  pen.  I 
possessed  so  many  friends  capable  of  assisting  me  in  this 
object  of  ambition,  that  I  could  hardly  over-rate  my  own 
prospects  of  obtaining  the  preferment  to  which  I  limited 
my  wishes ;  and,  in  fact,  I  obtained,  in  no  long  period, 
the  reversion  of  a  situation  which  completely  met  them."  * 

The  first  notice  of  this  affair  that  occurs  in  his  corre 
spondence,  is  in  a  note  of  Lord  Dalkeith's,  February  the 
2d,  1805,  in  which  his  noble  friend  says  —  "  My  father 
desires  me  to  tell  you  that  he  has  had  a  communication 
with  Lord  Melville  within  these  few  days,  and  that  he 
thinks  your  business  is  in  a  good  train,  though  not  cer 
tain"  I  consider  it  as  clear,  then,  that  he  began  his 
negotiations  concerning  a  seat  at  the  clerk's  table  im 
mediately  after  the  Lay  was  published ;  and  that  their 
commencement  had  been  resolved  upon  in  the  strictest 
connexion  with  his  embarkation  in  the  printing  concern 
of  James  Ballantyne  and  Company.  Such  matters  are 
seldom  speedily  arranged ;  but  we  shall  find  him  in  pos 
session  of  his  object  before  twelve  months  had  elapsed. 

Meanwhile,  his  design  of  quitting  the  Bar  was  divulged 
to  none  but  those  immediately  necessary  for  the  purposes 
of  his  negotiation  with  the  Government ;  and  the  nature 
of  his  connexion  with  the  printing  company  remained,  I 
believe,  not  only  unknown,  but  for  some  years  wholly  un 
suspected,  by  any  of  his  daily  companions  except  Mr. 
Ersldne. 

The  forming  of  this  3ommercial  connexion  was  one  of 
the  most  important  steps  in  Scott's  life.  He  continued 
bound  by  it  during  twenty  years,  and  its  influence  on  his 
literary  exertions  and  his  worldly  fortunes  was  productive 
of  much  good  and  not  a  little  evil.  Its  effects  were  in 
*  Introduction  to  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  — 1830. 


182  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

truth  so  mixed  and  balanced  during  the  vicissitudes  of  a 
long  and  vigorous  career,  that  I  at  this  moment  doubt 
whether  it  ought,  on  the  whole,  to  be  considered  with 
more  of  satisfaction  or  of  regret. 

With  what  zeal  he  proceeded  in  advancing  the  views 
of  the  new  copartnership,  his  correspondence  bears  ample 
evidence.  The  brilliant  and  captivating  genius,  now  ac 
knowledged  universally,  was  soon  discovered  by  the  lead 
ing  booksellers  of  the  time  to  be  united  with  such  abun 
dance  of  matured  information  in  many  departments,  and, 
above  all,  with  such  indefatigable  habits,  as  to  mark  him 
out  for  the  most  valuable  workman  they  could  engage  for 
the  furtherance  of  their  schemes.  He  had,  long  before 
this,  cast  a  shrewd  and  penetrating  eye  over  the  field  of 
literary  enterprise,  and  developed  in  his  own  mind  the 
outlines  of  many  extensive  plans,  which  wanted  nothing 
but  the  command  of  a  sufficient  body  of  able  subalterns  to 
be  carried  into  execution  with  splendid  success.  Such  of 
these  as  he  grappled  with  in  his  own  person  were,  with 
rare  exceptions,  carried  to  a  triumphant  conclusion;  but 
the  alliance  with  Ballantyne  soon  infected  him  with  the 
proverbial  rashness  of  mere  mercantile  adventure  — 
while,  at  the  same  time,  his  generous  feelings  for  other 
men  of  letters,  and  his  characteristic  propensity  to  over 
rate  their  talents,  combined  to  hurry  him  and  his  friends 
into  a  multitude  of  arrangements,  the  results  of  which 
were  often  extremely  embarrassing,  and  ultimately,  in 
the  aggregate,  all  but  disastrous.  It  is  an  old  saying, 
that  wherever  there  is  a  secret  there  must  be  something 
wrong ;  and  dearly  did  he  pay  the  penalty  for  the  mys 
tery  in  which  he  had  chosen  to  involve  this  transaction. 
It  was  his  rule,  from  the  beginning,  that  whatever  he 
wrote  or  edited  must  be  printed  at  that  press ;  and  had 


PARTNERSHIP  WITH  BALLANTYNE.       183 

he  catered  for  it  only  as  author  and  sole  editor,  all  had 
been  well ;  but  had  the  booksellers  known  his  direct  pe 
cuniary  interest  in  keeping  up  and  extending  the  occupa 
tion  of  those  types,  they  would  have  taken  into  account 
his  lively  imagination  and  sanguine  temperament,  as  well 
as  his  taste  and  judgment,  and  considered,  far  more  delib 
erately  than  they  too  often  did,  his  multifarious  recom 
mendations  of  new  literary  schemes,  coupled  though  these 
were  with  some  dim  understanding  that,  if  the  Ballantyne 
press  were  employed,  his  own  literary  skill  would  be  at 
his  friend's  disposal  for  the  general  superintendence  of 
the  undertaking.  On  the  other  hand,  Scott's  suggestions 
were,  in  many  cases,  perhaps  in  the  majority  of  them, 
conveyed  through  Ballantyne,  whose  habitual  deference 
to  his  opinion  induced  him  to  advocate  them  with  enthu 
siastic  zeal ;  and  the  printer,  who  had  thus  pledged  his 
personal  authority  for  the  merits  of  the  proposed  scheme, 
must  have  felt  himself  committed  to  the  bookseller,  and 
could  hardly  refuse  with  decency  to  take  a  certain  share 
of  the  pecuniary  risk,  by  allowing  the  time  and  method 
of  his  own  payment  to  be  regulated  according  to  the  em 
ployer's  convenience.  Hence,  by  degrees,  was  woven  a 
web  of  entanglement  from  which  neither  Ballantyne  nor 
his  adviser  had  any  means  of  escape,  except  only  in  that 
indomitable  spirit,  the  mainspring  of  personal  industry 
altogether  unparalleled,  to  which,  thus  set  in  motion,  the 
world  owes  its  most  gigantic  monument  of  literary  genius 
The  following  is  the  first  tetter  I  have  found  of  Scott 
to  his  PARTNER.  The  Mr.  Foster  mentioned  in  the  be 
ginning  of  it  was  a  literary  gentleman  who  had  proposed 
to  take  on  himself  a  considerable  share  in  the  annotation 
of  some  of  the  new  editions  then  on  the  carpet  —  among 
others,  one  of  Dryden. 


184  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  To  Mr.  James  Ballantyne,  Printer,  Edinburgh. 

"  Ashestiel,  April  12th,  ±805. 

"  Dear  Ballantyne,  —  I  have  duly  received  your  two  favour* 
—  also  Foster's.  He  still  howls  about  the  expense  of  printing, 
but  I  think  we  shall  finally  settle.  His  argument  is  that  you 
print  too  fine,  alias  too  dear.  I  intend  to  stick  to  my  answer 
that  1  know  nothing  of  the  matter ;  but  that  settle  it  how  you 
and  he  will,  it  must  be  printed  by  you,  or  can  be  no  concern 
of  mine.  This  gives  you  an  advantage  in  driving  the  bargain. 
As  to  everything  else,  I  think  we  shall  do,  and  I  will  endeav 
our  to  set  a  few  volumes  agoing  on  the  plan  you  propose. 

"  I  have  imagined  a  very  superb  work.  What  think  you 
of  a  complete  edition  of  British  Poets,  ancient  and  modern  ? 
Johnson's  is  imperfect  and  out  of  print ;  so  is  Bell's,  which  is  a 
Lilliputian  thing ;  and  Anderson's,  the  most  complete  in  point 
of  number,  is  most  contemptible  in  execution  both  of  the 
editor  and  printer.  There  is  a  scheme  for  you !  At  least  a 
hundred  volumes,  to  be  published  at  the  rate  of  ten  a-year.  I 
cannot,  however,  be  ready  till  midsummer.  If  the  booksellers 
will  give  me  a  decent  allowance  per  volume,  say  thirty  guineas, 
I  shall  hold  myself  well  paid  on  the  writing  hand.  This  is  a 
dead  secret. 

"  I  think  it  quite  right  to  let  Doig  *  have  a  share  of  Thorn- 
sen  ;  f  but  he  is  hard  and  slippery,  so  settle  your  bargain  fast 
and  firm  —  no  loop-holes !  I  am  glad  you  have  got  some 
elbow-room  at  last.  Cowan  will  come  to,  or  we  will  find  some 
fit  place  in  time.  If  not,  we  must  build  —  necessity  has  no  law. 
I  see  nothing  to  hinder  you  from  doing  Tacitus  with  your  cor 
rectness  of  eye,  and  I  congratulate  you  on  the  fair  prospect 
before  us.  When  you  have  time,  you  will  make  out  a  list  of 
the  debts  to  be  discharged  at  Whitsunday,  that  we  may  see 
what  cash  we  shall  have  in  bank.  Our  book-keeping  may  be 
rery  simple  —  an  accurate  cash-book  and  ledger  is  all  that  it 

*  A  bookseller  in  Edinburgh. 

t  A  projected  edition  of  the  "Works  of  the  author  of  the  Seasons. 


LITERARY    PROJECTS.  185 

necessary  ;  and  I  think  I  know  enough  of  the  matter  to  assist 
at  making  the  balance  sheet. 

"In  short,  with  the  assistance  of  a  little  cash  I  have  no 
doubt  things  will  go  on  a  merveille.  If  you  could  take  a  little 
pleasuring,  I  wish  you  could  come  here  and  see  us  in  all  the 
glories  of  a  Scottish  spring.  Yours  truly, 

"  W.  SCOTT." 

Scott  opened  forthwith  his  gigantic  scheme  of  the  Brit 
ish  Poets  to  Constable,  who  entered  into  it  with  eager 
ness.  They  found  presently  that  Messrs.  Cadell  and 
Davies,  and  some  of  the  other  London  publishers,  had  a 
similar  plan  on  foot,  and  after  an  unsuccessful  negocia- 
tion  with  Mackintosh,  were  now  actually  treating  with 
Campbell  for  the  Biographical  prefaces.  Scott  proposed 
that  the  Edinburgh  and  London  houses  should  join  in  the 
adventure,  and  that  the  editorial  task  should  be  shared 
between  himself  and  his  brother  poet.  To  this  both 
Messrs.  Cadell  and  Mr.  Campbell  warmly  assented ;  but 
the  design  ultimately  fell  to  the  ground,  in  consequence 
of  the  booksellers  refusing  to  admit  certain  works  which 
both  Scott  and  Campbell  insisted  upon.  Such,  and  from 
analogous  causes,  has  been  the  fate  of  various  similar 
schemes  both  before  and  since.  But  the  public  had  no 
trivial  compensation  upon  the  present  occasion,  since  the 
failure  of  the  original  project  led  Mr.  Campbell  to  pre 
pare  for  the  press  those  "  Specimens  of  English  Poetry  " 
which  he  illustrated  with  sketches  of  biography  and  crit 
ical  essays,  alike  honourable  to  his  learning  and  taste  ; 
while  Scott,  Mr.  Foster  ultimately  standing  off,  took  on 
himself  the  whole  burden  of  a  new  edition,  as  well  as 
biography,  of  Dryden.  The  body  of  booksellers  mean 
while  combined  in  what  they  still  called  a  general  edition 
of  the  English  Poets,  under  the  superintendence  of  one 


186  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  their  own  Grub-street  vassals,  Mr.  Alexander  Chal 
iners. 

Precisely  at  the  time  when  Scott's  poetical  ambition 
had  been  stimulated  by  the  first  outburst  of  universal 
applause,  and  when  he  was  forming  those  engagements 
with  Ballantyne  which  involved  so  large  an  accession  of 
literary  labours,  as  well  as  of  pecuniary  cares  and  respon 
sibilities,  a  fresh  impetus  was  given  to  the  volunteer 
mania  in  Scotland,  by  the  appointment  of  the  late  Earl  of 
Moira  (afterwards  Marquis  of  Hastings)  to  the  chief  mil- 
itary  command  in  that  part  of  the  empire.  The  Earl  had 
married,  the  year  before,  a  Scottish  Peeress,  the  Count 
ess  of  Loudon,  and  entered  with  great  zeal  into  her  sym 
pathy  with  the  patriotic  enthusiasm  of  her  countrymen. 
Edinburgh  was  converted  into  a  camp  :  independently  of 
a  large  garrison  of  regular  troops,  nearly  10,000  fencibles 
and  volunteers  were  almost  constantly  under  arms.  The 
lawyer  wore  his  uniform  under  his  gown  ;  the  shopkeeper 
measured  out  his  wares  in  scarlet ;  in  short,  the  citizens 
of  all  classes  made  more  use  for  several  months  of  the 
military  than  of  any  other  dress ;  and  the  new  com- 
mander-in-chief  consulted  equally  his  own  gratification 
and  theirs,  by  devising  a  succession  of  manoeuvres  which 
presented  a  vivid  image  of  the  art  of  war  conducted  on  a 
large  and  scientific  scale.  In  the  sham  battles  and  sham 
sieges  of  1805,  Craigmillar,  Gilmerton,  Braidhills,  and 
other  formidable  positions  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Edin 
burgh,  were  the  scenes  of  many  a  dashing  assault  and 
resolute  defence  ;  and  occasionally  the  spirits  of  the  mock 
combatants — English  and  Scotch,  or  Lowland  and  High 
land  —  became  so  much  excited  that  there  was  some  diffi 
culty  in  preventing  the  rough  mockery  of  warfare  from 
passing  into  its  realities.  The  Highlanders,  in  particular 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS 1805.  187 

were  very  hard  to  be  dealt  with  ;  and  once,  at  least,  Lord 
Moira  was  forced  to  alter  at  the  eleventh  hour  his  pro 
gramme  of  battle,  because  a  battalion  of  kilted  fencibles 
could  not  or  would  not  understand  that  it  was  their  duty 
to  be  beat.  Such  days  as  these  must  have  been  more 
nobly  spirit-stirring  than  even  the  best  specimens  of  the 
fox-chase.  To  the  end  of  his  life,  Scott  delighted  to  recall 
the  details  of  their  countermarches,  ambuscades,  charges, 
and  pursuits,  and  in  all  of  these  his  associates  of  the 
Light-Horse  agree  that  none  figured  more  advanta 
geously  than  himself.  Yet  these  military  interludes  seem 
only  to  have  whetted  his  appetite  for  closet  work.  In 
deed,  nothing  but  a  complete  publication  of  his  letters 
could  give  an  adequate  notion  of  the  facility  with  which 
he  already  combined  the  conscientious  magistrate,  the 
martinet  quartermaster,  the  speculative  printer,  and  the 
ardent  lover  of  literature  for  its  own  sake.  A  few  speci 
mens  must  suffice. 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  Edinburgh,  May  26, 1805. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  Your  silence  has  been  so  long  and  opin- 
ionative,  that  I  am  quite  authorized,  as  a  Border  ballad-monger, 
to  address  you  with  a  '  Sleep  you,  or  wake  you  ? '  What  has 
become  of  the  'Romances,'  which  I  have  expected  as  anx 
iously  as  my  neighbours  around  me  have  watched  for  the  rain, 
which  was  to  bring  the  grass,  which  was  to  feed  the  new-calved 
cows,  —  and  to  as  little  purpose,  for  both  Heaven  and  you 
have  obstinately  delayed  your  favours.  After  idling  away  the 
spring  months  at  Ashestiel,  I  am  just  returned  to  idle  away 
the  summer  here,  and  I  have  lately  \ighted  upon  rather  an 
interesting  article  in  your  way,  If  you  will  turn  to  Barbour's 
Bruce  (Pinkerton's  edition,  p.  66\  you  will  find  that  the  Lord 
if  Lorn,  seeing  Bruce  covering  the  retreat  of  his  followers, 


188          LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

compares  him  to  Gow  MacMorn  (Macpherson's  Gaul  the  sou 
of  Morni.)  This  similitude  appears  to  Barbour  a  disparage 
ment,  and  he  says,  the  Lord  of  Lorn  might  more  mannerly 
have  compared  the  king  to  Gadefeir  de  Lawryss,  who  was 
with  the  mighty  Duke  Betys  when  he  assailed  the  forayers  in 
Gadderis,  and  who  in  the  retreat  did  much  execution  among 
the  pursuers,  overthrowing  Alexander  and  Thelomier  and 
Danklin,  although  he  was  at  length  slain;  and  here,  says 
Barbour,  the  resemblance  fails.  Now,  by  one  of  those 
chances  which  favour  the  antiquary  once  in  an  age,  a  sin 
gle  copy  of  the  romance  alluded  to  has  been  discovered,  con 
taining  the  whole  history  of  this  Gadefeir,  who  had  hitherto 
been  a  stumbling-block  to  the  critics.  The  book  was  printed 
by  Arbuthnot,  who  flourished  at  Edinburgh  in  the  seventeenth 
century.  It  is  a  metrical  romance,  called  '  The  Buik  of  the 
Most  Noble  and  Vauliant  Conquerour,  Alexander  the  Grit.' 
The  first  part  is  called  the  Foray  of  Gadderis,  an  incident  sup 
posed  to  have  taken  place  while  Alexander  was  besieging 
Tyre ;  Gadefeir  is  one  of  the  principal  champions,  and  after 
exerting  himself  in  the  manner  mentioned  by  Barbour,  un 
horsing  the  persons  whom  he  named,  he  is  at  length  slain  by 
Emynedus,  the  Earl-Marshal  of  the  Macedonian  conqueror. 
The  second  part  is  called  the  Avowis  of  Alexander,  because  it 
introduces  the  oaths  which  he  and  others  made  to  the  peacock 
in  the  '  chalmer  of  Venus,'  and  gives  an  account  of  the  mode 
in  which  they  accomplished  them.  The  third  is  the  Great 
Battell  of  Effesoun,  in  which  Porus  makes  a  distinguished  fig 
ure.  This  you  are  to  understand  is  not  the  Porus  of  India,  but 
one  of  his  sons.  The  work  is  in  decided  Scotch,  and  adds 
something  to  our  ancient  poetry,  being  by  no  means  despica 
ble  in  point  of  composition.  The  author  says  he  translated  it 
from  the  Franch,  or  Romance,  and  that  he  accomplished  his 
work  in  1438-9.  Barbour  must  therefore  have  quoted  from 
the  French  Alexander,  and  perhaps  his  praises  of  the  work 
excited  the  Scottish  translator.  Will  you  tell  me  what  you 
think  of  all  this,  and  whether  any  transcripts  will  be  of  use  to 
you  ?  I  am  pleased  with  the  accident  of  its  casting  up,  and 


KLLIS'S    ANSWER.  189 

hope  it  may  prove  the  forerunner  of  more  discoveries  in  the 
dusty  and  ill-arranged  libraries  of  our  country  gentlemen. 

"  I  hope  you  continue  to  like  the  Lay.  I  have  had  a  flat 
tering  assurance  of  Mr.  Fox's  approbation,  mixed  with  a 
censure  of  my  eulogy  on  the  Viscount  of  Dundee.  Although 
my  Tory  principles  prevent  my  coinciding  with  his  political 
opinions,  I  am  very  proud  of  his  approbation  in  a  literary 
sense. 

"  Charlotte  joins  me,  &c.  &c.  W.  S." 

In  his  answer  Ellis  says  — 

"Longman  lately  informed  me  that  you  have  projected  a 
General  Edition  of  our  Poets.  I  expressed  to  him  my  anx 
iety  that  the  booksellers,  who  certainly  can  ultimately  sell 
what  they  please,  should  for  once  undertake  something  cal 
culated  to  please  intelligent  readers,  and  that  they  should 
confine  themselves  to  the  selection  of  paper,  types,  &c.  (which 
they  possibly  may  understand),  and  by  no  means  interfere 
with  the  literary  part  of  the  business,  which,  if  popularity 
be  the  object,  they  must  leave  exclusively  to  you.  I  am  talk 
ing,  as  you  perceive,  about  your  plan,  without  knowing  its 
extent,  or  any  of  its  details  ;  for  these,  therefore,  I  will  wait 
—  after  confessing  that,  much  as  I  wish  for  a  corpus  poetarum, 
edited  as  you  would  edit  it,  I  should  like  still  better  another 
Minstrel  Lay  by  the  Last  and  best  Minstrel  ;  and  the  general 
demand  for  the  poem  seems  to  prove  that  the  public  are  of 
my  opinion.  If,  however,  you  don't  feel  disposed  to  take  a 
second  ride  on  Pegasus,  why  not  undertake  something  far  less 
infra  dig.  than  a  mere  edition  of  our  poets  ?  Why  not  under 
take  what  Gibbon  once  undertook  —  an  edition  of  our  histo 
rians  ?  I  have  never  been  able  to  look  at  a  volume  of  the 
Benedictine  edition  of  the  early  French  historians  without 


Mr.  Ellis  appears  to  have  communicated  all  his  notions 
on  this  subject  to  Messrs.  Longman,  for  Scott  writes  to 


*90  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Ballantyne  (Ashestiel,  September  5),  —  "I  have  had  a 
risk  from  Rees  yesterday.  He  is  anxious  about  a  corpus 
kistoriarum,  or  full  edition  of  the  Chronicles  of  England, 
an  immense  work.  I  proposed  to  him  beginning  with 
Holinshed,  and  I  think  the  work  will  be  secured  for 
your  press.  I  congratulate  you  on  Clarendon,  which, 
under  Thomson's  direction,  will  be  a  glorious  publica 
tion."  * 

The  printing  office  in  the  Canongate  was  by  this  time 
in  very  great  request ;  and  the  letter  I  have  been  quot 
ing  contains  evidence  that  the  partners  had  already  found 
it  necessary  to  borrow  fresh  capital  —  on  the  personal 
security,  it  need  not  be  added,  of  Scott  himself.  He 
says  —  "As  I  have  full  confidence  in  your  applying  the 
accommodation  received  from  Sir  "William  Forbes  in  the 
most  convenient  and  prudent  manner,  I  have  no  hesita 
tion  to  return  the  bonds  subscribed  as  you  desire.  This 
will  put  you  in  cash  for  great  matters." 

But  to  return.     To  Ellis  himself  he  says  — 

"  I  have  had  booksellers  here  in  the  plural  number.  You 
have  set  little  Rees's  head  agog  about  the  Chronicles,  which 
would  be  an  admirable  work,  but  should,  I  think,  be  edited  by 
an  Englishman  who  can  have  access  to  the  MSS.  of  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  as  one  cannot  trust  much  to  the  correctness 
of  printed  copies.  I  will,  however,  consider  the  matter,  so  far 
as  a  decent  edition  of  Holinshed  is  concerned,  in  case  my  time 
is  not  otherwise  taken  up.  As  for  the  British  Poets,  my  plan 
was  greatly  too  liberal  to  stand  the  least  chance  of  being 
adopted  by  the  trade  at  large,  as  I  wished  them  to  begin  with 
Chaucer.  The  fact  is,  I  never  expected  they  would  agree  to 
it.  The  Benedictines  had  an  infinite  advantage  over  us  in 
that  esprit  du  corps  which  led  them  to  set  labour  and  expense 

*  An  edition  of  Clarendon  had  been,  it  seems,  contemplated  by 
8i;ott's  friend  Mr.  Thomas  Thomson. 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS.  191 

at,  defiance,  when  the  honour  of  the  order  was  at  stake, 
Would  to  God  your  English  Universities,  with  their  huge 
endowments  and  the  number  of  learned  men  to  whom  they 
give  competence  and  leisure,  would  but  imitate  the  monks  in 
their  literary  plans  !  My  present  employment  is  an  edition  of 
John  Dryden's  Works,  which  is  already  gone  to  press.  As  for 
riding  on  Pegasus,  depend  upon  it,  I  will  never  again  cross 
him  in  a  serious  way,  unless  I  should  by  some  strange  accident 
-eside  so  long  in  the  Highlands,  and  make  myself  master  of 
their  ancient  manners,  so  as  to  paint  them  with  some  degree 
of  accuracy  in  a  kind  of  companion  to  the  Minstrel  Lay.  .  .  . 
...  I  am  interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  two  gentil  bachelors, 
whom,  like  the  Count  of  Artois,  I  must  despatch  upon  some 
adventure  till  dinner  time.  Thank  Heaven,  that  will  not  be 
difficult,  for  although  there  are  neither  dragons  nor  boars  in 
the  vicinity,  and  men  above  six  feet  are  not  only  scarce,  but 
pacific  in  their  habits,  yet  we  have  a  curious  breed  of  wild-cats 
who  have  eaten  all  Charlotte's  chickens,  and  against  whom  1 
have  declared  a  war  at  outrance,  in  which  the  assistance  of 
these  gentes  demoiseaux  will  be  fully  as  valuable  as  that  of  Don 
Quixote  to  Pentalopin  with  the  naked  arm.  So,  if  Mrs.  Ellr 
takes  a  fancy  for  cat-skin  fur,  now  is  the  time." 

Already,  then,  he  was  seriously  at  work  on  Dryden 
During  the  same  summer,  he  drew  up  for  the  Edinburgh 
Review  an  admirable  article  on  Todd's  edition  of  Spen 
ser ;  another  on  Godwin's  Fleetwood ;  a  third,  on  the 
Highland  Society's  Report  concerning  the  Poems  of  Os- 
sian  ;  a  fourth,  on  Johnes's  Translation  of  Froissart ;  a 
fifth,  on  Colonel  Thornton's  Sporting  Tour ;  and  a  sixth, 
on  some  cookery  books  —  the  two  last  being  excellent 
specimens  of  his  humour.  He  had,  besides,  a  constant 
succession  of  minor  cares  in  the  superintendence  of  mul- 
\ifarious  works  passing  through  the  Ballantyne  press. 
But  there  is  yet  another  important  item  to  be  included 
in  the  list  of  his  literary  labours  of  this  period.  The 


192  LIFE    OF    Sill    WALTER    SCOTT. 

General  Preface  to  his  Novels  informs  us,  that  "  about 
1805  "  he  wrote  the  opening  chapters  of  Waverley  ;  and 
the  second  title,  'Tis  Sixty  Tears  Since,  selected,  as  he 
says,  "  that  the  actual  date  of  publication  might  corre 
spond  with  the  period  in  which  the  scene  was  laid,"  leaves 
no  doubt  that  he  had  begun  the  work  so  early  in  1805  aa 
to  contemplate  publishing  it  before  Christmas.*  He  adds, 
in  the  same  page,  that  he  was  induced,  by  the  favourable 
reception  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  to  think  of  giving 
some  of  his  recollections  of  Highland  scenery  and  cus 
toms  in  prose ;  but  this  is  only  one  instance  of  the  in 
accuracy  as  to  matters  of  date  which  pervades  all  those 
delightful  Prefaces.  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  was  not 
published  until  five  years  after  the  first  chapters  of  Wa 
verley  were  written ;  its  success,  therefore,  could  have 
had  no  share  in  suggesting  the  original  design  of  a  High 
land  novel,  though  no  doubt  it  principally  influenced  him 
to  take  up  that  design  after  it  had  been  long  suspended, 
And  almost  forgotten.  Thus  early,  then,  had  Scott  med 
itated  deeply  such  a  portraiture  of  Highland  manners 
fes  might  "  make  a  sort  of  companion "  to  that  of  the 
old  Border  life  in  the  "  Minstrel  Lay ; "  and  he  had 
probably  begun  and  suspended  his  Waverley,  before  he 
expressed  to  Ellis  his  feeling  that  he  ought  to  reside 
ibr  some  considerable  time  in  the  country  to  be  delin 
eated,  before  seriously  committing  himself  in  the  execu 
tion  of  such  a  task. 

"  Having  proceeded,"  he  says,  "  as  far  as  I  think  the 
seventh  chapter,  I  showed  my  work  to  a  critical  friend, 
whose  opinion  was  unfavourable  ;  and  having  then  some 

*  I  have  ascertained,  since  this  page  was  written,  that  a  small  part 
of  the  MS.  of  Waverley  is  on  paper  bearing  the  watermark  of  1805  — 
.he  rest  on  paper  of  1813. 


WAVERLEY  BEGUN  —  1805.  l93 

poetical  reputation,  I  was  unwilling  to  risk  the  loss  of  it 
by  attempting  a  new  style  of  composition.  I,  therefore, 
then  threw  aside  the  work  I  had  commenced,  without 
either  reluctance  or  remonstrance.  I  ought  to  add,  that 
though  my  ingenuous  friend's  sentence  was  afterwards 
reversed,  on  an  appeal  to  the  public,  it  cannot  be  consid 
ered  as  any  imputation  on  his  good  taste ;  for  the  speci 
men  subjected  to  his  criticism  did  not  extend  beyond  the 
departure  of  the  hero  for  Scotland,  and  consequently  had 
not  entered  upon  the  part  of  the  story  which  was  finally 
found  most  interesting."  A  letter  to  be  quoted  under  the 
year  1810  will,  I  believe,  satisfy  the  reader  that  the  first 
critic  of  the  opening  chapters  of  Waverley  was  William 
Erskine. 

The  following  letter  must  have  been  written  in  the 
course  of  this  autumn.  It  is  in  every  respect  a  very 
interesting  one ;  but  I  introduce  it  here  as  illustrating 
the  course  of  his  reflections  on  Highland  subjects  in 
general,  at  the  time  when  the  first  outlines  both  of  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake  and  Waverley  must  have  been  float 
ing  about  in  his  mind  :  — 

"  To  Miss  Seward,  Lichfteld. 

"Ashestiel,  [1805.] 

"My  Dear  Miss  Seward,  —  You  recall  me  to  some  very 
pleasant  feelings  of  my  boyhood,  when  you  ask  my  opinion  of 
Ossian.  His  works  were  first  put  into  my  hands  by  old  Dr. 
Blacklock,  a  blind  poet,  of  whom  you  may  have  heard ;  he 
was  the  worthiest  and  kindest  of  human  beings,  and  particu 
larly  delighted  in  encouraging  the  pursuits,  and  opening  the 
minds,  of  the  young  people  by  whom  he  was  surrounded.  I, 
though  at  the  period  of  our  intimacy  a  very  young  boy,  was 
fortunate  enough  to  attract  his  notice  and  kindness ;  and  if  I 
have  been  at  all  successful  in  the  paths  of  literary  pursuit,  I 

VOL.  II.  13 


194  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

am  sure  I  owe  much  of  that  success  to  the  books  with  which 
he  supplied  me,  and  his  own  instructions.  Ossian  and  Spenser 
were  two  books  which  the  good  old  bard  put  into  my  hands, 
and  which  I  devoured  rather  than  perused.  Their  tales  were 
for  a  long  time  so  much  my  delight,  that  I  could  repeat  with 
out  remorse  whole  Cantos  of  the  one  and  Duans  of  the  other; 
and  wo  to  the  unlucky  wight  who  undertook  to  be  my  auditor, 
for  in  the  height  of  my  enthusiasm  I  was  apt  to  disregard  all 
hints  that  my  recitations  became  tedious.  It  was  a  natural 
consequence  of  progress  in  taste,  that  my  fondness  for  these 
authors  should  experience  some  abatement.  Ossian's  poems, 
in  particular,  have  more  charms  for  youth  than  for  a  more  ad 
vanced  stage.  The  eternal  repetition  of  the  same  ideas  and 
imagery,  however  beautiful  in  themselves,  is  apt  to  pall  upon 
a  reader  whose  taste  has  become  somewhat  fastidious;  and, 
although  I  agree  entirely  with  you  that  the  question  of  their 
authenticity  ought  not  to  be  confounded  with  that  of  their  lit 
erary  merit,  yet  scepticism  on  that  head  takes  away  their 
claim  for  indulgence  as  the  productions  of  a  barbarous  and 
remote  age;  and,  what  is  perhaps  more  natural,  it  destroys 
that  feeling  of  reality  which  we  should  otherwise  combine  with 
our  sentiments  of  admiration.  As  for  the  great  dispute,  I 
should  be  no  Scottishman  if  I  had  not  very  attentively  consid 
ered  it  at  some  period  of  my  studies ;  and,  indeed,  I  have  gone 
some  lengths  in  my  researches,  for  I  have  beside  me  transla 
tions  of  some  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  unquestioned  originals 
of  Ossian's  poems.  After  making  every  allowance  for  the  dis 
advantages  of  a  literal  translation,  and  the  possible  debasement 
which  those  now  collected  may  have  suffered  in  the  great  and 
violent  change  which  the  Highlands  have  undergone  since  the 
researches  of  Macpherson,  I  am  compelled  to  admit  that  incal 
culably  the  greater  part  of  the  English  Ossian  must  be  ascribed 
to  Macpherson  himself,  and  that  his  whole  introductions,  notes, 
&c.  &c.  are  an  absolute  tissue  of  forgeries. 

"  In  all  the  ballads  I  ever  saw  or  could  hear  of,  Fin  and 
Ossin  are  described  as  natives  of  Ireland,  although  it  is  not 
tmusual  for  the  reciters  sturdily  to  maintain  that  this  is  a  cor- 


ASHESTIEL 1805.  195 

ruption  of  the  text.  In  point  of  merit,  I  do  not  think  these 
Gaelic  poems  much  better  than  those  of  the  Scandinavian 
Scalds ;  they  are  very  unequal,  often  very  vigorous  and  point 
ed,  often  drivelling  and  crawling  in  the  very  extremity  of 
tenuity.  The  manners  of  the  heroes  are  those  of  Celtic  sav 
ages  ;  and  I  could  point  out  twenty  instances  in  which  Mac- 
pherson  has  very  cunningly  adopted  the  beginning,  the  names, 
and  the  leading  incidents,  &c.  of  an  old  tale,  and  dressed  it  up 
with  all  those  ornaments  of  sentiment  and  sentimental  man 
ners,  which  first  excite  our  surprise,  and  afterwards  our  doubt 
of  its  authenticity.  The  Highlanders  themselves,  recognising 
the  leading  features  of  tales  they  had  heard  in  infancy,  with 
here  and  there  a  tirade  really  taken  from  an  old  poem,  were 
readily  seduced  into  becoming  champions  for  the  authenticity 
of  the  poems.  How  many  people,  not  particularly  addicted 
to  poetry,  who  may  have  heard  Chevy-Chase  in  the  nursery 
or  at  school,  and  never  since  met  with  the  ballad,  might  be 
imposed  upon  by  a  new  Chevy- Chase,  bearing  no  resemblance 
to  the  old  one,  save  in  here  and  there  a  stanza  or  an  incident  ? 
Besides,  there  is  something  in  the  severe  judgment  passed  on 
my  countrymen  — '  that  if  they  do  not  prefer  Scotland  to 
truth,  they  will  always  prefer  it  to  inquiry.'  When  once  the 
Highlanders  had  adopted  the  poems  of  Ossian  as  an  article  of 
national  faith,  you  would  far  sooner  have  got  them  to  disavow 
the  Scripture  than  to  abandon  a  line  of  the  contested  tales. 
Only  they  all  allow  that  Macpherson's  translation  is  very  un 
faithful,  and  some  pretend  to  say  inferior  to  the  original ;  by 
which  they  can  only  mean,  if  they  mean  anything,  that  they 
miss  the  charms  of  the  rhythm  and  vernacular  idiom,  which 
pleases  the  Gaelic  natives ;  for  in  the  real  attributes  of  poetry, 
Macpherson's  version  is  far  superior  to  any  I  ever  saw  of  the 
fragments  which  he  seems  to  have  used. 

"  The  Highland  Society  have  lately  set  about  investigating, 
or  rather,  I  should  say,  collecting  materials  to  defend,  the 
authenticity  of  Ossian.  Those  researches  have  only  proved 
that  there  were  no  real  originals  —  using  that  word  as  is  com 
monly  understood  —  to  be  found  for  them.  The  oldest  tale 


196  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

they  have  found  seems  to  be  that  of  Darthula ;  but  it  is  per 
fectly  different,  both  in  diction  and  story,  from  that  of  Mac- 
pherson.  It  is,  however,  a  beautiful  specimen  of  Celtic  poetry, 
and  shows  that  it  contains  much  which  is  worthy  of  preserva 
tion.  Indeed  how  should  it  be  otherwise,  when  we  know  that, 
till  about  fifty  years  ago,  the  Highlands  contained  a  race  of 
hereditary  poets  ?  Is  it  possible  to  think,  that,  among  perhaps 
many  hundreds,  who  for  such  a  course  of  centuries  have 
founded  their  reputation  and  rank  on  practising  the  art  of 
poetry,  in  a  country  where  the  scenery  and  manners  gave 
such  effect  and  interest  and  imagery  to  their  productions,  there 
should  not  have  been  some  who  attained  excellence  ?  In 
searching  out  those  genuine  records  of  the  Celtic  Muse,  and 
preserving  them  from  oblivion,  with  all  the  curious  information 
which  they  must  doubtless  contain,  I  humbly  think  our  High 
land  antiquaries  would  merit  better  of  their  country,  than  by 
confining  their  researches  to  the  fantastic  pursuit  of  a  chimera. 
"  I  am  not  to  deny  that  Macpherson's  inferiority  in  other 
compositions  is  a  presumption  that  he  did  not  actually  compose 
these  poems.  But  we  are  to  consider  his  advantage  when  on 
his  own  ground.  Macpherson  was  a  Highlander,  and  had  his 
imagination  fired  with  the  charms  of  Celtic  poetry  from  his 
very  infancy.  We  know,  from  constant  experience,  that  most 
Highlanders,  after  they  have  become  complete  masters  of  Eng 
lish,  continue  to  think  in  their  own  language  ;  and  it  is  to  me 
demonstrable  that  Macpherson  thought  almost  every  word  of 
Ossian  in  Gaelic,  although  he  wrote  it  down  in  English.  The 
specimens  of  his  early  poetry  which  remain  are  also  deeply 
tinged  with  the  peculiarities  of  the  Celtic  diction  and  charao- 
,er ;  so  that,  in  fact,  he  might  be  considered  as  a  Highland 
poet,  even  if  he  had  not  left  us  some  Earse  translations  (or 
originals  of  Ossian)  unquestionably  written  by  himself.  These 
circumstances  gave  a  great  advantage  to  him  in  forming  the 
ityle  of  Ossian,  which,  though  exalted  and  modified  according 
to  Macpherson's  own  ideas  of  modern  taste,  is  in  great  part 
cut  upon  the  model  of  the  tales  of  the  Sennachies  and  Bards, 
In  the  translation  of  Homer,  he  not  only  lost  these  advantages 


ASHESTIEL 1805.  197 

out  the  circumstances  on  which  they  were  founded  were  a 
great  detriment  to  his  undertaking ;  for  although  such  a  dress 
was  appropriate  and  becoming  for  Ossian,  few  people  cared  to 
see  their  old  Grecian  friend  disguised  in  a  tartan  plaid  and 
philabeg.  In  a  word,  the  style  which  Macpherson  had  formed, 
however  admirable  in  a  Highland  tale,  was  not  calculated  for 
translating  Homer ;  and  it  was  a  great  mistake  in  him,  excited, 
however,  by  the  general  applause  his  first  work  received,  to 
suppose  that  there  was  anything  homogeneous  betwixt  his  own 
ideas  and  those  of  Homer.  Macpherson,  in  his  way,  was  cer 
tainly  a  man  of  high  talents,  and  his  poetic  powers  as  honour 
able  to  his  country,  as  the  use  which  he  made  of  them,  and  I 
fear  his  personal  character  in  other  respects,  was  a  discredit 
to  it. 

"  Thus  I  have  given  you  with  the  utmost  sincerity  my  creed 
on  the  great  national  question  of  Ossian ;  it  has  been  formed 
after  much  deliberation  and  inquiry.  I  have  had  for  some 
time  thoughts  of  writing  a  Highland  poem,  somewhat  in  the 
style  of  the  Lay,  giving  as  far  as  I  can  a  real  picture  of  what 
that  enthusiastic  race  actually  were  before  the  destruction  of 
their  patriarchal  government.  It  is  true,  I  have  not  quite  the 
same  facilities  as  in  describing  Border  manners,  where  I  am, 
as  they  say,  more  at  home.  But  to  balance  my  comparative 
deficiency  in  knowledge  of  Celtic  manners,  you  are  to  consider 
that  I  have  from  my  youth  delighted  in  all  the  Highland  tra 
ditions  which  I  could  pick  up  from  the  old  Jacobites  who  used 
to  frequent  my  father's  house ;  and  this  will,  I  hope,  make 
some  amends  for  my  having  less  immediate  opportunities  of 
^esearch  than  in  the  Border  tales. 

"  Agreeably  to  your  advice,  I  have  actually  read  over  Madoc 
a  second  time,  and  I  confess  have  seen  much  beauty  which 
escaped  me  in  the  first  perusal.  Yet  (which  yet,  by  the  way, 
is  almost  as  vile  a  monosyllable  as  but)  I  cannot  feel  quite  the 
interest  I  would  wish  to  do.  The  difference  of  character 
wliich  you  notice,  reminds  me  of  what  by  Ben  Jonson  and 
other  old  comedians  were  called  humours,  which  consisted 
rather  in  the  personification  of  some  individual  passion  or  pro* 


198  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

pensity,  than  of  an  actual  individual  man.  Also,  I  cannot 
give  up  my  objection,  that  what  was  strictly  true  of  Columbus 
becomes  an  unpleasant  falsehood  when  told  of  some  one  else. 
Suppose  I  was  to  write  a  fictitious  book  of  travels,  I  should 
certainly  do  ill  to  copy  exactly  the  incidents  which  befel 
Mungo  Park  or  Bruce  of  Kinnaird.  What  was  true  of  them 
would  incontestably  prove  at  once  the  falsehood  and  plagiarism 
of  my  supposed  journal.  It  is  not  but  what  the  incidents  are 
natural  —  but  it  is  their  having  already  happened,  which 
strikes  us  when  they  are  transferred  to  imaginary  persons. 
Could  any  one  bear  the  story  of  a  second  city  being  taken 
by  a  wooden  horse? 

"  Believe  me,  I  shall  not  be  within  many  miles  of  Lichfield 
without  paying  my  personal  respects  to  you  ;  and  yet  I  should 
not  do  it  in  prudence,  because  I  am  afraid  you  have  formed  a 
higher  opinion  of  me  than  I  deserve  :  you  would  expect  to  see 
a  person  who  had  dedicated  himself  much  to  literary  pursuits, 
and  you  would  find  me  a  rattle-sculled  half-lawyer,  half-sports 
man,  through  whose  head  a  regiment  of  horse  has  been  exer 
cising  since  he  was  five  years  old  ;  half-educated  —  half-crazy, 
as  his  friends  sometimes  tell  him  ;  half  everything,  but  entirely 
Miss  Se ward's  much  obliged,  affectionate,  and  faithful  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

His  correspondence  shows  how  largely  he  was  exert 
ing  himself  all  this  while  in  the  service  of  authors  less 
fortunate  than  himself.  James  Hogg,  among  others,  con 
tinued  to  occupy  from  time  to  time  his  attention ;  and  he 
assisted  regularly  and  assiduously  throughout  this  and 
the  succeeding  year  Mr.  Robert  Jameson,  an  industrious 
and  intelligent  antiquary,  who  had  engaged  in  editing  a 
collection  of  ancient  popular  ballads  before  the  third 
volume  of  the  Minstrelsy  appeared,  and  who  at  length 
published  his  very  curious  work  in  1807.  Meantime, 
Ashestiel,  in  place  of  being  less  resorted  to  by  literary 
strangers  than  Lasswade  cottage  had  been,  shared  abun 


ASHESTIEL  —  1805.  199 

3antly  in  the  fresh  attractions  of  the  Lay,  and  "  booksell 
ers  in  the  plural  number "  were  preceded  and  followed 
by  an  endless  variety  of  enthusiastic  "  gentil  bachelors," 
whose  main  temptation  from  the  south  had  been  the  hope 
of  seeing  the  Borders  in  company  with  their  Minstrel. 
He  still  writes  of  himself  as  "  idling  away  his  hours  ; " 
he  had  already  learned  to  appear  as  if  he  were  doing  so 
to  all  who  had  no  particular  right  to  confidence  respect 
ing  the  details  of  his  privacy. 

But  the  most  agreeable  of  all  his  visitants  were  his 
own  old  familiar  friends,  and  one  of  these  has  furnished 
me  with  a  sketch  of  the  autumn  life  of  Ashestiel,  of 
which  I  shall  now  avail  myself.  Scott's  invitation  was 
in  these  terms  :  — 

"  To  James  Skene,  Esq.  of  Rubislaw. 

"  Ashestiel,  18th  August  1805. 

"  Dear  Skene,  —  I  have  prepared  another  edition  of  the 
Lay,  1500  strong,  moved  thereunto  by  the  faith,  hope,  and 

charity  of  the  London  booksellers If  you  could,  in 

the  interim,  find  a  moment  to  spend  here,  you  know  the  way, 
and  the  ford  is  where  it  was ;  which,  by  the  way,  is  more  than 
I  expected  after  Saturday  last,  the  most  dreadful  storm  of 
thunder  and  lightning  I  ever  witnessed.  The  lightning  broke 
repeatedly  in  our  immediate  vicinity,  i.  e.  betwixt  us  and  the 
Peel  wood.  Charlotte  resolved  to  die  in  bed  like  a  good 
Christian.  The  servants  said  it  was  the  preface  to  the  end  of 
the  world,  and  I  was  the  only  person  that  maintained  my  char 
acter  for  stoicism,  which  I  assure  you  had  some  merit,  as  I  had 
no  doubt  that  we  were  in  real  danger.  It  was  accompanied  with 
a  flood  so  tremendous,  that  I  would  have  given  five  pounds  you 
had  been  here  to  make  a  sketch  of  it  The  little  Glenkinnon 
brook  was  impassable  for  all  the  next  day,  and  indeed  I  have 
been  obliged  to  send  all  hands  to  repair  the  ford,  which  waa 
converted  into  a  deep  pool.  Believe  me  ever  yours  affection 
*tely,  W.  S." 


200  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Mr.  Skene  says  — 

"  I  well  remember  the  ravages  of  the  storm  and  flood  de 
scribed  in  this  letter.  The  ford  of  Ashestiel  was  never  a  good 
one,  and  for  some  time  after  this  it  remained  not  a  little  peril 
ous.  He  was  himself  the  first  to  attempt  the  passage  on  his 
favourite  black  horse  Captain,  who  had  scarcely  entered  the 
river  when  he  plunged  beyond  his  depth,  and  had  to  swim  to 
the  other  side  with  his  burden.  It  requires  a  good  horseman 
to  swim  a  deep  and  rapid  stream,  but  he  trusted  to  the  vigour 
of  his  steady  trooper,  and  in  spite  of  his  lameness  kept  his  seat 
manfully.  A  cart  bringing  a  new  kitchen  range  (as  I  believe 
the  grate  for  that  service  is  technically  called)  was  shortly 
after  upset  in  this  ugly  ford.  The  horse  and  cart  were  with 
difficulty  got  out,  but  the  grate  remained  for  some  time  in  the 
middle  of  the  stream  to  do  duty  as  a  horse-trap,  and  furnish 
subject  for  many  a  good  joke  when  Mrs.  Scott  happened  to 
complain  of  the  imperfection  of  her  kitchen  appointments." 

Mr.  Skene  soon  discovered  an  important  change  which 
had  recently  been  made  in  his  friend's  distribution  of  his 
time.  Previously  it  had  been  his  custom,  whenever 
professional  business  or  social  engagements  occupied  the 
middle  part  of  his  day,  to  seize  some  hours  for  study 
after  he  was  supposed  to  have  retired  to  bed.  His  phy 
sician  suggested  that  this  was  very  likely  to  aggravate 
his  nervous  headaches,  the  only  malady  he  was  subject 
to  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood ;  and,  contemplating  with 
steady  eye  a  course  not  only  of  unremitting  but  of  in 
creasing  industry,  he  resolved  to  reverse  his  plan,  and 
carried  his  purpose  into  execution  with  unflinching  en 
ergy.  In  short,  he  had  now  adopted  the  habits  in  which, 
with  very  slender  variation,  he  ever  after  persevered 
when  in  the  country.  He  rose  by  five  o'clock,  lit  his 
own  fire  when  the  season  required  one,  and  shaved  and 
dressed  with  great  delil  eration  —  for  he  was  a  very  mar 


ASHESTIEL 1805.  201 

*net  as  to  all  but  the  mere  coxcombries  of  the  toilet,  not 
abhorring  effeminate  dandyism  itself  so  cordially  as  the 
slightest  approach  to  personal  slovenliness,  or  even  those 
"bed-gown  and  slipper  tricks,"  as  he  called  them,  in 
which  literary  men  are  so  apt  to  indulge.  Arrayed  in 
his  shooting-jacket,  or  whatever  dress  he  meant  to  use  till 
dinner  time,  he  was  seated  at  his  desk  by  six  o'clock,  all 
his  papers  arranged  before  him  in  the  most  accurate  or 
der,  and  his  books  of  reference  marshalled  around  him 
on  the  floor,  while  at  least  one  favourite  dog  lay  watching 
his  eye,  just  beyond  the  line  of  circumvallation.  Thus, 
by  the  time  the  family  assembled  for  breakfast  between 
nine  and  ten,  he  had  done  enough  (in  his  own  language) 
"  to  break,  the  neck  of  the  day's  work."  After  breakfast,  a 
couple  of  hours  more  were  given  to  his  solitary  tasks, 
and  by  noon  he  was,  as  he  used  to  say,  "  his  own  man." 
When  the  weather  was  bad,  he  would  labour  incessantly 
all  the  morning ;  but  the  general  rule  was  to  be  out  and  on 
horseback  by  one  o'clock  at  the  latest ;  while,  if  any  more 
distant  excursion  had  been  proposed  over  night,  he  was 
ready  to  start  on  it  by  ten  ;  his  occasional  rainy  days  of 
unintermitted  study  forming,  as  he  said,  a  fund  in  his 
favour,  out  of  which  he  was  entitled  to  draw  for  accom 
modation  whenever  the  sun  shone  with  special  bright 
ness. 

It  was  another  rule,  that  every  letter  he  received 
should  be  answered  that  same  day.  Nothing  else  could 
have  enabled  him  to  keep  abreast  with  the  flood  of  com 
munications  that  in  the  sequel  put  his  good  nature  to  the 
severest  test  —  but  already  the  demands  on  him  in  this 
way  also  were  numerous ;  and  he  included  attention  to 
them  among  the  necessary  business  which  must  be  de- 
tpatched  before  he  had  a  right  to  close  his  writing-box,  01 


202  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

as  he  phrased  it,  "to  say,  out  damned  spot,  and  be  a 
gentleman."  In  turning  over  his  enormous  mass  of  cor 
respondence,  I  have  almost  invariably  found  some  indi 
cation  that,  when  a  letter  had  remained  more  than  a  day 
or  two  unanswered,  it  had  been  so  because  he  found  oc 
casion  for  inquiry  or  deliberate  consideration. 

I  ought  not  to  omit,  that  in  those  days  Scott  was  far 
too  zealous  a  dragoon  not  to  take  a  principal  share  in  the 
stable  duty.  Before  beginning  his  desk-work  in  the 
morning,  he  uniformly  visited  his  favourite  steed,  and 
neither  Captain  nor  Lieutenant,  nor  the  Lieutenant's 
.successor,  Brown  Adam  (so  called  after  one  of  the  heroes 
of  the  Minstrelsy),  liked  to  be  fed  except  by  him.  The 
latter  charger  was  indeed  altogether  intractable  in  other 
hands,  though  in  his  the  most  submissive  of  faithful  allies. 
The  moment  he  was  bridled  and  saddled,  it  was  the 
custom  to  open  the  stable  door  as  a  signal  that  his  master 
expected  him,  when  he  immediately  trotted  to  the  side  of 
the  leaping-on-stone,  of  which  Scott  from  his  lameness 
found  it  convenient  to  make  use,  and  stood  there,  silent 
and  motionless  as  a  rock,  until  he  was  fairly  in  his 
seat,  after  which  he  displayed  his  joy  by  neighing  tri 
umphantly  through  a  brilliant  succession  of  curvettings. 
Brown  Adam  never  suffered  himself  to  be  backed  but  by 
his  master.  He  broke,  I  believe,  one  groom's  arm  and 
another's  leg  in  the  rash  attempt  to  tamper  with  his 
dignity. 

Camp  was  at  this  time  the  constant  parlour  dog.  He 
was  very  handsome,  very  intelligent,  and  naturally  very 
fierce,  but  gentle  as  a  lamb  among  the  children.  As  for 
the  more  locomotive  Douglas  and  Percy,  he  kept  one 
window  of  his  study  open,  whatever  might  be  the  state 
of  the  weather,  that  they  might  leap  out  and  in  as  the 


ASHESTIEL  —  1805.  203 

fancy  moved  them.  He  always  talked  to  Camp  as  if  he 
understood  what  was  said  —  and  the  animal  certainly  did 
understand  not  a  little  of  it  ;  in  particular,  it  seemed  as  if 
he  perfectly  comprehended  on  all  occasions  that  his  master 
considered  him  as  a  sensible  and  steady  friend  —  the  grey 
hounds  as  volatile  young  creatures  whose  freaks  must  bo 
borne  with. 

"  Every  day,"  says  Mr.  Skene,  "  we  had  some  hours  of 
coursing  with  the  greyhounds,  or  riding  at  random  over  the 
hills,  or  of  spearing  salmon  in  the  Tweed  by  sunlight  :  which 
last  sport,  moreover,  we  often  renewed  at  night  by  the  help  of 
torches.  This  amusement  of  burning  the  water,  as  it  is  called, 
was  not  without  some  hazard  ;  for  the  large  salmon  generally 
lie  in  the  pools,  the  depths  of  which  it  is  not  easy  to  estimate 
with  precision  by  torchlight,  —  so  that  not  unfrequently,  when 
the  sportsman  makes  a  determined  thrust  at  a  fish  apparently 
within  reach,  his  eye  has  grossly  deceived  him,  and  instead  of 
the  point  of  the  weapon  encountering  the  prey,  he  finds  him 
self  launched  with  corresponding  vehemence  heels  over  head 
into  the  pool,  both  spear  and  salmon  gone,  the  torch  thrown 
out  by  the  concussion  of  the  boat,  and  quenched  in  the  stream, 
while  the  boat  itself  has  of  course  receded  to  some  distance.  I 
remember  the  first  time  I  accompanied  our  friend,  he  went 
right  over  the  gunwale  in  this  manner,  and  had  I  not  acciden 
tally  been  close  at  his  side,  and  made  a  successful  grasp  at  the 
gkirt  of  his  jacket  as  he  plunged  overboard,  he  must  at  least 
have  had  an  awkward  dive  for  it.  Such  are  the  contingencies 
of  burning  the  water.  The  pleasures  consist  in  being  pene 
trated  with  cold  and  wet,  having  your  shins  broken  against 
the  stones  in  the  dark,  and  perhaps  mastering  one  fish  out  of 
every  twenty  you  take  aim  at." 


In  all  these  amusements,  but  particularly  in  the 
ing  of  the  water,  Scott's  most  regular  companion  at  this 
time  was  John  Lord  Somerville,  who  united  with  many 


204  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

higher  qualities  a  most  enthusiastic  love  for  such  sports, 
and  consummate  address  in  the  prosecution  of  them. 
This  amiable  nobleman  then  passed  his  autumns  at  his 
pretty  seat  of  Alwyn,  or  the  Pavilion,  situated  on  the 
Tweed,  some  eight  or  nine  miles  below  Ashestiel.  They 
interchanged  visits  almost  every  week ;  and  Scott  did  not 
fail  to  profit  largely  by  his  friend's  matured  and  well- 
known  skill  in  every  department  of  the  science  of  rura 
economy.  He  always  talked  of  him,  in  particular,  as  his 
master  in  the  art  of  planting. 

The  laird  of  Rubislaw  seldom  failed  to  spend  a  part 
of  the  summer  and  autumn  at  Ashestiel,  as  long  as  Scott 
remained  there,  and  during  these  visits  they  often  gave  a 
wider  scope  to  their  expeditions. 

"  Indeed,"  says  Mr.  Skene,  "  there  are  few  scenes  at  all 
celebrated  either  in  the  history,  tradition,  or  romance  of 
the  Border  counties,  which  we  did  not  explore  together  in  the 
course  of  our  rambles.  We  traversed  the  entire  vales  of  the 
Yarrow  and  Ettrick,  with  all  their  sweet  tributary  glens,  and 
never  failed  to  find  a  hearty  welcome  from  the  farmers  at 
whose  houses  we  stopped,  either  for  dinner  or  for  the  night. 
He  was  their  chief-magistrate,  extremely  popular  in  that 
official  capacity;  and  nothing  could  be  more  gratifying  thaia 
the  frank  and  hearty  reception  which  everywhere  greeted  our 
arrival,  however  unexpected.  The  exhilarating  air  of  the 
mountains,  and  the  healthy  exercise  of  the  day,  secured  our 
relishing  homely  fare,  and  we  found  inexhaustible  entertain 
ment  in  the  varied  display  of  character  which  the  affability  of 
the  Sheriff  drew  forth  on  all  occasions  in  genuine  breadth  and 
purity.  The  beauty  of  the  scenery  gave  full  employment  to 
my  pencil,  with  the  free  and  frequent  exercise  of  which  he 
never  seemed  to  feel  impatient.  He  was  at  all  times  ready 
and  willing  to  alight  when  any  object  attracted  my  notice,  and 
used  to  seat  himself  beside  me  on  the  brae,  to  con  over  some 
ballad  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  or  narrate  the  tradition  of 


ASHESTIEL 1805.     MR.    SKENE.  205 

itie  glen  —  sometimes,  perhaps,  to  note  a  passing  idea  in  his 
pocket-book;  but  this  was  rare,  for  in  general  he  relied  with 
confidence  on  the  great  storehouse  of  his  memory.  And  much 
amusement  we  had,  as  you  may  suppose,  in  talking  over  the 
difierent  incidents,  conversations,  and  traits  of  manners  that 
had  occurred  at  the  last  hospitable  fireside  where  we  had 
mingled  with  the  natives.  Thus  the  minutes  glided  awa^ 
until  my  sketch  was  complete,  and  then  we  mounted  again 
with  fresh  alacrity. 

"  These  excursions  derived  an  additional  zest  from  the  un 
certainty  that  often  attended  the  issue  of  our  proceedings ;  for, 
following  the  game  started  by  the  dogs,  our  unfailing  com 
rades,  we  frequently  got  entangled  and  bewildered  among  the 
hills,  until  we  had  to  trust  to  mere  chance  for  the  lodging  of 
the  night.  Adventures  of  this  sort  were  quite  to  his  taste,  and 
the  more  for  the  perplexities  which  on  such  occasions  befell 
our  attendant  squires,  —  mine  a  lanky  Savoyard  —  his  a  portly 
Scotch  butler  —  both  of  them  uncommonly  bad  horsemen,  and 
both  equally  sensitive  about  their  personal  dignity,  which  the 
ruggedness  of  the  ground  often  made  it  a  matter  of  some  dif 
ficulty  for  either  of  them  to  maintain,  but  more  especially  for 
my  poor  foreigner,  whose  seat  resembled  that  of  a  pair  of  com 
passes  astride.  Scott's  heavy  lumbering  beaujfetier  had  pro 
vided  himself  against  the  mountain  showers  with  a  huge  cloak, 
which,  when  the  cavalcade  were  at  gallop,  streamed  at  full 
stretch  from  his  shoulders,  and  kept  flapping  in  the  other's 
face,  who,  having  more  than  enough  to  do  in  preserving  hia 
own  equilibrium,  could  not  think  of  attempting  at  any  time  to 
control  the  pace  of  his  steed,  and  had  no  relief  but  fuming  and 
pesting  at  the  sacre  manteau,  in  language  happily  unintelligible 
to  its  wearer.  Now  and  then  some  ditch  or  turf-fence  ren 
dered  it  indispensable  to  adventure  on  a  leap,  arid  no  farce 
could  have  been  more  amusing  than  the  display  of  politeness 
which  then  occurred  between  these  worthy  equestrians,  each 
courteously  declining  in  favour  of  his  friend  the  honour  of  the 
first  experiment,  the  horses  fretting  impatient  beneath  them, 
and  the  dogs  clamouring  encouragement.  The  horses  gener- 


206  LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

ally  terminated  the  dispute  by  renouncing  allegiance,  and 
springing  forward  without  waiting  the  pleasure  of  the  riders, 
who  had  to  settle  the  matter  with  their  saddles  as  they  best 
could. 

"  One  of  our  earliest  expeditions  was  to  visit  the  wild  sce 
nery  of  the  mountainous  tract  above  Moffat,  including  the  cas 
cade  of  the  Grey  Mare's  Tail,  and  the  dark  tarn  called  Loch 
Skene  In  our  ascent  to  the  lake  we  got  completely  bewil 
dered  in  the  thick  fog  which  generally  envelopes  the  rugged 
features  of  that  lonely  region ;  and,  as  we  were  groping 
through  the  maze  of  bogs,  the  ground  gave  way,  and  down 
went  horse  and  horsemen  pell-mell  into  a  slough  of  peaty  mud 
and  black  water,  out  of  which,  entangled  as  we  were  with  our 
plaids  and  floundering  nags,  it  was  no  easy  matter  to  get  ex 
tricated.  Indeed,  unless  we  had  prudently  left  our  gallant 
Bteeds  at  a  farm-house  below,  and  borrowed  hill  ponies  for 
the  occasion,  the  result  might  have  been  worse  than  laugha 
ble.  As  it  was,  we  rose  like  the  spirits  of  the  bog,  covered 
cap-a-pie  with  slime,  to  free  themselves  from  which,  our  wily 
ponies  took  to  rolling  about  on  the  heather,  and  we  had  noth 
ing  for  it  but  following  their  example.  At  length,  as  we 
approached  the  gloomy  loch,  a  huge  eagle  heaved  himself  from 
the  margin  and  rose  right  over  us,  screaming  his  scorn  of  the 
intruders  ;  and  altogether  it  would  be  impossible  to  picture  any 
thing  more  desolately  savage  than  the  scene  which  opened,  as 
if  raised  by  enchantment  on  purpose  to  gratify  the  poet's  eye ; 
thick  folds  of  fog  rolling  incessantly  over  the  face  of  the  inky 
waters,  but  rent  asunder  now  in  one  direction,  and  then  in 
another  —  so  as  to  afford  us  a  glimpse  of  some  projecting  rook 
or  naked  point  of  land,  or  island  bearing  a  few  scraggy  stumps 
of  pine  —  and  then  closing  again  in  universal  darkness  upon 
the  cheerless  waste.  Much  of  the  scenery  of  Old  Mortality 
was  drawn  from  that  day's  ride. 

"  It  was  also  in  the  course  of  this  excursion  that  we  encoun 
tered  that  amusing  personage  introduced  into  Guy  Mannering 
as  '  Tod  Gabbie,'  though  the  appellation  by  which  he  was 
known  in  the  neighbourhood  was  '  Tod  Willie.'  He  was  one 


ASHESTIEL MR.    SKENE.  207 

x>f  those  itinerants  who  gain  a  subsistence  among  the  moorland 
farmers  by  relieving  them  of  foxes,  polecats,  and  the  like  dep 
redators — a  half-witted,  stuttering,  and  most  original  creature. 

"  Having  explored  all  the  wonders  of  Moffatdale,  we  turned 
ourselves  towards  Blackhouse  Tower,  to  visit  Scctt's  worthy 
acquaintances  the  Laidlaws,  and  reached  it  after  a  long  and 
ntricate  ride,  having  been  again  led  off  our  course  by  the 
greyhounds,  who  had  been  seduced  by  a  strange  dog  that 
joined  company,  to  engage  in  full  pursuit  upon  the  track  of 
what  we  presumed  to  be  either  a  fox  or  a  roe-deer.  The 
chase  was  protracted  and  perplexing,  from  the  mist  that 
skirted  the  hill  tops;  but  at  length  we  reached  the  scene 
of  slaughter,  and  were  much  distressed  to  find  that  a  stately 
old  he-goat  had  been  the  victim.  He  seemed  to  have  fought  a 
stout  battle  for  his  life,  but  now  lay  mangled  in  the  midst  of 
his  panting  enemies,  who  betrayed,  on  our  approach,  strong 
consciousness  of  delinquency  and  apprehension  of  the  lash, 
which  was  administered  accordingly  to  soothe  the  manes  of  the 
luckless  Capricorn  —  though,  after  all,  the  dogs  were  not  so 
much  to  blame  in  mistaking  his  game  flavour,  since  the  fogs 
must  have  kept  him  out  of  view  till  the  last  moment.  Our 
visit  to  Blackhouse  was  highly  interesting;  —  the  excellent 
old  tenant  being  still  in  life,  and  the  whole  family  group  pre 
senting  a  perfect  picture  of  innocent  and  simple  happiness, 
while  the  animated,  intelligent,  and  original  conversation  of 
our  friend  William  was  quite  charming. 

"  Sir  Adam  Fergusson  and  the  Ettrick  Shepherd  were  of 
the  party  that  explored  Loch  Skene  and  hunted  the  unfor 
tunate  he-goat. 

"  I  need  not  tell  you  that  Saint  Mary's  Loch,  and  the  Locli 
of  the  Lowes,  were  among  the  most  favourite  scenes  of  out 
excursions,  as  his  fondness  for  them  continued  to  his  last  days, 
and  we  have  both  visited  them  many  times  together  in  his 
company.  I  may  say  the  same  of  the  Teviot  and  the  Aill, 
Borthwick-water,  and  the  lonely  towers  of  Buccleuch  and 
Harden,  Minto,  Roxburgh,  Gilnockie,  &c.  I  think  it  was 
either  in  1305  or  1806  that  I  first  explored  the  Borthwick 


208  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

with  him,  when  on  our  way  to  pass  a  week  at  Langholm  with 
Lord  and  Lady  Dalkeith,  upon  which  occasion  the  otter-hunt, 
so  well  described  in  Guy  Mannering,  was  got  up  by  our  noble 
host ;  and  I  can  never  forget  the  delight  with  which  Scott 
observed  the  enthusiasm  of  the  high-spirited  yeomen,  who  had 
assembled  in  multitudes  to  partake  the  sport  of  their  dear 
young  chief,  well  mounted,  and  dashing  about  from  rock  to 
rock  with  a  reckless  ardour  which  recalled  the  alacrity  of 
their  forefathers  in  following  the  Buccleuchs  of  former  days 
through  adventures  of  a  more  serious  order. 

"  Whatever  the  banks  of  the  Tweed,  from  its  source  to  its 
termination,  presented  of  interest,  we  frequently  visited ;  and 
I  do  verily  believe  there  is  not  a  single  ford  in  the  whole 
course  of  that  river  which  we  have  not  traversed  together, 
He  had  an  amazing  fondness  for  fords,  and  was  not  a  little 
adventurous  in  plunging  through,  whatever  might  be  the  state 
of  the  flood,  and  this  even  though  there  happened  to  be  a 
bridge  in  view.  If  it  seemed  possible  to  scramble  through,  he 
scorned  to  go  ten  yards  about,  and  in  fact  preferred  the  ford ; 
and  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  most  of  the  heroes  of  his  tales 
seem  to  have  been  endued  with  similar  propensities  —  even  the 
White  Lady  of  Avenel  delights  in  the  ford.  He  sometimes 
even  attempted  them  on  foot,  though  his  lameness  interfered 
considerably  with  his  progress  among  the  slippery  stones. 
Upon  one  occasion  of  this  sort  I  was  assisting  him  through  the 
Ettrick,  and  we  had  both  got  upon  the  same  tottering  stone  in 
the  middle  of  the  stream,  when  some  story  about  a  kelpie 
occurring  to  him,  he  must  needs  stop  and  tell  it  with  all  his 
usual  vivacity  —  and  then  laughing  heartily  at  his  own  joke, 
he  slipped  his  foot,  or  the  stone  shuffled  beneath  him,  and 
down  he  went  headlong  into  the  pool,  pulling  me  after  him. 
We  escaped,  however,  with  no  worse  than  a  thorough  drench 
ing  and  the  loss  of  his  stick,  which  floated  down  the  river,  and 
he  was  as  ready  as  ever  for  a  similar  exploit  before  his  clothes 
were  half  dried  upon  his  back." 

About  this  time  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Scott  made  a  short  ex 
cursion  to  the  Lakes  of  Cumberland  and  Westmoreland 


EXCURSION    TO    CUMBERLAND  —  1805.  209 

and  visited  some  of  their  finest  scenery,  in  company  with 
Mr.  Wordsworth.  I  have  found  no  written  narrative  of 
this  little  tour,  but  I  have  often  heard  Scott  speak  with 
enthusiastic  delight  of  the  reception  he  met  with  in  the 
humble  cottage  which  his  brother  poet  then  inhabited  on 
the  banks  of  Grasmere ;  and  at  least  one  of  the  days  they 
spent  together  was  destined  to  furnish  a  theme  for  the 
verse  of  each,  namely,  that  which  they  gave  to  the  ascent 
of  Helvellyn,  where,  in  the  course  of  the  preceding 
spring,  a  young  gentleman  having  lost  his  way  and 
perished  by  falling  over  a  precipice,  his  remains  were 
discovered,  three  months  afterwards,  still  watched  by  "  a 
faithful  terrier-bitch,  his  constant  attendant  during  fre 
quent  rambles  among  the  wilds."  *  This  day  they  were 
accompanied  by  an  illustrious  philosopher,  who  was  also 
a  true  poet  —  and  might  have  been  one  of  the  greatest 
of  poets  had  he  chosen ;  and  I  have  heard  Mr.  Words 
worth  say,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  express  the  feel 
ings  with  which  he,  who  so  often  had  climbed  Helvellyn 
alone,  found  himself  standing  on  its  summit  with  two 
such  men  as  Scott  and  Davy. 

After  leaving  Mr.  Wordsworth,  Scott  carried  his  wife 
to  spend  a  few  days  at  Gilsland,  among  the  scenes  where 
they  had  first  met ;  and  his  reception  by  the  company  at 
the  wells  was  such  as  to  make  him  look  back  with  some 
thing  of  regret,  as  well  as  of  satisfaction,  to  the  change 

*  See  notice  prefixed  to  the  song  — 

"I  climbed  the  dark  brow  of  the  mighty  Helvellyn,"  &c 
in  SCOTT'S  Poetical  Works,  edit.  1841,  p.  629 ;  and  compare  the  lines  — 

"  Inmate  of  a  mountain  dwelling, 

Thou  hast  clomb  aloft,  and  gazed 
From  the  watch-towers  of  Helvellyn, 
Awed,  delighted,  and  amaze  1,"  &c. 

Wordsworth's  Poetical  Works,  8vo.  edi*.  vol.  Hi.  p.  9« 
VOL.  ii.  14 


210  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that  had  occurred  in  his  circumstances  since  1797.  They 
were,  however,  enjoying  themselves  much  there,  when  he 
received  intelligence  which  induced  him  to  believe  that  a 
French  force  was  about  to  land  in  Scotland :  —  the  alarm 
indeed  had  spread  far  and  wide  ;  and  a  mighty  gathering 
of  volunteers,  horse  and  foot,  from  the  Lothians  and  the 
Border  country,  took  place  in  consequence  at  Dalkeith. 
He  was  not  slow  to  obey  the  summons.  He  had  luckily 
chosen  to  accompany  on  horseback  the  carriage  in  which 
Mrs.  Scott  travelled.  His  good  steed  carried  him  to  the 
spot  of  rendezvous,  full  a  hundred  miles  from  Gilsland, 
within  twenty-four  hours  ;  and  on  reaching  it,  though,  no 
doubt  to  his  disappointment,  the  alarm  had  already  blown 
over,  he  was  delighted  with  the  general  enthusiasm  that 
had  thus  been  put  to  the  test  —  and,  above  all,  by  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  yeomen  of  Ettrick  forest  had 
poured  down  from  their  glens,  under  the  guidance  of  his 
good  friend  and  neighbour,  Mr.  Pririgle  of  Torwoodlee. 
These  fine  fellows  were  quartered  along  with  the  Edin- 
lurgh  troop  when  he  reached  Dalkeith  and  Musselburgh ; 
and  after  some  sham  battling,  and  a  few  evenings  of  high 
jollity,  had  crowned  the  needless  muster  of  the  beacon 
fires,*  he  immediately  turned  his  horse  again  towards  the 
south,  and  rejoined  Mrs.  Scott  at  Carlisle. 

By  the  way,  it  was  during  his  fiery  ride  from  Gilsland 
to  Dalkeith,  on  the  occasion  above  mentioned,  that  he 
composed  his  Bard's  Incantation,  first  published  six  years 
afterwards  in  the  Edinburgh  Annual  Register :  — 

"  The  forest  of  Glenmore  is  drear, 
It  is  all  of  black  pine  and  the  dark  oak  tree,"  &c.  — 

and  the  verses  bear  the  full  stamp  of  the  feelings  of 
the  moment. 

*  See  Note  "  Alarm  of  Invasion,"  Antiquary,  chap.  xlv. 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ELLIS 1805  211 

Shortly  after  he  was  re-established  at  Ashestiel,  he 
ivas  visited  there  by  Mr.  Southey ;  this  being,  I  believe, 
their  first  meeting.  It  is  alluded  to  in  the  following  let 
ter  —  a  letter  highly  characteristic  in  more  respects  than 
one :  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq.,  Sunninghill. 

"  Ashestiel,  17th  October  1805. 

*'  Dear  Ellis,  —  More  than  a  month  has  glided  away  in  this 
busy  solitude,  and  yet  I  have  never  sat  down  to  answer  your 
kind  letter.  I  have  only  to  plead  a  horror  of  pen  and  ink 
with  which  this  country,  in  fine  weather  (and  ours  has  been 
most  beautiful)  regularly  affects  me.  In  recompense,  I  ride 
walk,  fish,  course,  eat  and  drink,  with  might  and  main,  from 
morning  to  night.  I  could  have  wished  sincerely  you  had 
come  to  Reged  this  year  to  partake  her  rural  amusements  ;  — 
the  only  comfort  I  have  is,  that  your  visit  would  have  been 
over,  and  now  I  look  forward  to  it  as  to  a  pleasure  to  come.  I 
shall  be  infinitely  obliged  to  you  for  your  advice  and  assistance 
in  the  course  of  Dryden.  I  fear  little  can  be  procured  for  a 
Life  beyond  what  Malone  has  compiled,  but  certainly  his  facts 
may  be  rather  better  told  and  arranged.  I  am  at  present  busy 
with  the  dramatic  department.  This  undertaking  will  make 
my  being  in  London  in  spring  a  matter  of  absolute  necessity. 

"  And  now  let  me  tell  you  of  a  discovery  which  I  have 
made,  or  rather  which  Robert  Jameson  has  made,  in  copying 
the  MS.  of  '  True  Thomas  and  the  Queen  of  Elfland,'  in  the 
Lincoln  cathedral.  The  queen,  at  parting,  bestows  the  gifts 
of  harping  and  carping  upon  the  .prophet,  and  mark  his 
•eply  — 

'  To  harp  and  carp,  Tomas,  where  so  ever  ye  gen  — 
Thomas,  take  tbou  these  with  thee.'  — 

'  Harping,'  he  said,  '  ken  I  nane, 
For  Tong  is  chefe  of  mynstrelsie.'  ^    . 

if  pcor  Ritson  could  contradict  his  own  system  of  materialism 
by  rising  from  the  grave  to  peep  into  this  MS.,  he  would 


212  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

slink  back  again  in  dudgeon  and  dismay.  There  certainly 
cannot  be  more  respectable  testimony  than  that  of  True 
Thomas,  and  you  see  he  describes  the  tongue,  or  recitation,  as 
the  principal,  or  at  least  the  most  dignified,  part  of  a  min 
strel's  profession. 

"  Another  curiosity  was  brought  here  a  few  days  ago  by  Mr. 
Southey  the  poet,  who  favoured  me  with  a  visit  on  his  way  to 
Edinburgh.  It  was  a  MS.  containing  sundry  metrical  ro 
mances,  and  other  poetical  compositions,  in  the  northern  dialect, 
apparently  written  about  the  middle  of  the  15th  century.  I 
had  not  time  to  make  an  analysis  of  its  contents,  but  some  of 
them  seem  highly  valuable.  There  is  a  tale  of  Sir  Gowther, 
said  to  be  a  Breton  Lay,  which  partly  resembles  the  history  of 
Robert  the  Devil,  the  hero  being  begot  in  the  same  way  ;  and 
partly  that  of  Robert  of  Sicily,  the  penance  imposed  on  Sir 
Gowther  being  the  same,  as  he  kept  table  with  the  hounds, 
and  was  discovered  by  a  dumb  lady  to  be  the  stranger  knight 
who  had  assisted  her  father  the  emperor  in  his  wars.  There 
is  also  a  MS.  of  Sir  Isanbras ;  item  a  poem  called  Sir  Amadis 
—  not  Amadis  of  Gaul,  but  a  courteous  knight,  who,  being 
reduced  to  poverty,  travels  to  conceal  his  distress,  and  gives 
the  wreck  of  his  fortune  to  purchase  the  rites  of  burial  for  a 
deceased  knight,  who  had  been  refused  them  by  the  obduracy 
of  his  creditors.  The  rest  of  the  story  is  the  same  with  that 
of  Jean  de  Calais,  in  the  Bibliotheque  Bleue,  and  with  a  vul 
gar  ballad  called  the  Factor's  Garland.  Moreover  there  is  a 
merry  tale  of  hunting  a  hare,  as  performed  by  a  set  of  country 
clowns,  with  their  mastiffs,  and  curs  with  '  short  legs  and  never 
a  tail.'  The  disgraces  and  blunders  of  these  ignorant  sports- 
fien  must  have  afforded  infinite  mirth  at  the  table  of  a  feudal 
baron,  prizing  himself  on  his  knowledge  of  the  mysteries  of 
the  chase  performed  by  these  unauthorized  intruders.  There 
is  also  a  burlesque  sermon,  which  informs  us  of  Peter  and 
Adam  journeying  together  to  Babylon,  and  how  Peter  asked 
Adam  a  full  great  doubtful  question,  saying,  '  Adam,  Adam, 
why  didst  thou  eat  the  apple  unpared  ? '  This  book  belongs 
to  a  lady.  I  would  have  given  something  valuable  to  hav* 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    ELLIS.  213 

had  a  week  of  it.  Southey  commissioned  me  to  say  that  he 
intended  to  take  extracts  from  it,  and  should  be  happy  to  copy, 
or  cause  to  be  copied,  any  part  that  you  might  wish  to  be  pos 
sessed  of;  an  offer  which  I  heartily  recommend  to  your  early 
consideration.  —  Where  dwelleth  Heber  the  magnificent,  whose 
library  and  cellar  *  are  so  superior  to  all  others  in  the  world  ? 
I  wish  to  write  to  him  about  Dryden.  Any  word  lately  from 
Jamaica  ?  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 

Mr.  Ellis,  in  his  answer,  says  — 

"  Heber  will,  I  dare  say,  be  of  service  to  you  in  your  pres 
ent  undertaking,  if  indeed  you  want  any  assistance,  which  I 
very  much  doubt ;  because  it  appears  to  me  that  the  best 
edition  which  could  now  be  given  of  Dryden,  would  be  one 
which  should  unite  accuracy  of  text  and  a  handsome  appear 
ance,  with  good  critical  notes.  Quoad  Malone,  —  I  should 
think  Ritson  himself,  could  he  rise  from  the  dead,  would  be 
puzzled  to  sift  out  a  single  additional  anecdote  of  the  poet's 
life;  but  to  abridge  Malone,  —  and  to  render  his  narrative 
terse,  elegant,  and  intelligible,  —  would  be  a  great  obligation 
conferred  on  the  purchasers  (I  will  not  say  the  readers,  be 
cause  I  have  doubts  whether  they  exist  in  the  plural  number) 
of  his  very  laborious  compilation.  The  late  Dr.  Warton,  you 
may  have  heard,  had  a  project  of  editing  Dryden  a  la  Kurd ; 
that  is  to  say,  upon  the  same  principle  as  the  castrated  edition 
X  Cowley.  His  reason  was,  that  Dryden,  having  written  for 
,~)read,  became  of  necessity  a  most  voluminous  author,  and 
poured  forth  more  nonsense  of  indecency,  particularly  in  his 
theatrical  compositions,  than  almost  any  scribbler  in  that  scrib 
bling  age.  Hence,  although  his  transcendent  genius  frequently 
breaks  out,  and  marks  the  hand  of  the  master,  his  comedies 
seem,  by  a  tacit  but  general  consent,  to  have  been  condemned 
to  oblivicn  ;  and  his  tragedies,  being  printed  in  such  bad  com 
pany,  have  shared  the  same  fate.  But  Dr.  W.  conceived  that, 
»y  a  judicious  selection  of  these,  together  with  his  fables  and 

*  Ellis  had  mentioned,  in  a  recent  letter,  Heber's  buying  wines  to 
ttie  value  of  £1100  at  some  sale  he  happened  to  attend  this  autumn- 


234  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

prose  works,  it  would  be  possible  to  exhibit  him  in  a  much 
more  advantageous  light  than  by  a  republication  of  the  whole 
mass  of  his  writings.  Whether  the  Doctor  (who,  by  the  way, 
was  by  no  means  scrupulously  chaste  and  delicate,  as  you  will 
be  aware  from  his  edition  of  Pope)  had  taken  a  just  view  of 
the  subject,  you  know  better  than  I :  but  I  must  own  that  the 
announcement  of  a  general  edition  of  Dryden  gave  me  some 
little  alarm.  However,  if  you  can  suggest  the  sort  of  assist 
ance  you  are  desirous  of  receiving,  I  shall  be  happy  to  do  what 
I  can  to  promote  your  views And  so  you  are  not  dis 
posed  to  nibble  at  the  bait  I  throw  out !  Nothing  but  '  a  de 
cent  edition  of  Holinshed '  ?  I  confess  that  my  project  chiefly 
related  to  the  later  historical  works  respecting  this  country  — 
to  the  union  of  Gall,  Twisden,  Camden,  Leibnitz,  &c.  &c., 
leaving  the  Chronicles,  properly  so  called,  to  shift  for  them 
selves I  am  ignorant  when  you  are  to  be  in  Edin 
burgh,  and  in  that  ignorance  have  not  desired  Blackburn,  who 
is  now  at  Glasgow,  to  call  on  you.  He  has  the  best  practical 
understanding  I  have  ever  met  with,  and  I  vouch  that  you 
would  be  much  pleased  with  his  acquaintance.  And  so  for 
the  present  God  bless  you.  G.  E." 

Scott's  letter  in  reply  opens  thus  :  — 

"  I  will  not  castrate  John  Dryden.  I  would  as  soon  castrate 
my  own  father,  as  I  believe  Jupiter  did  of  yore.  What  would 
you  say  to  any  man  who  would  castrate  Shakspeare,  or  Mas- 
ginger,  or  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  ?  I  don't  say  but  that  it 
may  be  very  proper  to  select  correct  passages  for  the  use  of 
boarding  schools  and  colleges,  being  sensible  no  improper  ideas 
can  be  suggested  in  these  seminaries,  unless  they  are  intruded 
or  smuggled  under  the  beards  and  ruffs  of  our  old  dramatists. 
But  in  making  an  edition  of  a  man  of  genius's  works  for  libra 
ries  and  collections,  and  such  I  conceive  a  complete  edition  of 
Dryden  to  be,  I  must  give  my  author  as  I  find  him,  and  will 
not  tear  out  the  page,  even  to  get  rid  of  the  blot,  little  as  I 
fike  it.  Are  not  the  pages  of  Swift,  and  even  of  Pope,  larded 
with  indecency,  and  often  of  the  most  disgusting  kind  ?  and  da 


DRYDEN 1805.  215 

ire  not  see  them  upon  all  shelves  and  dressing-tables,  and  in 
all  boudoirs  ?  Is  not  Prior  the  most  indecent  of  tale-tellers, 
not  even  excepting  La  Fontaine  ?  and  how  often  do  we  see  hia 
works  in  female  hands  ?  In  fact,  it  is  not  passages  of  ludi 
crous  indelicacy  that  corrupt  the  manners  of  a  people  —  it  is 
the  sonnets  which  a  prurient  genius  like  Master  Little  singa 
virginibus  puerisque  —  it  is  the  sentimental  slang,  half  lewd, 
hah0  methodistic,  that  debauches  the  understanding,  inflames 
the  sleeping  passions,  and  prepares  the  reader  to  give  way  as 
soon  as  a  tempter  appears.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  not  at  all 
happy  when  I  peruse  some  of  Dryden's  comedies  :  they  are 
very  stupid,  as  well  as  indelicate  ;  —  sometimes,  however,  there 
is  a  considerable  vein  of  liveliness  and  humour,  and  all  of  them 
present  extraordinary  pictures  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 
My  critical  notes  will  not  be  very  numerous,  but  I  hope  to 
illustrate  the  political  poems,  as  Absalom  and  Achitophel,  the 
Hind  and  Panther,  &c.,  with  some  curious  annotations.  I  have 
already  made  a  complete  search  among  some  hundred  pam 
phlets  of  that  pamphlet-Writing  age,  and  with  considerable  suc 
cess,  as  I  have  found  several  which  throw  light  on  my  author. 
I  am  told  that  I  am  to  be  formidably  opposed  by  Mr.  Crowe, 
the  Professor  of  Poetry  at  Oxford,  who  is  also  threatening  an 
edition  of  Dryden.  I  don't  know  whether  to  be  most  vexed 
that  some  one  had  not  undertaken  the  task  sooner,  or  that 
Mr.  Crowe  is  disposed  to  attempt  it  at  the  same  time  with  me ; 
—  however,  I  now  stand  committed,  and  will  not  be  crowed 
over,  if  I  can  help  it.  The  third  edition  of  the  Lay  is  now  in 
the  press,  of  which  I  hope  you  will  accept  a  copy,  as  it  con 
tains  some  trifling  improvements  or  additions.  They  are,  how 
ever,  very  trifling. 

"  I  have  written  a  long  letter  to  Rees,  recommending  an 
edition  of  our  historians,  both  Latin  and  English ;  but  I  have 
great  hesitation  whether  to  undertake  much  of  it  myself. 
What  I  can,  I  certainly  will  do  ;  but  I  should  feel  particularly 
ielighted  if  you  would  join  forces  with  me,  when  I  think  we 
might  do  the  business  to  purpose.  Do,  Lord  love  you,  think 
}f  this  grande  opus. 


216  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  I  have  not  been  so  fortunate  as  to  hear  of  Mr.  Blackburn. 
I  am  afraid  poor  Daniel  has  been  very  idly  employed  —  CVe« 
lum  non  animum.  I  am  glad  you  still  retain  the  purpose  of 
visiting  Reged.  If  you  live  on  mutton  and  game,  we  can  feast 
you ;  for,  as  one  wittily  said,  I  am  not  the  hare  with  many 
friends,  but  the  friend  with  many  hares.  W.  S." 

Mr.  Ellis,  in  his  next  letter,  says  — 

"  I  will  not  disturb  you  by  contesting  any  part  of  your  in 
genious  apology  for  your  intended  complete  edition  of  Dryden, 
whose  genius  I  venerate  as  much  as  you  do,  and  whose  negli 
gences,  as  he  was  not  rich  enough  to  doom  them  to  oblivion  in 
his  own  lifetime,  it  is  perhaps  incumbent  on  his  editor  to  trans 
mit  to  the  latest  posterity.  Most  certainly  I  am  not  so  squeam 
ish  as  to  quarrel  with  him  for  his  immodesty  on  any  moral  pre 
tence.  Licentiousness  in  writing,  when  accompanied  by  wit, 
as  in  the  case  of  Prior,  La  Fontaine,  &c.,  is  never  likely  to  ex 
cite  any  passion,  because  every  passion  is  serious;  and  the 
grave  epistle  of  Eloisa  is  more  likely  to  do  moral  mischief,  and 
convey  infection  to  love-sick  damsels,  than  five  hundred  stories 
of  Hans  Carvel  and  Paulo  Purgante  ;  but  whatever  is  in  point 
of  expression  vulgar  —  whatever  disgusts  the  taste — whatever 
might  have  been  written  by  any  fool,  and  is  therefore  unwor 
thy  of  Dryden  —  whatever  might  have  been  suppressed,  with 
out  exciting  a  moment's  regret  in  the  mind  of  any  of  his  ad 
mirers  —  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  suppressed  by  any  editor 
who  should  be  disposed  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  public  taste 
upon  the  subject ;  because  a  man  who  was  perhaps  the  best 
poet  and  best  prose  writer  in  the  language but  it  is  fool 
ish  to  say  so  much,  after  promising  to  say  nothing.  Indeed  I 
own  myself  guilty  of  possessing  all  his  works  in  a  very  indiffer 
ent  edition,  and  I  shall  certainly  purchase  a  better  one  when 
ever  you  put  it  in  my  power.  With  regard  to  your  competitors, 
I  feel  perfectly  at  my  ease,  because  I  am  convinced  that  though 
you  should  generously  furnish  them  with  all  the  materials,  thej 
would  not  know  how  to  use  them :  non  cuivis  hominum  con- 
tingit  to  write  critical  notes  that  any  one  will  read." 


DRTDEN  —  1805.  217 

Alluding  to  the  regret  which  Scott  had  expi  essed  some 
time  before  at  the  shortness  of  his  visit  to  the  libraries 
of  Oxford,  Ellis  says,  in  another  of  these  letters :  — 

"  A  library  is  like  a  butcher's  shop :  it  contains  plenty  of 
meat,  but  it  is  all  raw ;  no  person  living  (Leyden's  breakfast 
was  only  a  tour  de  force  to  astonish  Ritson,  and  I  except  the 
Abyssinians,  whom  I  never  saw)  can  find  a  meal  in  it,  till  some 
good  cook  (suppose  yourself)  comes  in  and  says,  *  Sir,  I  see 
by  your  looks  that  you  are  hungry ;  I  know  your  taste  —  be 
patient  for  a  moment,  and  you  shall  be  satisfied  that  you  have 
an  excellent  appetite.' " 

I  shall  not  transcribe  the  mass  of  letters  which  Scott 
received  from  various  other  literary  friends  whose  assist 
ance  he  invoked  in  the  preparation  of  his  edition  of  Dry- 
den  ;  but  among  them  there  occurs  one  so  admirable,  that 
I  cannot  refuse  myself  the  pleasure  of  introducing  it, 
more  especially  as  the  views  which  it  opens  harmonize 
as  remarkably  with  some,  as  they  differ  from  others,  of 
those  which  Scott  himself  ultimately  expressed  respect 
ing  the  poetical  character  of  his  illustrious  author :  — 

"  Patterdale,  Nov.  7, 1805. 

"  My  Dear  Scott,  —  I  was  much  pleased  to  hear  of  your 
engagement  with  Dryden :  not  that  he  is,  as  a  poet,  any  great 
favourite  of  mine :  I  admire  his  talents  and  genius  highly,  — 
but  his  is  not  a  poetical  genius.  The  only  qualities  I  can  find 
in  Dryden  that  are  essentially  poetical,  are  a  certain  ardour 
and  impetuosity  of  mind,  with  an  excellent  ear.  It  may  seem 
strange  that  I  do  not  add  to  this,  great  command  of  language : 
That  he  certainly  has,  and  of  such  language,  too,  as  it  is  most 
desirable  that  a  poet  should  possess,  or  rather  that  he  should 
not  be  without.  But  it  is  not  language  that  is,  in  the  highest 
r<ense  of  the  word,  poetical,  being  neither  of  the  imagination 
nor  of  the  passions  ;  I  mean  the  amiable,  the  ennobling,  or  the 
intense  passions  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  there  is  nothing 


218  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  this  In  Dryden,  but  as  little,  I  think,  as  is  possible,  consider 
ing  how  much  he  has  written.  You  will  easily  understand  my 
meaning,  when  I  refer  to  his  versification  of  Palamon  and 
Arcite,  as  contrasted  with  the  language  of  Chaucer.  Dryden 
had  neither  a  tender  heart  nor  a  lofty  sense  of  moral  dignity. 
Whenever  his  language  is  poetically  impassioned,  it  is  mostly 
upon  unpleasing  subjects,  such  as  the  follies,  vices,  and  crimes 
of  classes  of  men  or  of  individuals.  That  his  cannot  be  the 
language  of  imagination,  must  have  necessarily  followed  from 
this,  —  that  there  is  not  a  single  image  from  nature  in  the 
whole  body  of  his  works ;  and  in  his  translation  from  Virgil, 
wherever  Virgil  can  be  fairly  said  to  have  his  eye  upon  his 
object,  Dryden  always  spoils  the  passage. 

"  But  too  much  of  this.  I  am  glad  that  you  are  to  be  his 
editor.  His  political  and  satirical  pieces  may  be  greatly  ben 
efited  by  illustration,  and  even  absolutely  require  it.  A  cor 
rect  text  is  the  first  object  of  an  editor  —  then  such  notes  as 
explain  difficult  or  obscure  passages ;  and  lastly,  which  is  much 
less  important,  notes  pointing  out  authors  to  whom  the  poet 
has  been  indebted,  —  not  in  the  fiddling  way  of  phrase  here 
and  phrase  there,  (which  is  detestable  as  a  general  practice), 
but  where  he  has  had  essential  obligations  either  as  to  matter 
or  manner. 

"  If  I  can  be  of  any  use  to  you,  do  not  fail  to  apply  to  me. 
One  thing  I  may  take  the  liberty  to  suggest,  which  is,  when 
you  come  to  the  fables,  might  it  not  be  advisable  to  print  the 
whole  of  the  tales  of  Boccace  in  a  smaller  type  in  the  original 
language  ?  If  this  should  look  too  much  like  swelling  a  book, 
I  should  certainly  make  such  extracts  as  would  show  where 
Dryden  has  most  strikingly  improved  upon,  or  fallen  below,  his 
original.  I  think  his  translations  from  Boccace  are  the  best, 
at  least  the  most  poetical,  of  his  poems.  It  is  many  yearg 
since  I  saw  Boccace,  but  I  remember  that  Sigismunda  is  not 
married  by  him  to  Guiscard  —  (the  names  are  different  in 
Boccace  in  both  tales,  I  believe  —  certainly  in  Theodore,  &c.) 
I  think  Dryden  has  much  injured  the  story  by  the  marriage 
and  degraded  Sigismunda's  character  by  it.  He  has-  also,  to 


DRYDEN 1805.  219 

the  best  of  my  remembrance,  degraded  her  still  more  by  mak 
ing  her  love  absolute  sensuality  and  appetite  ;  Dryden  had  no 
other  notion  of  the  passion.  With  all  these  defects,  and  they 
are  very  gross  ones,  it  is  a  noble  poem.  Guiscard's  answer, 
when  first  reproached  by  Tancred,  is  noble  in  Boccace  — 
nothing  but  this  :  Amor  pub  molto  piu  eke  ne  voi  ne  io  possi- 
amo.  This,  Dryden  has  spoiled.  He  says  first  very  well, '  the 
faults  of  love  by  love  are  justified,'  and  then  come  four  lines 
of  miserable  rant,  quite  a  la  Maximin.  Farewell,  and  believe 
me  ever  your  affectionate  friend, 

"  WILLIAM  WOBDSWOBTH." 


220  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

Affair  of  the  Clerkship  of  Session  —  Letters  to  Ellis  and  Lord 
Dalkeith  —  Visit  to  London  —  Earl  Spencer  and  Mr.  Fox  — 
Caroline,  Princess  of  Wales  —  Joanna  Baillie  —  Appoint 
ment  as  Clerk  of  Session  —  Lord  Melville's  Trial  —  Sony 
on  his  Acquittal. 

1806. 

WHILE  the  first  volumes  of  his  Dryden  were  passing 
through  the  press,  the  affair  concerning  the  Clerkship  of 
the  Court  of  Session,  opened  nine  or  ten  months  before, 
had  not  been  neglected  by  the  friends  on  whose  counsel 
and  assistance  Scott  had  relied.  In  one  of  his  Prefaces 
of  1830,  he  briefly  tells  the  issue  of  this  negotiation, 
which  he  justly  describes  as  "  an  important  circumstance 
in  his  life,  of  a  nature  to  relieve  him  from  the  anxiety 
which  he  must  otherwise  have  felt  as  one  upon  the  pre 
carious  tenure  of  whose  own  life  rested  the  principal 
prospects  of  his  family,  and  especially  as  one  who  had 
necessarily  some  dependence  on  the  proverbially  capri 
cious  favour  of  the  public."  Whether  Mr.  Pitt's  hint  to 
Mr.  William  Dundas,  that  he  would  willingly  find  an 
opportunity  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  author  of  the 
Lay,  or  some  conversation  between  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch  and  Lord  Melville,  first  encouraged  him  to  this 
direction  of  his  views,  I  am  not  able  to  state  distinctly ; 
Out  I  believe  that  the  desire  to  see  his  fortunes  placed  on 


CLERKSHIP    OF    SESSION.  221 

Borne  more  substantial  basis,  was  at  this  time  partaken 
pretty  equally  by  the  three  persons  who  had  the  princi 
pal  influence  in  the  distribution  of  the  crown  patronage 
in  Scotland  ;  and  as  his  object  was  rather  to  secure  a 
future  than  an  immediate  increase  of  official  income,  it 
was  comparatively  easy  to  make  such  an  arrangement  as 
would  satisfy  his  ambition.  George  Home  of  Wedder- 
burn,  in  Berwickshire,  a  gentleman  of  considerable  liter 
ary  acquirements,  and  an  old  friend  of  Scott's  family,  had 
now  served  as  Clerk  of  Session  for  upwards  of  thirty 
years.  In  those  days  there  was  no  system  of  retiring 
pensions  for  the  worn-out  functionary  of  this  class,  and 
the  usual  method  was,  either  that  he  should  resign  in 
favour  of  a  successor  who  advanced  a  sum  of  money  ac 
cording  to  the  circumstances  of  his  age  and  health,  or  for 
a  coadjutor  to  be  associated  with  him  in  his  patent,  who 
undertook  the  duty  on  condition  of  a  division  of  salary. 
Scott  offered  to  relieve  Mr.  Home  of  all  the  labours  of 
his  office,  and  to  allow  him,  nevertheless,  to  retain  its 
emoluments  entire  during  his  lifetime ;  and  the  aged 
clerk  of  course  joined  his  exertions  to  procure  a  con 
joint-patent  on  these  very  advantageous  terms.  Mr. 
Home  resigned,  and  a  new  patent  was  drawn  out  accord 
ingly  ;  but,  by  a  clerical  inadvertency,  it  was  drawn  out 
solely  in  Scott's  favour,  no  mention  of  Mr.  Home  being 
inserted  in  the  instrument.  Although,  therefore,  the 
Bign-manual  had  been  affixed,  and  there  remained  noth 
ing  but  to  pay  the  fees  and  take  out  the  commission, 
Scott,  on  discovering  this  error,  could  not  of  course  pro 
ceed  in  the  business ;  since,  in  the  event  of  his  dying 
before  Mr.  Home,  that  gentleman  would  have  lost  the 
vested  interest  which  he  had  stipulated  to  retain.  A 
pending  charge  of  pecuniary  corruption  had  compelled 


222  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Lord  Melville  to  retire  from  office  some  time  before  Mr. 
Pitt's  death;  and  the  cloud  of  popular  obloquy  under 
which  he  now  laboured,  rendered  it  impossible  that  Scott 
should  expect  assistance  from  the  quarter  to  which,  under 
any  other  circumstances,  he  would  naturally  have  turned 
for  extrication  from  this  difficulty.  He  therefore,  as  soon 
as  the  Fox  and  Grenville  Cabinet  had  been  nominated, 
proceeded  to  London,  to  make  in  his  own  person  such 
representations  as  might  be  necessary  to  secure  the  issu 
ing  of  the  patent  in  the  right  shape. 

It  seems  wonderful  that  he  should  ever  have  doubted 
for  a  single  moment  of  the  result ;  since,  had  the  new 
Cabinet  been  purely  Whig,  and  had  he  been  the  most 
violent  and  obnoxious  of  Tory  partisans,  neither  of  which 
was  the  case,  the  arrangement  had  been  not  only  virtu 
ally,  but,  with  the  exception  of  an  evident  official  blunder, 
formally  completed ;  and  no  Secretary  of  State,  as  I  must 
think,  could  have  refused  to  rectify  the  paltry  mistake  in 
question,  without  a  dereliction  of  every  principle  of  hon 
our.  The  seals  of  the  Home  Office  had  been  placed  in 
the  hands  of  a  nobleman  of  the  highest  character  —  more 
over,  an  ardent  lover  of  literature  ;  —  while  the  chief  of 
the  new  Ministry  was  one  of  the  most  generous  as  well 
as  tasteful  of  mankind ;  and  accordingly,  when  the  cir 
cumstances  were  explained,  there  occurred  no  hesitation 
whatever  on  their  parts.  "  I  had,"  says  Scott,  "  the  hon 
our  of  an  interview  with  Earl  Spencer,  and  he  in  the 
most  handsome  manner  gave  directions  that  the  commis 
sion  should  issue  as  originally  intended ;  adding  that,  the 
matter  having  received  the  royal  assent,  he  regarded 
only  as  a  claim  of  justice  what  he  would  willingly  have 
done  as  an  act  of  favour."  He  adds  —  "I  never  saw 
Mr.  Fox  on  this  or  any  other  occasion,  and  never  made 


CLERKSHIP    OF    SESSION.  223 

Any  application  to  him,  conceiving,  that  in  doing  so,  I 
might  have  been  supposed  to  express  political  opinions 
different  from  those  which  I  had  always  professed.  In 
his  private  capacity,  there  is  no  man  to  whom  I  would 
have  been  more  proud  to  owe  an  obligation  —  had  I  fc>een 
so  distinguished."  * 

In  January,  1806,  however,  Scott  had  by  no  means 
measured  either  the  character,  the  feelings,  or  the  ar 
rangements  of  great  public  functionaries,  by  the  standard 
with  which  observation  and  experience  subsequently  fur 
nished  him.  He  had  breathed  hitherto,  as  far  as  political 
questions  of  all  sorts  were  concerned,  the  hot  atmosphere 
of  a  very  narrow  scene  —  and  seems  to  have  pictured  to 
himself  Whitehall  and  Downing  Street  as  only  a  wider 
stage  for  the  exhibition  of  the  bitter  and  fanatical  preju 
dices  that  tormented  the  petty  circles  of  the  Parliament 
House  at  Edinburgh ;  the  true  bearing  and  scope  of 
which  no  man  in  after  days  more  thoroughly  understood, 
or  more  sincerely  pitied.  The  variation  of  his  feelings, 
while  his  business  still  remained  undetermined,  will,  how 
ever,  be  best  collected  from  the  correspondence  about  to 
be  quoted.  It  was,  moreover,  when  these  letters  were 
written,  that  he  was  tasting  for  the  first  time,  the  full  cup 
of  fashionable  blandishment  as  a  London  Lion  ;  nor  will 
the  reader  fail  to  observe  how  deeply,  while  he  supposed 
his  own  most  important  worldly  interests  to  be  in  peril  on 
the  one  hand,  and  was  surrounded  with  so  many  capti 
vating  flatteries  on  the  other,  he  continued  to  sympathize 
with  the  misfortunes  of  his  early  friend  and  patron,  now 
hurled  from  power,  and  subjected  to  a  series  of  degrading 
persecutions,  from  the  consequences  of  which  that  lofty 
spirit  was  never  entirely  to  recover. 

*  Introduction  to  Marmion,  1830. 


224  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  To  George  ELis,  Esq.,  SunningJiill 

"  Edinburgh,  January  25th,  1806. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  have  been  too  long  in  letting  you  bear 
of  me,  and  my  present  letter  is  going  to  be  a  very  selfish  one, 
since  it  will  be  chiefly  occupied  by  an  affair  of  my  own,  in 
which,  probably,  you  may  find  very  little  entertainment.  I 
rely,  however,  upon  your  cordial  good  wishes  and  good  advice, 
though,  perhaps,  you  may  be  unable  to  afford  me  any  direct 
assistance  without  more  trouble  than  I  would  wish  you  to  take 
on  my  account.  You  must  know,  then,  that  with  a  view  of 
withdrawing  entirely  from  the  Bar,  I  had  entered  into  a  trans 
action  with  an  elderly  and  infirm  gentleman,  Mr.  Georgs 
Home,  to  be  associated  with  him  in  the  office  which  he  holds 
as  one  of  the  Principal  Clerks  to  our  Supreme  Court  of  Ses 
sion  ;  I  being  to  discharge  the  duty  gratuitously  during  his 
life,  and  to  succeed  him  at  his  decease.  This  could  only  be 
carried  into  effect  by  a  new  commission  from  the  crown  to  him 
and  me  jointly,  which  has  been  issued  in  similar  cases  very 
lately,  and  is  in  point  of  form  quite  correct.  By  the  interest 
of  my  kind  and  noble  friend  and  chief,  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch,  the  countenance  of  Government  was  obtained  to  this 
arrangement,  and  the  affair,  as  I  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
is  now  in  the  Treasury.  I  have  written  to  my  solicitor,  Alex 
ander  Mundell,  Fludyer  Street,  to  use  every  despatch  in  hur 
rying  through  the  commission ;  but  the  news  of  to-day  giving 
us  every  reason  to  apprehend  Pitt's  death,  if  that  lamentable 
event  has  not  already  happened,*  makes  me  get  nervous  on  a 
subject  so  interesting  to  my  little  fortune.  My  political  senti 
ments  have  been  always  constitutional  and  open,  and  although 
they  were  never  rancorous,  yet  I  cannot  expect  that  the  Scot 
tish  Opposition  party,  should  circumstances  bring  them  into 
power,  would  consider  me  as  an  object  of  favour :  nor  would  I 
*,sk  it  at  their  hands.  Their  leaders  cannot  regard  me  with 
malevolence,  for  I  am  intimate  with  many  of  them ;  -  -  but  they 
must  provide  for  the  Whiggish  children  before  they  throw  their 

*  Mr.  Pitt  d/ed  January  23d,  two  days  before  this  letter  was  written 


CLERKSHIP    OF    SESSION 1806.  225 

>read  to  the  Tory  dogs ;  and  I  shall  not  fawn  on  them  because 
they  have  in  their  turn  the  superintendence  of  the  larder.  At 
the  same  time,,  if  Fox's  friends  come  into  power,  it  must  be 
with  Windham's  party,  to  whom  my  politics  can  be  no  excep 
tion, —  if  the  politics  of  a  private  individual  ought  at  any 
time  to  be  made  the  excuse  for  intercepting  the  bounty  of  his 
Sovereign,  when  it  is  in  the  very  course  of  being  bestowed. 

"  The  situation  is  most  desirable,  being  £800  a-year,  besides 
being  consistent  with  holding  my  sheriffdom;  and  I  could 
afford  very  well  to  wait  till  it  opened  to  me  by  the  death  of 
my  colleague,  without  wishing  a  most  worthy  and  respectable 
man  to  die  a  moment  sooner  than  ripe  nature  demanded. 
The  duty  consists  in  a  few  hours'  labour  in  the  forenoons 
when  the  Court  sits,  leaving  the  evenings  and  whole  vacation 
open  for  literary  pursuits.  I  will  not  relinquish  the  hope  of 
such  an  establishment  without  an  effort,  if  jf  is  possible  without 
dereliction  of  my  principles  to  attain  the  accomplishment  of  it. 
As  I  have  suffered  in  my  professional  line  by  addicting  myself 
to  the  profane  and  unprofitable  art  of  poem-making,  I  am  very 
desirous  to  indemnify  myself  by  availing  myself  of  any  prepos 
session  which  my  literary  reputation  may,  however  unmeritedly, 
have  created  in  my  favour.  I  have  found  it  useful  when  I 
applied  for  others,  and  I  see  no  reason  why  I  should  not  try  if 
it  can  do  anything  for  myself. 

"  Perhaps,  after  all,  my  commission  may  be  got  out  before  a 
change  of  Ministry,  if  such  an  event  shall  take  place,  as  it 
seems  not  far  distant.  If  it  is  otherwise,  will  you  be  so  good 
as  to  think  and  devise  some  mode  in  which  my  case  may  be 
stated  to  Windham  or  Lord  Grenville,  supposing  them  to  come 
in  ?  If  it  is  not  deemed  worthy  of  attention,  I  am  sure  I  shall 
be  contented ;  but  it  is  one  thing  to  have  a  right  to  ask  a 
favour,  and  another  to  hope  that  a  transaction,  already  fully 
completed  by  the  private  parties,  and  approved  of  by  an  exist 
ing  Administration,  shall  be  permitted  to  take  effect  in  favour 
of  an  unoffending  individual.  I  believe  I  shall  see  you  very 
shortly,  unless  I  hear  from  Mundell  that  the  business  can  be 
done  for  certain  without  my  coming  up.  I  will  not,  if  I  can 

VOL.  n.  15 


226  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

help  it,  be  flayed  like  a  sheep  for  the  benefit  of  some  pettifog 
ging  lawyer  or  attorney.  I  have  stated  the  matter  to  you 
very  bluntly ;  indeed,  I  am  not  asking  a  favour,  but,  unless 
iiy  self-partiality  blinds  me,  merely  fair  play.  Yours  ever, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  Bath,  6th  February  1806, 

"My  Dear  Scott,  —  You  must  have  seen  by  the  lists  of 
he  new  Ministry  already  published  in  all  the  papers,  that, 
although  the  death  of  our  excellent  Minister  has  been  cer 
tainly  a  most  unfortunate  event,  in  as  far  as  it  must  tend  to 
delay  the  object  of  your  present  wishes,  there  is  no  cause  for 
your  alarm  on  account  of  the  change,  excepting  as  far  as  that 
change  is  very  extensive,  and  thus  perhaps  much  time  may 
elapse  before  the  business  of  every  kind  which  was  in  arrears 
can  be  expedited  by  the  new  Administration.  There  is  no 
change  of  principle  (as  far  as  we  can  yet  judge)  in  the  new 
Cabinet  —  or  rather  the  new  Cabinet  has  no  general  political 
creed.  Lord  Grenville,  Fox,  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  Adding- 
ton  were  the  four  nominal  heads  of  four  distinct  parties,  which 
must  now  by  some  chemical  process  be  amalgamated ;  all  must 
forget,  if  they  can,  their  peculiar  habits  and  opinions,  and 
unite  in  the  pursuit  of  a  common  object.  How  far  this  is  pos 
sible,  time  will  show ;  to  what  degree  this  motley  Ministry  can, 
by  their  joint  influence,  command  a  majority  in  the  House  of 
Commons ;  how  far  they  will,  as  a  whole,  be  assisted  by  the 
secret  influence  and  power  of  the  Crown ;  whether,  if  not  so 
seconded,  they  will  be  able  to  appeal  some  time  hence  to  the 
people,  and  dissolve  the  Parliament  —  all  these  and  many 
other  questions,  will  receive  very  different  answers  from  differ 
ent  speculators.  But  in  the  mean  time  it  is  self-evident,  that 
every  individual  will  be  extremely  jealous  of  the  patronage  of 
his  individual  department;  that  individually  as  well  as  con 
jointly,  they  will  be  cautious  of  provoking  enmity  ;  and  that  a 
measure  patronized  by  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  is  not  very 
likely  to  be  opposed  by  any  member  of  such  a  Cabinet 


CLERKSHIP    OP    SESSION.  227 

"  If,  indeed,  the  object  of  your  wishes  were  a  sinecure,  and 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Chancellor  (Erskine),  or  of  the  President 
of  the  Board  of  Control  (Lord  Minto),  you  might  have  strong 
cause,  perhaps,  for  apprehension ;  but  what  you  ask  would  suit 
few  candidates,  and  there  probably  is  not  one  whom  the  Cabi 
net,  or  any  person  in  it,  would  feel  any  strong  interest  in  oblig 
ing  to  your  disadvantage.  But  farther,  we  know  that  Lord 
Sidmouth  is  in  the  Cabinet,  so  is  Lord  Ellenborough,  and  these 
two  are  notoriously  the  King's  Ministers.  Now  we  may  be 
very  sure  that  they,  or  some  other  of  the  King's  friends,  will 
possess  one  department,  which  has  no  name,  but  is  not  the  less 
real ;  namely,  the  supervision  of  the  King's  influence  both  here 
and  in  Scotland.  I  therefore  much  doubt  whether  there  is 
any  man  in  the  Cabinet  who,  as  Minister,  has  it  in  his  power 
to  prevent  your  attainment  of  your  object.  Lord  Melville, 
we  know,  was  in  a  great  measure  the  representative  of  the 
King's  personal  influence  in  Scotland,  and  I  am  by  no  means 
sure  that  he  is  no  longer  so ;  but  be  that  as  it  may,  it  will,  I 
am  well  persuaded,  continue  in  the  hands  of  some  one  who  has 
not  been  forced  upon  his  Majesty  as  one  of  his  confidential 
servants. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  then,  the  only  consolation  that  I  can 
confidently  give  you  is,  that  what  you  represent  as  a  principal 
difficulty  is  quite  imaginary,  and  that  your  own  political  prin 
ciples  are  exactly  those  which  are  most  likely  to  be  serviceable 
to  you.  I  need  not  say  how  happy  Anne  and  myself  would  be 
to  see  you  (we  shall  spend  the  month  of  March  in  London), 
nor  that,  if  you  should  be  able  to  point  out  any  means  by 
which  I  can  be  of  the  slightest  use  in  advancing  your  interests, 
you  may  employ  me  without  reserve.  I  must  go  to  the  Pump- 
room  for  my  glass  of  water  —  so  God  bless  you.  Ever  truly 
yours,  ,  G.  ELLIS." 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq.,  Bath. 

"  London,  Feb.  20, 1806. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  have  your  kind  letter,  and  am  infinitely 
obliged  to  you  for  your  solicitude  in  my  behalf.  I  have  indeed 


228  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

been  rather  fortunate,  for  the  gale  which  has  shattered  so 
many  goodly  argosies,  has  blown  my  little  bark  into  the  creek  ' 
for  which  she  was  bound,  and  left  me  only  to  lament  the  mis 
fortunes  of  my  friends.  To  vary  the  simile,  while  the  huge 
frigates,  the  Moira  and  Lauderdale,  were  fiercely  combating 
for  the  dominion  of  the  Caledonian  main,  I  was  fortunate 
enough  to  get  on  board  the  good  ship  Spencer,  and  leave  them 
to  settle  their  disputes  at  leisure.  It  is  said  to  be  a  violent 
ground  of  controversy  in  the  new  Ministry,  which  of  those  tw 
noble  lords  is  to  be  St.  Andrew  for  Scotland.  I  own  I  tremble 
for  the  consequences  of  so  violent  a  temper  as  Lauderdale's, 
irritated  by  long-disappointed  ambition  and  ancient  feud  with 
all  his  brother  nobles.  It  is  a  certain  truth  that  Lord  Moira 
insists  upon  his  claim,  backed  by  all  the  friends  of  the  late  Ad 
ministration  in  Scotland,  to  have  a  certain  weight  in  that 
country;  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  the  Hamiltons  and 
Lauderdales  have  struck  out.  So  here  are  people  who  have 
stood  in  the  rain  without  doors  for  so  many  years,  quarrelling 
for  the  nearest  place  to  the  fire,  as  soon  as  they  have  set  their 
feet  on  the  floor.  Lord  Moira,  as  he  always  has  been,  was 
highly  kind  and  courteous  to  me  on  this  occasion. 

"  Heber  is  just  come  in,  with  your  letter  waving  in  his  hand. 
I  am  ashamed  of  all  the  trouble  I  have  given  you,  and  at  the 
same  time  flattered  to  find  your  friendship  even  equal  to  that 
greatest  and  most  disagreeable  of  all  trials,  the  task  of  solicita 
tion.  Mrs.  Scott  is  not  with  me,  and  I  am  truly  concerned  to 
think  we  should  be  so  near,  without  the  prospect  of  meeting. 
Truth  is,  I  had  half  a  mind  to  make  a  run  up  to  Bath,  merely 
to  break  the  spell  which  has  prevented  our  meeting  for  these 
two  years.  But  Bindley,*  the  collector,  has  lent  me  a  parcel 
of  books,  which  he  insists  on  my  consulting  within  the  liberties 
of  Westminster,  and  which  I  cannot  find  elsewhere,  so  that 

*  James  Bindley,  Esq.,  famed  for  his  rich  accumulation  of  books 
prints,  and  medals,  held  the  office  of  a  commissioner  of  Stamps  during 
the  long  period  of  53  years.  He  died  in  1818,  in  his  81st  y  ear.  A. 
Ihe  sale  of  his  library  a  collection  of  penny  ballads,  &c.  in  8  volumes 
oroduced  £837. 


CLERKSHIP    OF    SESSION.  229 

the  fortnight  T  propose  to  stay  will  be  fully  occupied  by  exam 
ination  and  extracting.  How  long  I  may  be  detained  here  is 
very  uncertain,  but  I  wish  to  leave  London  on  Saturday  se'en- 
aight.  Should  I  be  so  delayed  as  to  bring  my  time  of  de 
parture  anything  near  that  of  your  arrival,  I  will  stretch  my 
furlough  to  the  utmost,  that  I  may  have  a  chance  of  seeing 
you.  Nothing  is  minded  here  but  domestic  politics,  and  if  we 
are  not  clean  swept,  there  is  no  want  of  new  brooms  to  per 
form  that  operation.  I  have  heard  very  bad  news  of  Leyden's 
health  since  my  arrival  here  —  such,  indeed,  as  to  give  room 
to  apprehend  the  very  worst.  I  fear  he  has  neglected  the  pre 
cautions  which  the  climate  renders  necessary,  and  which  no 
man  departs  from  with  impunity.  Remember  me  kindly  and 
respectfully  to  Mrs.  Ellis;  and  believe  me  ever  yours  faith 
fully,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"P.  S.  — Poor  Lord  Melville!  how  does  he  look?  We 
have  had  miserable  accounts  of  his  health  in  London.  He  was 
the  architect  of  my  little  fortune,  from  circumstances  of  per 
sonal  regard  merely ;  for  any  of  my  trifling  literary  acquisi 
tions  were  out  of  his  way.  My  heart  bleeds  when  I  think  on 
his  situation  — 

*  Even  when  the  rage  of  battle  ceased, 
The  victor's  soul  was  not  appeased.'  "  * 

"  To  the  Earl  of  Dalkeith. 

"  London,  llth  Feb.  1806. 

"My  Dear  Lord,  —  I  cannot  help  flattering  myself — for 
perhaps  it  is  flattering  myself —  that  the  noble  architect  of  the 
Border  Minstrel's  little  fortune  has  been  sometimes  anxious 
for  the  security  of  that  lowly  edifice,  during  the  tempest  which 
has  overturned  so  many  palaces  and  towers.  If  I  am  right  in 
my  supposition,  it  will  give  you  pleasure  to  learn  that,  notwith- 
Itanding  some  little  rubs,  I  have  been  able  to  carry  through 

*  These  lines  are  from  Smollett's  Tears  of  Scotland. 


230         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

the  transaction  which  your  Lordship  sanctioned  by  your  inliu- 
ence  and  approbation,  and  that  in  a  way  very  pleasing  to  my 
own  feelings.  Lord  Spencer,  upon  the  nature  of  the  transac 
tion  being  explained  in  an  audience  with  which  he  favoured 
me,  was  pleased  to  direct  the  commission  to  be  issued,  as  an 
act  of  justice,  regretting,  he  said,  it  had  not  been  from  the 
beginning  his  own  deed.  This  was  doing  the  thing  handsome 
ly,  and  like  an  English  nobleman.  I  have  been  very  much 
ffcted  and  caressed  here,  almost  indeed  to  suffocation,  but  have 
been  made  amends  by  meeting  some  old  friends.  One  of  the 
kindest  was  Lord  Somerville,  who  volunteered  introducing  me 
to  Lord  Spencer,  as  much,  I  am  convinced,  from  respect  to 
your  Lordship's  protection  and  wishes,  as  from  a  desire  to  serve 
me  personally.  He  seemed  very  anxious  to  do  anything  in  his 
power  which  might  evince  a  wish  to  be  of  use  to  your  protege. 
Lord  Minto  was  also  infinitely  kind  and  active,  and  his  influ 
ence  with  Lord  Spencer  would,  I  am  convinced,  have  been 
stretched  to  the  utmost  in  my  favour,  had  not  Lord  Spencer's 
own  view  of  the  subject  been  perfectly  sufficient. 

"  After  all,  a  little  literary  reputation  is  of  some  use  here. 
I  suppose  Solomon,  when  he  compared  a  good  name  to  a  pot 
of  ointment,  meant  that  it  oiled  the  hinges  of  the  hall-doors 
into  which  the  possessors  of  that  inestimable  treasure  wished 
to  penetrate.  What  a  good  name  was  in  Jerusalem,  a  known 
name  seems  to  be  in  London.  If  you  are  celebrated  for  writ 
ing  verses  or  for  slicing  cucumbers,  for  being  two  feet  taller  or 
two  feet  less  than  any  other  biped,  for  acting  plays  when  you 
should  be  whipped  at  school,  or  for  attending  schools  and  insti 
tutions  when  you  should  be  preparing  for  your  grave,  your 
notoriety  becomes  a  talisman  —  an  'Open  Sesame'  before 
which  everything  gives  way  —  till  you  are  voted  a  bore,  and 
discarded  for  a  new  plaything.  As  this  is  a  consummation  of 
notoriety  which  I  am  by  no  means  ambitious  of  experiencing, 
I  hope  I  shall  be  very  soon  able  to  shape  my  course  northward, 
to  enjoy  my  good  fortune  at  my  leisure,  and  snap  my  fingers 
at  the  Bar  and  all  its  works. 

"  There  is,  it  is  believed,  a  rude  scuffle  betwixt  our  late  con* 


LONDON  —  MARCH    1806.  231 

mandfir-in-chief  and  Lord  Lauderdale,  for  the  patronage  of 
Scotland.  If  there  is  to  be  an  exclusive  administration,  I  hope 
it  will  not  be  in  the  hands  of  the  latter.  Indeed,  when  one 
considers,  that  by  means  of  Lords  Sidmouth  and  Ellenborough, 
the  King  possesses  the  actual  power  of  casting  the  balance  be 
twixt  the  five  Grenvillites  and  four  Foxites  who  compose  the 
Cabinet,  I  cannot  think  they  will  find  it  an  easy  matter  to 
force  upon  his  Majesty  any  one  to  whom  he  has  a  personal 
dislike.  I  should  therefore  suppose  that  the  disposal  of  St. 
Andrew's  Cross  will  be  delayed  till  the  new  Ministry  is  a  little 
consolidated,  if  that  time  shall  ever  come.  There  is  much  loose 
gunpowder  amongst  them,  and  one  spark  would  make  a  fine 
explosion.  Pardon  these  political  effusions  ;  I  am  infected  by 
the  atmosphere  which  I  breathe,  and  cannot  restrain  my  pen 
from  discussing  state  affairs.  I  hope  the  young  ladies  and  my 
dear  little  chief  are  now  recovering  from  the  hooping-cough,  if 
it  has  so  turned  out  to  be.  If  I  can  do  anything  for  any  of 
the  family  here,  you  know  your  right  to  command,  and  the 
pleasure  it  will  afford  me  to  obey.  Will  your  Lordship  be  so 
kind  as  to  acquaint  the  Duke,  with  every  grateful  and  respect 
ful  acknowledgment  on  my  part,  that  I  have  this  day  got  my 
commission  from  the  Secretary's  office  ?  I  dine  to-day  at  Hol 
land-house  ;  I  refused  to  go  before,  lest  it  should  be  thought  I 
was  soliciting  interest  in  that  quarter,  as  I  abhor  even  the 
shadow  of  changing  or  turning  with  the  tide. 

"  I  am  ever,  with  grateful  acknowledgment,  your  Lordship's 
much  indebted,  faithful  humble  servant, 

"WALTER    SCOTT." 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  London,  Saturday,  March  3,  1806. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  have  waited  in  vain  for  the  happy  dis 
solution  of  the  spell  which  has  kept  us  asunder  at  a  distance 
s-ess  by  one  quarter  than  in  general  divides  us ;  and  since  I  am 
finally  obliged  to  depart  for  the  north  to-morrow,  I  have  only 
to  comfort  myself  with  the  hope  that  Bladud  will  infuse  a 
double  influence  into  his  tepid  springs,  and  that  you  will  feel 


232  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

emboldened,  by  the  quantity  of  reinforcement  which  the  rad 
ical  heat  shall  have  received,  to  undertake  your  expedition  to 
the  tramontane  region  of  Reged  this  season.  My  time  has 
been  spent  very  gaily  here,  and  I  should  have  liked  very  well 
to  have  remained  till  you  came  up  to  town,  had  it  not  been  for 
the  wife  and  bairns  at  home,  whom  I  confess  I  am  now  anxious 
to  see.  Accordingly  I  set  off  early  to-morrow  morning  —  in 
deed  I  expected  to  have  done  so  to-day,  but  my  companion, 
Ballantyne,  our  Scottish  Bodoni,  was  afflicted  with  a  violent 
diarrhoea,  which,  though  his  physician  assured  him  it  would 
serve  his  health  in  general,  would  certainly  have  contributed 
little  to  his  accomplishments  as  an  agreeable  companion  in  a 
post-chaise,  which  are  otherwise  very  respectable.  I  own  Lord 
Melville's  misfortunes  affects  me  deeply.  He,  at  least  his 
nephew,  was  my  early  patron,  and  gave  me  countenance  and 
assistance  when  I  had  but  few  friends.  I  have  seen  when  the 
streets  of  Edinburgh  were  thought  by  the  inhabitants  almost 
too  vulgar  for  Lord  Melville  to  walk  upon ;  and  now  I  fear 
that,  with  his  power  and  influence  gone,  his  presence  would 
be  accounted  by  many,  from  whom  he  has  deserved  other 
thoughts,  an  embarrassment,  if  not  something  worse.  All  this 
is  very  vile  —  it  is  one  of  the  occasions  when  Providence,  as  it 
were,  industriously  turns  the  tapestry,  to  let  us  see  the  ragged 
ends  of  the  worsted  which  compose  its  most  beautiful  figures. 
God  grant  your  prophecies  may  be  true,  which  I  fear  are 
rather  dictated  by  your  kind  heart  than  your  experience  of 
political  enmities  and  the  fate  of  fallen  statesmen.  Kindest 
compliments  to  Mrs.  Ellis.  Your  next  will  find  me  in  Edin 
burgh.  WALTER  SCOTT.'* 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"Ashestiel,  April  7,  1806. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  Were  I  to  begin  by  telling  you  all  the 
regret  I  had  at  not  finding  you  in  London,  and  at  being 
obliged  to  leave  it  before  your  return,  this  very  handsome 
sheet  of  paper,  which  I  intend  to  cover  with  more  important 


ASHESTIEL  —  APRIL    1806.  233 

and  interesting  matters,  would  be  entirely  occupied  by  such  3 
Jeremiade  as  could  only  be  equalled  by  Jeremiah  himself.  1 
will  therefore  waive  that  subject,  only  assuring  you  that  I  hope 
to  be  in  London  next  spring,  but  have  much  warmer  hopes  of 
seeing  you  here  in  summer.  I  hope  Bath  has  been  of  service 
if  not  so  much  as  you  expected,  try  easy  exercise  in  a  north 
ward  direction,  and  make  proof  of  the  \irtues  of  the  Tweed 
and  Yarrow.  We  have  been  here  these  two  days,  and  I  have 
been  quite  rejoiced  to  find  all  my  dogs,  and  horses,  and  sheep, 
and  cows,  and  two  cottages  full  of  peasants  and  their  children, 
and  all  my  other  stock,  human  and  animal,  in  great  good 
health  —  we  want  nothing  but  Mrs.  Ellis  and  you  to  be  the 
strangers  within  our  gates,  and  our  establishment  would  be 
complete  on  the  patriarchal  plan.  I  took  possession  of  my 
new  office  on  my  return.  The  duty  is  very  simple,  consisting 
chiefly  in  signing  my  name ;  and  as  I  have  five  colleagues,  I 
am  not  obliged  to  do  duty  except  in  turn,  so  my  task  is  a 
very  easy  one,  as  my  name  is  very  short. 

"  My  principal  companion  in  this  solitude  is  John  Dry  den. 
After  all,  there  are  some  passages  in  his  translations  from 
Ovid  and  Juvenal  that  will  hardly  bear  reprinting,  unless  I 
would  have  the  Bishop  of  London  *  and  the  whole  corps  of 
Methodists  about  my  ears.  I  wish  you  would  look  at  the  pas 
sages  I  mean.  One  is  from  the  fourth  book  of  Lucretius  ;  the 
other  from  Ovid's  Instructions  to  his  Mistress.  They  are  not 
only  double-entendres,  but  good  plain  single-entendres —  not 
only  broad,  but  long,  and  as  coarse  as  the  mainsail  of  a  first- 
rate.  What  to  make  of  them  I  know  not ;  but  I  fear  that, 
without  absolutely  gelding  the  bard,  it  will  be  indispensable  to 
circumcise  him  a  little  by  leaving  out  some  of  the  most  obnox 
ious  lines.  Do,  pray,  look  at  the  poems  and  decide  for  me 
Have  you  seen  my  friend  Tom  Thomson,  who  is  just  now  in 
London  V  He  has,  I  believe,  the  advantage  of  knowing  you, 
and  I  hope  you  will  meet,  as  he  understands  more  of  old 
books,  old  laws,  and  old  history,  than  any  man  in  Scotland. 
He  has  lately  received  an  aprjointment  under  the  Lord  Regis- 
*Dr.  Porteous. 


234  LIFE    OF    SIR    AVALTER    SCOTT. 

ter  of  Scotland,  which  puts  all  our  records  under  his  immedi 
ate  inspection  and  control,  and  I  expect  many  valuable  discov 
eries  to  be  the  consequence  of  his  investigation,  if  he  escapes 
being  smothered  in  the  cloud  of  dust  which  his  researches  will 
certainly  raise  about  his  ears.  I  sent  your  card  instantly  to 
Jeffrey,  from  whom  you  had  doubtless  a  suitable  answer.*  I 
saw  the  venerable  economist  and  antiquary,  Macpherson,  when 
in  London,  and  was  quite  delighted  with  the  simplicity  and 
kindness  of  his  manners.  He  is  exactly  like  one  of  the  old 
Scotchmen  whom  I  remember  twenty  years  ago,  before  so 
close  a  union  had  taken  place  between  Edinburgh  and  Lon 
don.  The  mail-coach  and  the  Berwick  smacks  have  done 
more  than  the  Union  in  altering  our  national  character,  some 
times  for  the  better  and  sometimes  for  the  worse. 

"  I  met  with  your  friend,  Mr.  Canning,  in  town,  and  claimed 
his  acquaintance  as  a  friend  of  yours,  and  had  my  claim  al 
lowed  ;  also  Mr.  Frere,  —  both  delightful  companions,  far  too 
good  for  politics,  and  for  winning  and  losing  places.  When  I 
say  I  was  more  pleased  with  their  society  than  I  thought  had 
been  possible  on  so  short  an  acquaintance,  I  pay  them  a  very 
trifling  compliment  and  myself  a  very  great  one.  I  had  also 
the  honour  of  dining  with  a  fair  friend  of  yours  at  Blackheath — 
an  honour  which  I  shall  very  long  remember.  She  is  an  en 
chanting  princess,  who  dwells  in  an  enchanted  palace,  and  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  her  prince  must  labour  under  some 
malignant  spell  when  he  denies  himself  her  society.  The  very 
Prince  of  the  Black  Isles,  whose  bottom  was  marble,  would 
have  made  an  effort  to  transport  himself  to  Montague  House. 
From  all  this  you  will  understand  I  was  at  Montague  House. 

"  I  am  quite  delighted  at  the  interest  you  take  in  poor 
1-ord  Melville.  I  suppose  they  are  determined  to  hunt  him 
down.  Indeed,  the  result  of  his  trial  must  be  ruin  from  the 
expense,  even  supposing  him  to  be  honourably  acquitted. 

*  Mr.  Ellis  had  written  to  Mr.  Jeffrey,  through  Scott,  proposing  to 
draw  up  an  article  for  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  the  Annals  of  Com 
merce,  then  recently  published  by  Mr.  David  Macpherson. 


CAROLINE,    PRINCESS    OF    WALES  —  1S06.          235 

Will  you,  when  you  have  time  to  write,  let  me  know  how  that 
matter  is  likely  to  turn  ?  I  am  deeply  interested  iu  it;  and 
the  reports  here  are  so  various,  that  one  knows  not  what  to 
trust  to.  Even  the  common  rumour  of  London  is  generally 
more  authentic  than  the  '  from  good  authority '  of  Edinburgh, 
Besides,  I  am  now  in  the  wilds  (alas !  I  cannot  say  woods  and 
wilds),  and  hear  little  of  what  passes.  Charlotte  joins  me  in  a 
thousand  kind  remembrances  to  Mrs.  Ellis ;  and  I  am  ever 
yours  most  truly,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

I  shall  not  dwell  at  present  upon  Scott's  method  of  con 
duct  in  the  circumstances  of  an  eminently  popular  author 
beleaguered  by  the  importunities  of  fashionable  admirers : 
his  bearing,  when  first  exposed  to  such  influences,  was  ex 
actly  what  it  was  to  the  end,  and  I  shall  have  occasion  in 
the  sequel  to  produce  the  evidence  of  more  than  one 
deliberate  observer. 

Caroline,  Princess  of  Wales,  was  in  those  days  consid 
ered  among  the  Tories,  whose  politics  her  husband  had 
uniformly  opposed,  as  the  victim  of  unmerited  misfortune, 
cast  aside,  from  the  mere  wantonness  of  caprice,  by  a  gay 
and  dissolute  voluptuary ;  while  the  Prince's  Whig  asso 
ciates  had  espoused  his  quarrel,  and  were  already,  as  the 
event  showed,  prepared  to  act,  publicly  as  well  as  pri 
vately,  as  if  they  believed  her  to  be  among  the  most 
abandoned  of  her  sex.  I  know  not  by  whom  Scott  was 
first  introduced  to  her  little  Court  at  Blackheath  ;  but  I 
think  it  was  probably  through  Mrs.  Hayman,  a  lady  of 
her  bedchamber,  several  of  whose  notes  and  letters  occur 
about  this  time  in  the  collection  of  his  correspondence. 
The  caieless  levity  of  the  Princess's  manner  was  observed 
by  him,  as  I  have  heard  him  say,  with  much  regret,  as 
likely  to  bring  the  purity  of  *ieart  and  mind,  for  which  he 
£ave  her  credit,  into  suspicion.  For  example,  when,  in 


236  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  course  of  the  evening,  she  conducted  him  by  himself 
to  admire  some  flowers  in  a  conservatory,  and,  the  place 
being  rather  dark,  his  lameness  occasioned  him  to  hesitate 
for  a  moment  in  following  her  down  some  steps  which  she 
had  taken  at  a  skip,  she  turned  round,  and  said,  with 
mock  indignation  —  "  Ah !  false  and  faint-hearted  trou 
badour  !  you  will  not  trust  yourself  with  me  for  fear  of 
your  neck!" 

I  find  from  one  of  Mrs.  Hayman's  letters,  that  on  be 
ing  asked,  at  Montague  House,  to  recite  some  verses  of 
his  own,  he  replied  that  he  had  none  unpublished  which 
he  thought  worthy  of  her  Royal  Highness's  attention, 
but  introduced  a  short  account  of  the  Ettrick  Shepherd, 
and  repeated  one  of  the  ballads  of  the  Mountain  Hard, 
for  which  he  was  then  endeavouring  to  procure  subscrib 
ers.  The  Princess  appears  to  have  been  interested  by 
the  story,  and  she  affected,  at  all  events,  to  be  pleased 
with  the  lines;  she  desired  that  her  name  might  be 
placed  on  the  Shepherd's  list,  and  thus  he  had  at  least 
one  gleam  of  royal  patronage. 

It  was  during  the  same  visit  to  London  that  Scott  first 
saw  Joanna  Baillie,  of  whose  Plays  on  the  Passions  he 
had  been,  from  their  first  appearance,  an  enthusiastic  ad 
mirer.  The  late  Mr.  Sotheby,  the  translator  of  Oberon, 
&c.  &c.  was  the  friend  who  introduced  him  to  the  poetess 
of  Hampstead.  Being  asked  very  lately  what  impres 
sion  he  made  upon  her  at  this  interview  —  "I  was  at 
first,"  she  answered,  "  a  little  disappointed,  for  I  was 
fresh  from  the  Lay,  and  had  pictured  to  myself  an  ideal 
elegance  and  refinement  of  feature ;  but  I  said  to  myself, 
If  I  had  been  in  a  crowd,  and  at  a  loss  what  to  do,  I 
should  have  fixed  upon  that  face  among  a  thousand,  as 
the  sure  index  of  the  benevolence  and  the  shrewdness 


CLERK    OF    SESSION.  237 

that  would  and  could  help  me  in  my  strait.  We  had  not 
talked  long,  however,  before  I  saw  in  the  expressive  play 
of  his  countenance  far  more  even  of  elegance  and  refine 
ment  than  I  had  missed  in  its  mere  lines."  The  acquaint 
ance  thus  begun,  soon  ripened  into  a  most  affectionate 
intimacy  between  him  and  this  remarkable  woman  ;  and 
thenceforth  she  and  her  distinguished  brother,  Dr.  Mat 
thew  Baillie,  were  among  the  friends  to  whose  intercourse 
he  looked  forward  with  the  greatest  pleasure  when  about 
to  visit  the  metropolis. 

I  ought  to  have  mentioned  before,  that  he  had  known 
Mr.  Sotheby  at  a  very  early  period  of  life,  that  amiable 
and  excellent  man  having  been  stationed  for  some  time  at 
Edinburgh  while  serving  his  Majesty  as  a  captain  of  dra 
goons.  Scott  ever  retained  for  him  a  sincere  regard ;  he 
was  always,  when  in  London,  a  frequent  guest  at  his  hos 
pitable  board,  and  owed  to  him  the  personal  acquaintance 
of  not  a  few  of  their  most  eminent  contemporaries  in  va 
rious  departments  of  literature  and  art. 

When  the  Court  opened  after  the  spring  recess,  Scott 
entered  upon  his  new  duties  as  one  of  the  Principal 
Clerks  of  Session  ;  and  as  he  continued  to  discharge 
them  with  exemplary  regularity,  and  to  the  entire  satis 
faction  both  of  the  Judges  and  the  Bar,  during  the  long 
period  of  twenty -five  years,  I  think  it  proper  to  tell  pre 
cisely  in  what  they  consisted,  the  more  so  because,  in  his 
k'etter  to  Ellis  of  the  25th  January,  he  has  himself  (char 
acteristically  enough)  understated  them. 

The  Court  of  Session  sits  at  Edinburgh  from  the  12th 
of  May  to  the  12th  of  July,  and  again  from  the  12th  of 
November,  with  a  short  interval  at  Christmas,  to  the 
12th  of  March.  The  Judges  of  the  Inner  Court  took 
ftieir  places  on  the  Bench,  in  his  time,  every  morning  not 


238  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

later  than  ten  o'clock,  and  remained  according  to  the 
amount  of  business  ready  for  despatch,  but  seldom  for 
less  than  four  or  more  than  six  hours  daily ;  during  which 
space  the  Principal  Clerks  continued  seated  at  a  table 
below  the  Bench,  to  watch  the  progress  of  the  suits,  and 
record  the  decisions  —  the  cases,  of  all  classes,  being 
equally  apportioned  among  their  number.  The  Court 
of  Session,  however,  does  not  sit  on  Monday,  that  day 
being  reserved  for  the  criminal  business  of  the  High 
Court  of  Justiciary ;  and  there  is  also  another  blank  day 
every  other  week,  —  the  Teind  Wednesday,  as  it  is  called, 
when  the  Judges  are  assembled  for  the  hearing  of  tithe 
questions,  which  belong  to  a  separate  jurisdiction,  of 
iomparatively  modern  creation,  and  having  its  own 
separate  establishment  of  officers.  On  the  whole,  then, 
Scott's  attendance  in  Court  may  be  taken  to  have  amount 
ed,  on  the  average,  to  from  four  to  six  hours  daily  during 
rather  less  than  six  months  out  of  the  twelve. 

Not  a  little  of  the  Clerk's  business  in  Court  is  merely 
formal,  and  indeed  mechanical ;  but  there  are  few  days 
in  which  he  is  not  called  upon  for  the  exertion  of  his 
higher  faculties,  in  reducing  the  decisions  of  the  Bench, 
orally  pronounced,  to  technical  shape  ;  which,  in  a  new, 
complex,  or  difficult  case,  cannot  be  satisfactorily  done 
without  close  attention  to  all  the  previous  proceedings 
and  written  documents,  an  accurate  understanding  of  the 
principles  or  precedents  on  which  it  has  been  determined, 
and  a  thorough  command  of  the  whole  vocabulary  of 
legal  forms.  Dull  or  indolent  men,  promoted  through 
the  mere  wantonness  of  political  patronage,  might,  no 
doubt,  contrive  to  devolve  the  harder  part  of  their  duty 
apon  humbler  assistants :  but,  in  general,  the  office  had 
been  held  by  gentlemen  of  high  character  and  attain 


CLERK    OF    SESSION.  239 

nents ;  and  more  than  one  among  Scott's  own  colleagues 
enjoyed  the  reputation  of  legal  science  that  would  have 
done  honour  to  the  Bench.  Such  men,  of  course,  prided 
themselves  on  doing  well  whatever  it  was  their  proper 
function  to  do ;  and  it  was  by  their  example,  not  that  of 
the  drones  who  condescended  to  lean  upon  unseen  and 
irresponsible  inferiors,  that  Scott  uniformly  modelled  his 
own  conduct  as  a  Clerk  of  Session.  To  do  this,  required, 
of  necessity,  constant  study  of  law-papers  and  authorities 
at  home.  There  was  also  a  great  deal  of  really  base 
drudgery,  such  as  the  authenticating  of  registered  deeds, 
by  signature,  which  he  had  to  go  through  out  of  Court ; 
he  had,  too,  a  Shrievalty,  though  not  a  heavy  one,  all  the 
while  upon  his  hands ;  —  and,  on  the  whole,  it  forms 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  features  in  his  history,  that, 
throughout  the  most  active  period  of  his  literary  career, 
he  must  have  devoted  a  large  proportion  of  his  hours, 
during  half  at  least  of  every  year,  to  the  conscientious 
discharge  of  professional  duties. 

Henceforth,  then,  when  in  Edinburgh,  his  literary 
work  was  performed  chiefly  before  breakfast ;  with  the 
assistance  of  such  evening  hours  as  he  could  contrive  to 
rescue  from  the  consideration  of  Court  papers,  and  from 
those  social  engagements  in  which,  year  after  year,  as  his 
celebrity  advanced,  he  was  of  necessity  more  and  more 
largely  involved ;  and  of  those  entire  days  during  which 
the  Court  of  Session  did  not  sit  —  days  which,  by  most 
of  those  holding  the  same  official  station,  were  given  to 
relaxation  and  amusement.  So  long  as  he  continued 
quarter-master  of  the  Volunteer  Cavalry,  of  course  he 
aad,  even  while  in  Edinburgh,  some  occasional  horse  ex 
ercise  ;  but,  in  general,  his  town  life  henceforth  was  in 
fhat  respect  as  inactive  as  his  country  life  ever  was  the 


240  LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

reverse.  He  scorned  for  a  long  while  to  attach  any  con- 
sequence  to  this  complete  alternation  of  habits ;  but  we 
shall  find  him  confessing  in  the  sequel,  that  it  proved 
highly  injurious  to  his  bodily  health. 

I  may  here  observe,  that  the  duties  of  his  clerkship 
brought  him  into  close  daily  connexion  with  a  set  of  gen 
tlemen,  most  of  whom  were  soon  regarded  by  him  with 
the  most  cordial  affection  and  confidence.  One  of  his 
new  colleagues  was  David  Hume  (the  nephew  of  the  his 
torian)  whose  lectures  on  the  Law  of  Scotland  are  char 
acterised  with  just  eulogy  in  the  Ashestiel  Memoir,  and 
who  subsequently  became  a  Baron  of  the  Exchequer; 
a  man  as  virtuous  and  amiable,  as  conspicuous  for  mas 
culine  vigour  of  intellect  and  variety  of  knowledge.* 
Another  was  Hector  Macdonald  Buchanan  of  Drumma- 
kiln,  a  frank-hearted  and  generous  gentleman,  not  the 
less  acceptable  to  Scott  for  the  Highland  prejudices 
which  he  inherited  with  the  high  blood  of  Clanranald ;  at 
whose  beautiful  seat  of  Ross  Priory,  on  the  shores  of 
Lochlomond,  he  was  henceforth  almost  annually  a  visitor 
—  a  circumstance  which  has  left  many  traces  in  the  Wa- 
verley  Novels.  A  third  (though  I  believe  of  later  ap 
pointment)  with  whom  his  intimacy  was  not  less  strict, 
was  the  late  excellent  Sir  Robert  Dundas  of  Beechwood, 
Bart. ;  and  a  fourth  was  the  friend  of  his  boyhood,  one 
of  the  dearest  he  ever  had,  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Port- 
more.  With  these  gentlemen's  families,  he  and  his  lived 
in  such  constant  familiarity  of  kindness,  that  the  children 
all  called  their  fathers'  colleagues  uncles,  and  the  mothers 

»  Mr.  Baron  Hume  died  at  Edinburgh,  27th  July  1838,  in  his  82d 
year.  I  had  great  gratification  in  receiving  a  message  from  the  ven« 
erable  man  shortly  before  his  death,  conveying  his  warm  approbatioi 
ef  these  Memoirs  of  his  friend.  —  [1839.] 


CLERK    OF    SESSION.  241 

of  their  little  friends  aunts  ;  and  in  truth,  the  establish 
ment  was  a  brotherhood. 

Scott's  nomination  as  Clerk  of  Session  appeared  in  the 
same  Gazette  (March  8,  1806)  which  announced  the  in 
stalment  of  the  Hon.  Henry  Erskine  and  John  Clerk  of 
Eldin  as  Lord  Advocate  and  Solicitor- General  for  Scot 
land.  The  promotion  at  such  a  moment,  of  a  distin 
guished  Tory,  might  well  excite  the  wonder  of  the  Par 
liament  House,  and  even  when  the  circumstances  were 
explained,  the  inferior  local  adherents  of  the  triumphant 
cause  were  far  from  considering  the  conduct  of  their 
superiors  in  this  matter  with  feelings  of  satisfaction. 
The  indication  of  such  humours  was  deeply  resented  by 
his  haughty  spirit ;  and  he  in  his  turn  showed  his  irri 
tation  in  a  manner  well  calculated  to  extend  to  higher 
quarters  the  spleen  with  which  his  advancement  had 
been  regarded  by  persons  wholly  unworthy  of  his  atten 
tion.  In  short,  it  was  almost  immediately  after  a  Whig 
Ministry  had  gazetted  his  appointment  to  an  office  which 
had  for  twelve  months  formed  a  principal  object  of  his 
ambition,  that,  rebelling  against  the  implied  suspicion  of 
his  having  accepted  something  like  a  personal  obligation 
at  the  hands  of  adverse  politicians,  he  for  the  first  time 
put  himself  forward  as  a  decided  Tory  partisan. 

The  impeachment  of  Lord  Melville  was  among  the 
first  measures  of  the  new  Government ;  and  personal 
affection  and  gratitude  graced  as  well  as  heightened  the 
zeal  with  which  Scott  watched  the  issue  of  this,  in  his 
eyes,  vindictive  proceeding ;  but,  though  the  ex-minister's 
iltimate  acquittal  was,  as  to  all  the  charges  involving  his 
personal  honour,  complete,  it  must  now  be  allowed  that 
the  investigation  brought  out  many  circumstances  by  no 
jneans  creditable  to  his  discretion  ;  and  the  rejoicings  of 

VOL.   II.  16 


242         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

his  friends  ought  not,  therefore,  to  have  been  scornfully 
jubilant.  Such  they  were,  however  —  at  least  in  Edin 
burgh  ;  and  Scott  took  his  share  in  them  by  inditing  a 
song,  which  was  sung  by  James  Ballantyne,  and  received 
with  clamorous  applauses,  at  a  public  dinner  given  in 
honour  of  the  event  on  the  27th  of  June  1806.  I  regret 
that  this  piece  was  inadvertently  omitted  in  the  late  col 
lective  edition  of  his  poetical  works ;  but  since  such  is 
the  case,  I  consider  myself  bound  to  insert  it  here. 
However  he  may  have  regretted  it  afterwards,  he  author 
ized  its  publication  in  the  newspapers  of  the  time,  and 
my  narrative  would  fail  to  convey  a  complete  view  of  the 
man  if  I  should  draw  a  veil  over  the  expression,  thus 
deliberate,  of  some  of  the  strongest  personal  feelings  that 
animated  his  verse. 

"HEALTH  TO  LORD  MELVILLE. 

AIR  —  CarricJcfergus. 
Since  here  we  are  set  in  array  round  the  table, 

Five  hundred  good  fellows  well  met  in  a  hall. 
Come  listen,  brave  boys,  and  I'll  sing  as  I'm  able 
How  innocence  triumphed  and  pride  got  a  fall. 
But  push  round  the  claret  — 
Come,  stewards,  don't  spare  it  — 
With  rapture  you'll  drink  to  the  toast  that  I  give: 
Here,  boys, 
Off  with  it  merrily  — 
MELVILLE  for  ever,  and  long  may  he  live ! 

4  What  were  the  Whigs  doing,  when  boldly  pursuing, 
PITT  banished  Rebellion,  gave  Treason  a  string? 
Why,  they  swore,  on  their  honour,  for  ARTHUR  O'CoNNOB, 
And  fought  hard  for  DESPARD  against  country  and  king. 
Well,  then,  we  knew,  boys, 
PITT  and  MELVILLE  were  true  boys, 
And  the  tempest  was  raised  by  the  friends  of  Reform. 
Ah,  wo ! 

Weep  to  his  memory; 
Low  lies  the  pilot  that  weathered  the  storm ! 


SONG    ON    LORD    MELVILLE  S    ACQUITTAL.         243 

"  And  pray,  don't  you  mind  when  the  Blues  first  were  raising, 

And  we  scarcely  could  think  the  house  safe  o'er  our  heads? 
When  villains  and  coxcombs,  French  politics  praising, 
Drove  peace  from  our  tables  and  sleep  from  our  beds? 
Our  hearts  they  grew  bolder 
When  musket  on  shoulder, 
Stepp'd  forth  our  old  Statesmen  example  to  give. 
Come,  boys,  never  fear, 
Drink  the  Blue  grenadier  — 
Here's  to  old  HARRY,  and  long  may  he  live ! 

'•  They  would  turn  us  adrift;  though  rely,  sir,  upon  it— 

Our  own  faithful  chronicles  warrant  us  that 
The  free  mountaineer  and  his  bonny  blue  bonnet 
Have  oft  gone  as  far  as  the  regular's  hat. 
We  laugh  at  their  taunting, 
For  all  we  are  wanting 
Is  licence  our  life  for  our  country  to  give. 
Off  with  it  merrily, 
Horse,  foot,  and  artillery, 
Each  loyal  Volunteer,  long  may  he  live ! 

"'Tis  not  us  alone,  boys  —  the  Army  and  Navy 

Have  each  got  a  slap  'mid  their  politic  pranks; 
CORNWALLIS  cashier'd,  that  watched  winters  to  save  ye, 
And  the  Cape  called  a  bauble,  unworthy  of  thanks. 
But  vain  is  their  taunt, 
No  soldier  shall  want 

The  thanks  that  his  country  to  valour  can  give : 
Come,  boys, 
Drink  it  off  merrily,— 
SIR  DAVID  and  POPHAM,  and  long  may  they  live ! 

"  And  then  our  revenue  —  Lord  knows  how  they  viewed  it 

While  each  petty  statesman  talked  lofty  and  big; 
But  the  beer-tax  was  weak,  as  if  Whitbread  had  brewed  it, 
And  the  pig-iron  duty  a  shame  to  a  pig. 
In  vain  is  their  vaunting, 
Too  surely  there's  wanting 
What  judgment,  experience,  and  steadiness  give; 
Come,  boys, 
Drink  about  merrily,  — 
Health  to  sage  MELVILLE,  ani  long  may  he  live! 


244  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  Our  King,  too  —  our  Princess —  I  dare  not  say  more,  sir,  — 

May  providence  watch  them  with  mercy  and  might! 
While  there's  one  Scottish  hand  that  can  wag  a  claymore,  sir, 
They  shall  ne'er  want  a  friend  to  stand  up  for  their  right. 
Be  damn'd  he  that  dare  not,  — 
For  my  part,  I'll  spare  not 
To  beauty  afflicted  a  tribute  to  give : 
Fill  it  up  steadily, 
Drink  it  off  readily  — 
Here's  to  the  Princess,  and  long  may  she  live ! 

"  And  since  we  must  not  set  Auld  Reikie  in  glory, 

And  make  her  brown  visage  as  light  as  her  heart;  * 
Till  each  man  illumine  his  own  upper  story, 

Nor  law-book  nor  lawyer  shall  force  us  to  part. 
In  GRENVILLE  and  SPENCER, 
And  some  few  good  men,  sir, 
High  talents  we  honour,  slight  difference  forgive; 
But  the  Brewer  we'll  hoax, 
Tallyho  to  the  Fox, 
And  drink  MELVILLE  for  ever,  as  long  as  we  live !  " 

This  song  gave  great  offence  to  the  many  sincere  per 
sonal  friends  whom  Scott  numbered  among  the  upper 
ranks  of  the  Whigs;  and,  in  particular,  it  created  a 
marked  coldness  towards  him  on  the  part  of  the  accom 
plished  and  amiable  Countess  of  Rosslyn  (a  very  inti 
mate  friend  of  his  favourite  patroness,  Lady  Dalkeith) 
which,  as  his  letters  show,  wounded  his  feelings  severely, 
•—the  more  so,  I  have  no  doubt,  because  a  little  reflec 
tion  must  have  made  him  repent  not  a  few  of  its  allusions. 
He  was  consoled,  however,  by  abundant  testimonies  of 
Tory  approbation ;  and,  among  others,  by  the  following 
lote  from  Mr.  Canning :  — 

*  The  Magistrates  of  Edinburgh  had  rejected  an  application  for 
illumination  of  the  town,  on  the  arrival  of  the  news  of  Lord  Mel 
ville's  acquittal. 


POLITICS  — 1806.  245 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"London,  July  14, 1806. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  I  should  not  think  it  necessary  to  trouble  you 
with  a  direct  acknowledgment  of  the  very  acceptable  present 
which  you  were  so  good  as  to  send  me  through  Mr.  William 
Rose,  if  I  had  not  happened  to  hear  that  some  of  those  per 
sons  who  could  not  indeed  be  expected  to  be  pleased  with  your 
composition,  have  thought  proper  to  be  very  loud  and  petulant 
in  the  expression  of  their  disapprobation.  Those,  therefore, 
who  approve  and  are  thankful  for  your  exertions  in  a  cause 
which  they  have  much  at  heart,  owe  it  to  themselves,  as  well 
as  to  you,  that  the  expressions  of  their  gratitude  and  pleasure 
should  reach  you  in  as  direct  a  manner  as  possible.  I  hope 
that,  in  the  course  of  next  year,  you  are  likely  to  afford  your 
friends  in  this  part  of  the  world  an  opportunity  of  repeating 
these  expressions  to  you  in  person ;  and  I  have  the  honour  to 
be,  Dear  Sir,  with  great  truth,  your  very  sincere  and  obedient 
servant,  GEORGE  CANNING." 

Scott's  Tory  feelings  appear  to  have  been  kept  in  a 
very  excited  state  during  the  whole  of  this  short  reign  of 
the  Whigs.  He  then,  for  the  first  time,  mingled  keenly 
in  the  details  of  county  politics,  —  canvassed  electors  — 
harangued  meetings ;  and,  in  a  word,  made  himself  con 
spicuous  as  a  leading  instrument  of  his  party  —  more 
especially  as  an  indefatigable  local  manager,  wherever 
the  parliamentary  interest  of  the  Buccleuch  family  was 
in  peril.  But  he  was,  in  truth,  earnest  and  serious  in  his 
belief  that  the  new  rulers  of  the  country  were  disposed  to 
abolish  many  of  its  most  valuable  institutions ;  and  he 
regarded  with  special  jealousy  certain  schemes  of  innova 
tion  with  respect  to  the  courts  of  law  and  the  adminis 
tration  of  justice,  which  were  set  on  foot  by  the  Crown 
Officers  for  Scotland.  At  a  debate  of  the  Faculty  of 


246  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Advocates  on  some  of  these  propositions,  he  made  a 
speech  much  longer  than  any  he  had  ever  before  de 
livered  in  that  assembly  ;  and  several  who  heard  it  have 
assured  me,  that  it  had  a  flow  and  energy  of  eloquence 
for  which  those  who  knew  him  best  had  been  quite  un 
prepared.  When  the  meeting  broke  up,  he  walked  across 
the  Mound,  on  his  way  to  Castle  Street,  between  Mr 
Jeffrey  and  another  of  his  reforming  friends,  who  com 
plimented  him  on  the  rhetorical  powers  he  had  been  dis 
playing,  and  would  willingly  have  treated  the  subject- 
matter  of  the  discussion  playfully.  But  his  feelings  had 
been  moved  to  an  extent  far  beyond  their  apprehension : 
he  exclaimed,  "  No,  no  —  'tis  no  laughing  matter  ;  little 
by  little,  whatever  your  wishes  may  be,  you  will  destroy 
and  undermine,  until  nothing  of  what  makes  Scotland 
Scotland  shall  remain."  And  so  saying,  he  turned  round 
to  conceal  his  agitation  —  but  not  until  Mr.  Jeffrey  saw 
tears  gushing  down  his  cheek  —  resting  his  head  until  he 
recovered  himself  on  the  wall  of  the  Mound.  Seldom,  if 
ever,  in  his  more  advanced  age,  did  any  feelings  obtain 
such  mastery. 


CRITICAL    PIECES.  247 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

Dryden  —  Critical  Pieces  —  Edition  of  Slingsby's  Memoirs, 
fyc.  —  Marmion  begun  —  Visit  to  London  —  Ellis  —  Rose  — 
Canning  —  Miss  Seward  —  Scott  Secretary  to  the  Commis 
sion  on  Scotch  Jurisprudence  —  Letters  to  Southey,  fyc. — 
Publication  of  Marmion  —  Anecdotes  —  The  Edinburgh 
Review  on  Marmion. 

1806-1808. 

DURING  the  whole  of  1806  and  1807,  Dryden  contin 
ued  to  occupy  the  greater  share  of  Scott's  literary  hours ; 
but  in  the  course  of  the  former  year  he  found  time  and 
(notwithstanding  all  these  political  bickerings)  inclination 
to  draw  up  three  papers  for  the  Edinburgh  Review ;  viz. 
one  on  the  poems  and  translations  of  the  Hon.  William 
Herbert ;  a  second,  more  valuable  and  elaborate,  in  which 
he  compared  the  "  Specimens  of  Early  English  Ro 
mances  "  by  Ellis,  with  the  "  Selection  of  Ancient  Eng 
lish  Metrical  Romances  "  by  Ritson ;  and,  lastly,  that  ex 
quisite  piece  of  humour,  his  article  on  the  Miseries  of  Hu 
man  Life,  to  which  Mr.  Jeffrey  added  some,  if  not  all,  of 
the  Reviewers'  Groans  with  which  it  concludes.  It  was 
in  September  1806,  too,  that  Messrs.  Longman  put 
forth,  in  a  separate  volume,  those  of  his  own  ballads 
which,  having  been  included  in  the  Minstrelsy,  were 
already  their  property,  togethei  with  a  collection  of  his 
*  Lyrical  Pieces;"  for  which  he  received  £100.  This 


248  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

publication,  obviously  suggested  by  the  continued  popu 
larity  of  the  Lay,  was  highly  successful,  seven  thousand 
copies  having  been  disposed  of  before  the  first  collective 
editions  of  his  poetical  works  appeared.  He  had  also 
proposed  to  include  the  House  of  Aspen  in  the  same 
volume,  but  on  reflection,  once  more  laid  his  prose 
tragedy  aside.  About  the  same  time  he  issued,  though 
without  his  name,  a  miscellaneous  volume  entitled. 
"  Original  Memoirs  written  during  the  Great  Civil 
Wars  ;  being  the  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Slingsby,  and 
Memoirs  of  Captain  Hodgson,  with  Notes,  &c."  Scott's 
preface  consists  of  a  brief  but  elegant  and  interesting 
biography  of  the  gallant  cavalier  Slingsby  ;  his  notes 
are  few  and  unimportant.  This  volume  (by  which  he 
gained  nothing  as  editor)  was  put  forth  in  October  by 
Messrs.  Constable ;  and  in  November  1806,  he  began 
Marmion,  the  publication  of  which  was  the  first  impor 
tant  business  of  his  in  which  that  enterprising  firm  had  a 
primary  part. 

He  was  at  this  time  in  frequent  communication  with 
several  leading  booksellers,  each  of  whom  would  willingly 
have  engrossed  his  labours  ;  but  from  the  moment  that 
his  literary  undertakings  began  to  be  serious,  he  seems  to 
have  resolved  against  forming  so  strict  a  connexion  with 
any  one  publisher,  as  might  at  all  interfere  with  the  free 
dom  of  his  transactions.  I  think  it  not  improbable  that 
his  interests  as  the  partner  of  Ballantyne  may  have  had 
some  influence  in  this  part  of  his  conduct ;  at  all  events, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  hope  of  sharing  more 
and  more  in  the  profits  of  Scott's  original  works  induced 
the  competing  booksellers  to  continue  and  extend  their 
patronage  of  the  Edinburgh  printer,  who  had  been  intro 
duced  to  their  notice  as  the  personal  friend  of  the  most 


MARMION    BEGUN NOVEMBER    1806.  249 

rising  author  of  the  day.  But,  nevertheless,  I  can  have 
no  doubt  that  Scott  was  mainly  guided  by  his  love  of  in 
dependence.  It  was  always  his  maaim,  that  no  author 
should  ever  let  any  one  house  fancy  that  they  had  ob 
tained  a  right  of  monopoly  over  his  works  —  or,  as  he 
expressed  it,  in  the  language  of  the  Scotch  feudalists, 
"that  they  had  completely  thirled  him  to  their  mill;" 
and  through  life,  as  we  shall  see,  the  instant  he  perceived 
the  least  trace  of  this  feeling,  he  asserted  his  freedom, 
not  by  word,  but  by  some  decided  deed,  on  whatever  con 
siderations  of  pecuniary  convenience  the  step  might  make 
it  necessary  for  him  to  trample.  Of  the  conduct  of 
Messrs.  Longman,  who  had  been  principally  concerned 
in  the  publication  of  the  Minstrelsy,  the  Lay,  Sir  Tris- 
trem,  and  the  Ballads,  he  certainly  could  have  had  no 
reason  to  complain ;  on  the  contrary,  he  has  in  various 
places  attested  that  it  was  liberal  and  handsome  beyond 
his  expectation  ;  but,  nevertheless,  a  negotiation  which 
they  now  opened  proved  fruitless,  and  ultimately  they 
had  no  share  whatever  in  the  second  of  his  original  works. 
Constable  offered  a  thousand  guineas  for  the  poem  very 
shortly  after  it  was  begun,  and  without  having  seen  one 
line  of  it ;  and  Scott,  without  hesitation,  accepted  this  pro 
posal.  It  may  be  gathered  from  the  Introduction  of 
1830,  that  private  circumstances  of  a  delicate  nature  ren 
dered  it  highly  desirable  for  him  to  obtain  the  immediate 
command  of  such  a  sum ;  the  price  was  actually  paid 
long  before  the  poem  was  published ;  and  it  suits  very 
well  with  Constable's  character  to  suppose  that  his  readi 
ness  to  advance  the  money  may  have  outstripped  the  cal 
culations  of  more  established  dealers,  and  thus  cast  the 
balance  in  his  favour.  He  was  not,  however,  so  unwise 
as  to  keep  the  whole  adventure  to  himself.  His  bargain 


250  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

being  fairly  concluded,  he  tendered  one-fourth  of  the 
copyright  to  Mr.  Miller  of  Albemarle  Street,  and  another 
to  Mr.  Murray,  then  of  Fleet  Street,  London ;  and  both 
these  booksellers  appear  to  have  embraced  his  proposition 
with  eagerness.  "  I  am,"  Murray  wrote  to  Constable  on 
the  6th  February  1807,  "truly  sensible  of  the  kind  re 
membrance  of  me  in  your  liberal  purchase.  You  have 
rendered  Mr.  Miller  no  less  happy  by  your  admission  of 
him  ;  and  we  both  view  it  as  honourable,  profitable,  and 
glorious  to  be  concerned  in  the  publication  of  a  new  poem 
by  Walter  Scott."  The  news  that  a  thousand  guineas 
had  been  paid  for  an  unseen  and  unfinished  MS.  appeared 
in  those  days  portentous ;  and  it  must  be  allowed  tha: 
the  writer  who  received  such  a  sum  for  a  performance  in 
embryo,  had  made  a  great  step  in  the  hazards,  as  well  as 
in  the  honours,  of  authorship. 

The  private  circumstances  which  he  alludes  to  as  hav 
ing  precipitated  his  re-appearance  as  a  poet  were  con 
nected  with  his  brother  Thomas's  final  withdrawal  from 
the  profession  of  a  Writer  to  the  Signet,  which  arrange 
ment  seems  to  have  become  quite  necessary  towards  the 
end  of  1806  ;  but  it  is  extremely  improbable  that,  in  the 
absence  of  any  such  occurrence,  a  young,  energetic,  and 
ambitious  man  would  have  long  resisted  the  cheering 
stimulus  of  such  success  as  had  attended  the  Lay  of  tlip 
Last  Minstrel. 

"  I  had  formed,"  he  says,  "  the  prudent  resolution  to  bestow 
a  little  more  labour  than  I  had  yet  done  on  my  productions, 
and  to  be  in  no  hurry  again  to  announce  myself  as  a  candi 
date  for  literary  fame.  Accordingly,  particular  passages  of  a 
poem  which  was  finally  called  '  Marmion '  were  laboured  with 
*  good  deal  of  care  by  one  by  whom  much  care  was  seldoir 
bestowed.  Whether  the  work  was  worth  the  labour  or  not, 


MARMION  —  1807.  251 

am  no  competent  judge  ;  but  I  may  be  permitted  to  say,  that 
the  period  of  its  composition  was  a  very  happy  one  in  my  life ; 
BO  much  so,  that  I  remember  with  pleasure  at  this  moment 
(1830)  some  of  the  spots  in  which  particular  passages  were 
composed.  It  is  probably  owing  to  this  that  the  introductions 
to  the  several  cantos  assumed  the  form  of  familiar  epistles  to 
my  intimate  friends,  in  which  I  alluded,  perhaps  more  than  was 
necessary  or  graceful,  to  my  domestic  occupations  and  amuse 
ments  —  a  loquacity  which  may  be  excused  by  those  who  re 
member  that  I  was  still  young,  light-headed,  and  happy,  and 
that  out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh* 

The  first  four  of  the  Introductory  Epistles  are  dated 
Ashestiel,  and  they  point  out  very  distinctly  some  of  the 
"spots"  which,  after  the  lapse  of  so  many  years,  he 
remembered  with  pleasure  for  their  connexion  with  par 
ticular  passages  of  Marmion.  There  is  a  knoll  with 
some  tall  old  ashes  on  the  adjoining  farm  of  the  Peel, 
where  he  was  very  fond  of  sitting  by  himself,  and  it  still 
bears  the  name  of  the  Sheriff's  Knowe.  Another  fa 
vourite  seat  was  beneath  a  huge  oak  hard  by  the  Tweed, 
at  the  extremity  of  the  haugh  of  Ashestiel.  It  was  here, 
that  while  meditating  his  verses,  he  used 

"  to  stray, 

And  waste  the  solitary  day 
In  plucking  from  yon  fen  the  reed, 
And  watch  it  floating  down  the  Tweed; 
Or  idly  list  the  shrilling  lay 
With  which  the  milkmaid  cheers  her  way, 
Marking  its  cadence  rise  and  fail, 
As  from  the  field,  beneath  her  pail, 
She  trips  it  down  the  uneven  dale." 

He  frequently  wandered  far  from  home,  however,  at 
tended  only  by  his  dog,  and  would  return  late  in  the 
evening,  having  let  hours  after  hours  slip  away  among 
*  Introduction  to  Marmion,  1830. 


252  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  soi't  and  melancholy  wildernesses  where  Yarrow 
creeps  from  her  fountains.  The  lines, 

"  Oft  in  my  mind  such  thoughts  awake, 
By  lone  Saint  Mary's  silent  lake,"  &c., 

paint  a  scene  not  less  impressive  than  what  Byron  found 
amidst  the  gigantic  pines  of  the  forest  of  Ravenna ;  and 
how  completely  does  he  set  himself  before  us  in  the  mo 
ment  of  his  gentler  and  more  solemn  inspiration,  by  the 
closing  couplet,  — 

"  Your  horse's  hoof-tread  sounds  too  rude, 
So  stilly  is  the  solitude." 

But  when  the  theme  was  of  a  more  stirring  order,  he 
enjoyed  pursuing  it  over  brake  and  fell  at  the  full  speed 
of  his  Lieutenant  I  well  remember  his  saying,  as  I  rode 
with  him  across  the  hills  from  Ashestiel  to  Newark  one 
day  in  his  declining  years  —  "  Oh,  man,  I  had  many  a 
grand  gallop  among  these  braes  when  I  was  thinking  of 
Marmion,  but  a  trotting  canny  pony  must  serve  me  now." 
His  friend,  Mr.  Skene,  however,  informs  me  that  many  of 
the  more  energetic  descriptions,  and  particularly  that  of  the 
battle  of  Flodden,  were  struck  out  while  he  was  in  quar 
ters  again  with  his  cavalry,  in  the  autumn  of  1807.  "In 
the  intervals  of  drilling,"  he  says,  "  Scott  used  to  delight 
in  walking  his  powerful  black  steed  up  and  down  by  him 
self  upon  the  Portobello  sands,  within  the  beating  of  the 
surge ;  and  now  and  then  you  would  see  him  plunge  in 
his  spurs,  and  go  off  as  if  at  the  charge,  with  the  spray 
dashing  about  him.  As  we  rode  back  to  Musselburgh, 
he  often  came  and  placed  himself  beside  me,  to  repeat 
the  verses  that  he  had  been  composing  during  these 
pauses  of  our  exercise." 

He  seems  to   have  communicated   fragments  of   the 


MARMION— 1807.  253 

poem  very  freely  during  the  whole  of  its  progress.  As 
early  as  the  22d  February  1807,  I  find  Mrs.  Hayman 
acknowledging,  in  the  name  of  the  Princess  of  Wales, 
the  receipt  of  a  copy  of  the  Introduction  to  Canto  III., 
in  which  occurs  the  tribute  to  Her  Royal  Highness's 
heroic  father,  mortally  wounded  the  year  before  at  Jena 
—  a  tribute  so  grateful  to  her  feelings  that  she  herself 
shortly  after  sent  the  poet  an  elegant  silver  vase  as  a 
memorial  of  her  thankfulness.  And  about  the  same 
time,  the  Marchioness  of  Abercorn  expresses  the  delight 
with  which  both  she  and  her  lord  had  read  the  generous 
verses  on  Pitt  and  Fox  in  another  of  those  epistles. 
But  his  connexion  with  this  noble  family  was  no  new 
one ;  for  his  father,  and  afterwards  his  brother  Thomas, 
had  been  the  auditors  of  their  Scotch  rental. 

In  March,  his  researches  concerning  Dryden  carried 
him  again  to  the  south.  During  several  weeks  he  gave 
his  day  pretty  regularly  to  the  pamphlets  and  MSS.  of 
the  British  Museum,  and  the  evening  to  the  brilliant  so 
cieties  that  now  courted  him  whenever  he  came  within 
their  sphere.  His  recent  political  demonstrations  during 
the  brief  reign  of  the  Whigs,  seem  to  have  procured  for 
him  on  this  occasion  a  welcome  of  redoubled  warmth 
among  the  leaders  of  his  own  now  once  more  victorious 
party.  "  As  I  had,"  he  writes  to  his  brother-in-law,  in 
India,  "  contrary  to  many  who  avowed  the  same  opin 
ions  in  sunshine,  held  fast  my  integrity  during  the  Fox- 
ites'  interval  of  power,  I  found  myself  of  course  very 
tvell  with  the  new  administration."  But  he  uniformly 
reserved  his  Saturday  and  Sunday  either  for  Mr.  Ellis, 
at  Sunninghill,  or  Lord  and  Lady  Abercorn,  at  their 
beautiful  villa  near  Stanmore ;  and  the  press  copy  of 
Cantos  I.  and  II.  of  Marmion  attests  that  most  of  it 


254  LIFE    OP    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

reached  Ballantyne  in  sheets,  franked  by  the  Marquis, 
or  his  son-in-law,  Lord  Aberdeen,  during  April  1807. 

Before  he  turned  homeward  he  made  a  short  visit  to 
his  friend  William  Stewart  Rose,  at  his  cottage  of  Gun- 
dimore,  in  Hampshire,  and  enjoyed  in  his  company  va 
rious  long  rides  in  the  New  Forest,  a  day  in  the  dock 
yard  of  Portsmouth,  and  two  or  three  more  in  the  Isle 
of  "Wight.*  Several  sheets  of  the  MS.,  and  corrected 

*  I  am  sure  I  shall  gratify  every  reader  by  extracting  some  lines 
alluding  to  Scott's  visit  at  Mr.  Rose's  Marine  Villa,  from  an  unpub 
lished-poem,  entitled  "Gundimore,"  kindly  placed  at  my  disposal  by 
his  host. 

"  Here  Walter  Scott  has  woo'd  the  northern  muse; 
Here  he  with  me  has  joyed  to  walk  or  cruise ; 
And  hence  has  pricked  through  Yten's  holt,  where  we 
Have  called  to  mind  how  under  greenwood  tree, 
Pierced  by  the  partner  of  his  '  woodland  craft,' 
King  Rufus  fell  by  Tyrrell's  random  shaft. 
Hence  have  we  ranged  by  Celtic  camps  and  barrows, 
Or  climbed  the  expectant  bark,  to  thread  the  Narrows 
Of  Hurst,  bound  westward  to  the  gloomy  bower 
Where  Charles  was  prisoned  in  yon  island  tower  ; 
Or  from  a  longer  flight  alighted  where 
Our  navies  to  recruit  their  strength  repair  — 
And  there  have  seen  the  ready  shot  and  gun  ; 
Seen  in  red  steam  the  molten  copper  run ; 
And  massive  anchor  forged,  whose  iron  teeth 
Should  hold  the  three-decked  ship  when  billows  seethe; 
And  when  the  arsenal's  dark  stithy  rang 
With  the  loud  hammers  of  the  Cyclop-gang, 
Swallowing  the  darkness  up,  have  seen  with  wonder, 
The  flashing  fire,  and  heard  fast-following  thunder. 
Here,  witched  from  summer  sea  and  softer  reign, 
Foscrlo  courted  Muse  of  milder  strain. 
On  these  ribbed  sands  was  Coleridge  pleased  to  pace, 
While  ebbing  seas  have  hummed  a  rolling  base 
To  his  rapt  talk.    Alas  !  all  these  are  gone, 
4  And  I  and  other  creeping  things  live  on.' 
The  flask  no  more,  dear  Walter,  shall  I  quaff 
With  thee,  no  more  enjoy  thy  hearty  laugh  ' 
No  more  shalt  thou  to  me  extend  thy  hand, 
A  welcome  pilgrim  to  my  father's  land  ! 


GUNDIMORE,    ETC. APRIL    1807.  255 

proofs  of  Canto  III.,  are  also  under  covers  franked  from 
Gundimore  by  Mr.  Rose  ;  and  I  think  I  must  quote  the 
note  which  accompanied  one  of  these  detachments,  as 
showing  the  good-natured  buoyancy  of  mind  and  temper 
with  which  the  Poet  received  in  every  stage  of  his  prog 
ress  the  hints  and  suggestions  of  his  watchful  friends, 
Erskine  and  Ballantyne.  The  latter  having  animad 
verted  on  the  first  draught  of  the  song  "  Where  shall 
the  Lover  rest,"  and  sketched  what  he  thought  would 
be  a  better  arrangement  of  the  stanza  —  Scott  answers 
as  follows  :  — 

"  Dear  James,  —  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  rhymes. 
I  presume  it  can  make  no  difference  as  to  the  air  if  the  first 
three  lines  rhyme ;  and  I  wish  to  know,  with  your  leisure,  if 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  fourth  should  be  out  of 
poetic  rhythm,  as  '  the  deserted  fair  one '  certainly  is.  —  For 
example,  would  this  do? 

'  Should  my  heart  from  thee  falter, 
To  another  love  alter 
(For  the  rhyme  we'll  say  Walter) 
Deserting  my  lover.' 

There  is  here  the  same  number  of  syllables,  but  arranged  in 
Cadence.  I  return  the  proof  and  send  more  copy.  There 
will  be  six  Cantos.  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 


Alone,  such  friends  and  comrades  I  deplore, 

And  peopled  but  with  phantoms  is  the  shore : 

Hence  have  I  fled  my  haunted  beach ;  yet  so 

Would  not  alike  a  sylvan  home  forego. 

Though  wakening  fond  regrets,  its  sere  and  yellow 

Leaves,  and  sweet  inland  murmur,  serve  to  mellow 

And  soothe  the  sobered  sorrow  they  recall, 

When  mantled  in  the  faded  garb  of  fall ;  — 

But  wind  and  wave  —  unlike  the  sighing  sedge 

And  murmuring  leaf — give  grief  a  coarser  edge : 

And  in  each  howling  blast  my  fancy  hears 

4  The  voices  of  the  dead,  and  songs  of  other  yean,' n 


256  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

In  the  first  week  of  May  we  find  him  at  Lichfield,  hav 
ing  diverged  from  the  great  road  to  Scotland  for  the  pur 
pose  of  visiting  Miss  Seward.  Her  account  of  her  old 
correspondent,  whom  till  now  she  had  never  seen,  was 
addressed  to  Mr.  Gary,  the  translator  of  Dante ;  and  it 
may  interest  the  reader  to  compare  it  with  other  similar 
sketches  of  earlier  and  later  date.  "  On  Friday  last," 
she  says,  "  the  poetically  great  Walter  Scott  came  '  like  . 
a  sunbeam  to  my  dwelling.'  This  proudest  boast  of  the 
Caledonian  muse  is  tall,  and  rather  robust  than  slender, 
but  lame  in  the  same  manner  as  Mr.  Hayley,  and  in  a 
greater  measure.  Neither  the  contour  of  his  face  nor  yet 
his  features  are  elegant;  his  complexion  healthy,  and 
somewhat  fair,  without  bloom.  We  find  the  singularity 
of  brown  hair  and  eyelashes,  with  flaxen  eyebrows  ;  and 
a  countenance  open,  ingenuous,  and  benevolent.  When 
seriously  conversing  or  earnestly  attentive,  though  his 
eyes  are  rather  of  a  lightish  grey,  deep  thought  is  on 
their  lids ;  he  contracts  his  brow,  and  the  rays  of  genius 
gleam  aslant  from  the  orbs  beneath  them.  An  upper 
lip  too  long  prevents  his  mouth  from  being  decidedly 
handsome,  but  the  sweetest  emanations  of  temper  and 
heart  play  about  it  when  he  talks  cheerfully  or  smiles  — 
and  in  company  he  is  much  oftener  gay  than  contempla 
tive  —  his  conversation  an  overflowing  fountain  of  brill 
iant  wit,  apposite  allusion,  and  playful  archness  —  while 
on  serious  themes  it  is  nervous  and  eloquent ;  the  accent 
decidedly  Scotch,  yet  by  no  means  broad.  On  the  whole , 
no  expectation  is  disappointed  which  his  poetry  must  ex 
cite  in  all  who  feel  the  power  and  graces  of  human  inspi 
ration Not  less  astonishing  than  was  Johnson's 

memory  is  that  of  Mr.  Scott ;  like  Johnson,  also,  his  reci- 
tetion  is  too  monotonous  and  violent  to  do  justice  either 


MR.    GUTHRIE    WRIGHT 1807.  257 

to  his  own  writings  or  those  of  others.  The  stranger 
guest  delighted  us  all  by  the  unaffected  charms  of  his 
mind  and  manners.  Such  visits  are  among  the  most 
high-prized  honours  which  my  writings  have  procured  for 
me."  Miss  Seward  adds,  that  she  showed  him  the  pas 
sage  in  Gary's  Dante  where  Michael  Scott  occurs,  and 
that  though  he  admired  the  spirit  and  skill  of  the  version, 
he  confessed  his  inability  to  find  pleasure  in  the  Divina 
Comedia.  "  The  plan,"  he  said,  "  appeared  to  him  un 
happy;  the  personal  malignity  and  strange  mode  of 
revenge  presumptuous  and  uninteresting." 

By  the  12th  of  May  he  was  at  Edinburgh  for  the  com 
mencement  of  the  summer  session,  and  the  printing  of 
Marmion  seems  thenceforth  to  have  gone  on  at  times 
with  great  rapidity,  at  others  slowly  and  irregularly ;  the 
latter  Cantos  having  no  doubt  been  merely  blocked  out 
when  the  first  went  to  press,  and  his  professional  avoca 
tions,  but  above  all,  his  Dryden,  occasioning  frequent  in 
terruptions. 

Mr.  Guthrie  Wright,  a  relation  and  intimate  friend  of 
William  Erskine,  who  was  among  the  familiar  associates 
of  the  Troop,  has  furnished  me  with  some  details  which 
throw  light  on  the  construction  of  Marmion.  This  gen 
tleman,  I  may  observe,  had,  through  Scott's  good  offices, 
succeeded  his  brother  Thomas  in  the  charge  of  the  Aber- 
corn  business.  —  "  In  the  summer  of  1807,"  he  says,  "  I 
had  the  pleasure  of  making  a  trip  with  Sir  Walter  to 
Dumfries,  for  the  purpose  of  meeting  the  late  Lord  Aber- 
corn  on  his  way  with  his  family  to  Ireland.  His  Lord 
ship  did  not  arrive  for  two  or  three  days  after  we  reached 
Dumfries,  and  we  employed  the  interval  in  visiting 
Sweetheart  Abbey,  Caerlaverock  Castle,  and  some  other 
ancient  buildings  in  the  neighbourhood.  I  need  hardly 

VOL.  II.  17 


258  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

say  how  much  I  enjoyed  the  journey.  Every  one  wh« 
had  the  pleasure  of  his  acquaintance  knows  the  inex 
haustible  store  of  anecdote  and  good-humour  he  pos 
sessed.  He  recited  poetry  and  old  legends  from  morn  till 
night,  and  in  short  it  is  impossible  that  anything  could  be 
more  delightful  than  his  society ;  but  what  I  particularly 
allude  to  is  the  circumstance,  that  at  that  time  he  was 
writing  Marmion,  the  three  or  four  first  cantos  of  which 
he  had  with  him,  and  which  he  was  so  good  as  read 
to  me.  It  is  unnecessary  to  say  how  much  I  was 
enchanted  with  them ;  but  as  he  good-naturedly  asked 
me  to  state  any  observations  that  occurred  to  me, 
I  said  in  joke  that  it  appeared  to  me  he  had  brought 
his  hero  by  a  very  strange  route  into  Scotland.  'Why,' 
says  I,  '  did  ever  mortal  coming  from  England  to 
Edinburgh  go  by  Gifford,  Crichton  Castle,  Borthwick 
Castle,  and  over  the  top  of  Blackford  Hill  ?  Not  only 
is  it  a  circuitous  detour,  but  there  never  was  a  road 
that  way  since  the  world  was  created!'  'That  is  a 
most  irrelevant  objection,'  said  Sir  Walter ;  '  it  was  my 
good  pleasure  to  bring  Marmion  by  that  route,  for  the 
purpose  of  describing  the  places  you  have  mentioned,  and 
the  view  from  Blackford  Hill  —  it  was  his  business  to 
find  his  road  and  pick  his  steps  the  best  way  he  could. 
But,  pray,  how  would  you  have  me  bring  him  ?  Not  by 
the  post-road,  surely,  as  if  he  had  been  travelling  in  a 
mail-coach  ? '  '  No,'  I  replied ;  '  there  were  neither  post- 
roads  nor  mail-coaches  in  those  days ;  but  I  think  you 
might  have  brought  him  with  a  less  chance  of  getting  in 
to  a  swamp,  by  allowing  him  to  travel  the  natural  route 
by  Dunbar  and  the  sea-coast ;  and  then  he  might  have 
tarried  for  a  space  with  the  famous  Earl  of  Angus,  sur- 
named  Bell-the-Cat,  at  his  favourite  residence  of  Tantal 


MR.    GUTHRIE    WRIGHT 1807.  259 

Ion  Castle,  by  which  means  you  would  have  had  not  only 
that  fortress  with  all  his  feudal  followers,  but  the  Castle 
of  Dunbar,  the  Bass,  and  all  the  beautiful  scenery  of  the 
Forth,  to  describe.'  This  observation  seemed  to  strike 
him  much,  and  after  a  pause  he  exclaimed — 'By  Jove,  you 
are  right !  I  ought  to  have  brought  him  that  way ; '  and 
he  added, l  but  before  he  and  I  part,  depend  upon  it  he 
shall  visit  Tantallon.'  He  then  asked  me  if  I  had  ever 
been  there,  and  upon  saying  I  had  frequently,  he  desired 
me  to  describe  it,  which  I  did ;  and  I  verily  believe  it  is 
from  what  I  then  said,  that  the  accurate  description  con 
tained  in  the  fifth  canto  was  given  —  at  least  I  never 
heard  him  say  he  had  afterwards  gone  to  visit  the  cas 
tle  ;  and  when  the  poem  was  published,  I  remember  he 
laughed,  and  asked  me  how  I  liked  Tantallon."  * 

*  Mr.  Guthrie  Wright,  in  his  letter  to  me  (Edinburgh,  April  5th, 
1837),  adds —  "  You  have  said  a  good  deal  about  Sir  Walter's  military 
career,  and  truly  stated  how  much  he  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  corps, 
and  that  at  quarters  he  used  '  to  set  the  table  in  a  roar.'  Numberless 
anecdotes  of  him  might  be  given  about  that  time.  I  shall  only  mention 
one.  Our  Adjutant,  Jack  Adams,  was  a  jolly  fat  old  fellow,  a  great 
favourite,  who  died  one  day,  and  was  buried  with  military  honours. 
We  were  all  very  sorrowful  on  the  occasion  —  had  marched  to  the 
Greyfriars  churchyard  to  the  Dead  March  in  Saul,  and  other  solemn 
\nusic,  and  after  having  fired  over  the  grave,  were  coming  away  —  but 
there  seemed  to  be  a  moment's  pause  as  to  the  tune  which  should  be 
played  by  the  band,  when  Scott  said,  '  If  I  might  venture  an  opinion, 
it  should  be,  Ihae  laid  a  herriri1  in  sautj  and  we  marched  off  in  quick 
time  to  that  tune  accordingly. 

"  As  an  instance  of  the  fun  and  good-humour  that  prevailed  among 
us,  as  well  as  of  Sir  Walter's  ready  wit,  I  may  likewise  mention  an 
anecdote  personal  to  myself.  My  rear-rank  man  rode  a  great  brute  of 
a  carriage  horse,  over  which  he  had  not  sufficient  control,  and  which 
therefore  not  unfrequently,  at  a  charge,  broke  through  the  front  rank, 
and  he  could  not  pull  him  up  till  he  had  got  several  yards  a-head  of 
the  troop.  One  day  as  we  were  standing  at  ease  after  this  had  oc 
curred,  I  was  rather  grumbling,  I  suppose,  at  one  of  my  legs  being  ear 
ned  off  in  this  unceremonious  way,  to  the  no  small  danger  of  my  being 


EGO  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Just  a  year  had  elapsed  from  his  beginning  the  poem, 
when  he  penned  the  Epistle  for  Canto  IV.  at  Ashestiel ; 
and  who,  that  considers  how  busily  his  various  pursuits 
and  labours  had  been  crowding  the  interval,  can  wonder 
to  be  told  that 

"  Even  now,  it  scarcely  seems  a  day 
Since  first  I  tuned  this  idle  lay  — 
A  task  so  often  laid  aside 
When  leisure  graver  cares  denied 
That  now  November's  dreary  gale, 
Whose  voice  inspired  my  opening  tale, 
That  same  November  gale  once  more 
Whirls  the  dry  leaves  on  Yarrow  shore." 

The  fifth  Introduction  was  written  in  Edinburgh  in 
the  month  following ;  that  to  the  last  Canto,  during  the 
Christmas  festivities  of  Mertoun-house,  where,  from  the 
first  days  of  his  ballad-rhyming,  down  to  the  close  of  his 
life,  he,  like  his  bearded  ancestor,  usually  spent  that  sea 
son  with  the  immediate  head  of  the  race.  The  bulky 
appendix  of  notes,  including  a  mass  of  curious  anti 
quarian  quotations,  must  have  moved  somewhat  slow 
ly  through  the  printer's  hands ;  but  Marmion  was  at 
length  ready  for  publication  by  the  middle  of  February 
1808. 

Among  the  "graver  cares"  which  he  alludes  to  as 
having  interrupted  his  progress  in  the  poem,  the  chief 
were,  as  has  been  already  hinted,  those  arising  from  the 
altered  circumstances  of  his  brother.  These  are  men 
tioned  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Seward,  dated  in  August  1807. 
The  lady  had,  among  other  things,  announced  her  pleas 
ure  in  the  prospect  of  a  visit  from  the  author  of  "  Ma- 
unhorsed,  when  Scott  said, '  Why,  Sir,  I  think  you  are  most  properly 
placed  in  your  present  position,  as  you  know  it  is  your  especial  bust 
ness  to  check  overcharges^  alluding  to  my  official  duty,  as  Auditor  o 
the  Court  of  Session,  to  check  overcharges  in  bills  of  costs."  [183,9.] 


AUGUST   18U.  2SJ 

doc,"  expressed  her  admiration  of  "  Master  Betty,  the 
Young  Roscius,"  and  lamented  the  father's  design  of 
placing  that  "  miraculous  boy  "  for  three  years  under  a 
certain  "  schoolmaster  of  eminence  at  Shrewsbury."  * 
Scott  says  in  answer  — 

"  Since  I  was  favoured  with  your  letter,  my  dear  Miss  Sew- 
ard,  I  have  brought  the  unpleasant  transactions  to  which  my 
last  letter  alluded,  pretty  near  to  a  conclusion,  much  more  for 
tunate  than  I  had  ventured  to  hope.  Of  my  brother's  credit 
ors,  those  connected  with  him  by  blood  or  friendship  showed 
all  the  kindness  which  those  ties  are  in  Scotland  peculiarly 
calculated  to  produce ;  and,  what  is  here  much  more  uncom 
mon,  those  who  had  no  personal  connexion  with  him,  or  his 
family,  showed  a  liberality  which  would  not  have  misbecome 
the  generosity  of  the  English.  Upon  the  whole,  his  affairs 
are  put  in  a  course  of  management  which  I  hope  will  enable 
him  to  begin  life  anew  with  renovated  hopes,  and  not  entirely 
destitute  of  the  means  of  recommencing  business. 

"  I  am  very  happy  —  although  a  little  jealous  withal  —  that 
you  are  to  have  the  satisfaction  of  Southey's  personal  acquaint* 
ance.  I  am  certain  you  will  like  the  Epic  bard  exceedingly 
Although  he  does  not  deign  to  enter  into  the  mere  trifling  in 
tercourse  of  society,  yet  when  a  sympathetic  spirit  calls  him 
forth,  no  man  talks  with  more  animation  on  literary  topics ; 
and  perhaps  no  man  in  England  has  read  and  studied  so  much, 
with  the  same  powers  of  making  use  of  the  information  which 
Vie  is  so  indefatigable  in  acquiring.  I  despair  of  reconciling 
you  to  my  little  friend  Jeffrey,  although  I  think  I  could  trust 
to  his  making  some  impression  on  your  prepossession,  were  you 
to  converse  with  him.  I  think  Southey  does  himself  injustice 
in  supposing  the  Edinburgh  Review,  or  any  other,  could  have 
sunk  Madoc,  even  for  a  time.  But  the  size  and  price  of  the 
'vork,  joined  to  the  frivolity  of  an  age  which  must  be  treated 
as  nurses  humour  children,  are  sufficient  reasons  why  a  poem, 

*  See  Miss  Seward's  Letters,  vol.  vi.  p.  364. 


262  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

on  so  chaste  a  model,  should  not  have  taken  immediately.  We 
know  the  similar  fate  of  Milton's  immortal  work,  in  the  witty 
age  of  Charles  II.,  at  a  time  when  poetry  was  much  more  fash 
ionable  than  at  present.  As  to  the  division  of  the  profits,  1 
only  think  that  Southey  does  not  understand  the  gentlemen 
of  the  trade,  emphatically  so  called,  as  well  as  I  do.  Without 
any  greater  degree  of  fourberie  than  they  conceive  the  long 
practice  of  their  brethren  has  rendered  matter  of  prescriptive 
right,  they  contrive  to  clip  the  author's  proportion  of  profits 
down  to  a  mere  trifle.  It  is  the  tale  of  the  fox  that  went 
a-hunting  with  the  lion,  upon  condition  of  equal  division  of 
the  spoil ;  and  yet  I  do  not  quite  blame  the  booksellers,  when 
I  consider  the  very  singular  nature  of  their  mystery.  A 
butcher  generally  understands  something  of  black  cattle,  and 
wo  betide  the  jockey  who  should  presume  to  exercise  his  pro 
fession  without  a  competent  knowledge  of  horse-flesh.  But 
who  ever  heard  of  a  bookseller  pretending  to  understand  the 
commodity  in  which  he  dealt  ?  They  are  the  only  tradesmen 
in  the  world  who  professedly,  and  by  choice,  deal  in  what  is 
called  '  a  pig  in  a  poke.'  When  you  consider  the  abominable 
trash  which,  by  their  sheer  ignorance,  is  published  every  year, 
you  will  readily  excuse  them  for  the  indemnification  which 
they  must  necessarily  obtain  at  the  expense  of  authors  of  some 
value.  In  fact,  though  the  account  between  an  individual 
bookseller  and  such  a  man  as  Southey  may  be  iniquitous 
enough,  yet  I  apprehend,  that  upon  the  whole  the  account  be 
tween  the  trade  and  the  authors  of  Britain  at  large  is  pretty 
fairly  balanced;  and  what  these  gentlemen  gain  at  the  ex- 
Dense  of  one  class  of  writers,  is  lavished,  in  many  cases,  in 
bringing  forward  other  works  of  little  value.  I  do  not  know 
but  this,  upon  the  whole,  is  favourable  to  the  cause  of  litera 
ture.  A  bookseller  publishes  twenty  books,  in  hopes  of  hitting 
upon  one  good  speculation,  as  a  person  buys  a  parcel  of  shares 
in  a  lottery,  in  hopes  of  gaining  a  prize.  Thus  the  road  is 
open  to  all,  and  if  the  successful  candidate  is  a  little  fleeced, 
in  order  to  form  petty  prizes  to  console  the  losing  adventurers, 
dtill  the  cause  of  1'terature  is  benefited,  since  none  is  excluded 


COMMISSION    OF    SCOTCH   JURISPRUDENCE.        263 

from  the  privilege  of  competition.     This  does  not  apologize  for 
Southey's  carelessness  about  his  interest  —  for 

'  his  name  is  up,  and  may  go 

From  Toledo  to  Madrid.' 

"  Pray,  don't  trust  Southey  too  long  with  Mr.  White.  He 
is  even  more  determined  in  his  admiration  of  old  ruins  than  I 
am.  You  see  I  am  glad  to  pick  a  hole  in  his  jacket,  being 
more  jealous  of  his  personal  favour  in  Miss  Seward's  eyes  than 
of  his  poetical  reputation. 

"  I  quite  agree  with  you  about  the  plan  of  young  Betty's 
education,  and  am  no  great  idolater  of  the  learned  languages, 
excepting  for  what  they  contain.  We  spend  in  youth  that 
time  in  admiring  the  wards  of  the  key,  which  we  should  em 
ploy  in  opening  the  cabinet  and  examining  its  treasures.  A 
prudent  and  accomplished  friend,  who  would  make  instruction 
acceptable  to  him  for  the  sake  of  the  amusement  it  conveys, 
would  be  worth  an  hundred  schools.  How  can  so  wonderfully 
premature  a  genius,  accustomed  to  excite  interest  in  thou 
sands,  be  made  a  member  of  a  class  with  other  boys ! " 

To  return  to  Scott's  own  "  graver  cares  **  while  Mar- 
mion  was  in  progress.  Among  them  were  those  of  pre 
paring  himself  for  an  office  to  which  he  was  formally 
appointed  soon  afterwards,  namely,  that  of  Secretary  to 
a  Parliamentary  Commission  for  the  improvement  of 
Scottish  Jurisprudence.  This  Commission,  at  the  head 
of  which  was  Sir  Islay  Campbell,  Lord  President  of  the 
Court  of  Session,  continued  in  operation  for  two  or  three 
years.  Scott's  salary,  as  secretary,  was  a  mere  trifle  ; 
V>ut  he  had  been  led  to  expect  that  his  exertions  in  this 
capacity  would  lead  to  better  things.  In  giving  a  gen 
eral  view  of  his  affairs  to  his  brother-in-law  in  India,  lie 
says  —  "  The  Clerk  of  Session  who  retired  to  make  way 
for  me,  retains  the  appointments,  while  I  do  the  duty. 
This  was  rather  a  hard  bargain,  but  it  was  made  when 


264         LIFE  OP  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

the  Administration  was  going  to  pieces,  and  I  was  glau 
to  swim  ashore  on  a  plank  of  the  wreck ;  or,  in  a  word, 
to  be  provided  for  anyhow,  before  the  new  people  came 
in.  To  be  sure,  nobody  could  have  foreseen  that  in  a 

year's  time  my  friends  were  all  to  be  in  again 

I  am  principally  pleased  with  my  new  appointment  as 
being  conferred  on  me  by  our  chief  law  lords  and  King's 
counsel,  and  consequently  an  honourable  professional  dis 
tinction.  The  employment  will  be  but  temporary,  but 
may  have  consequences  important  to  my  future  lot  in 
life,  if  I  give  due  satisfaction  in  the  discharge  of  it."  He 
appears  accordingly  to  have  submitted  to  a  great  deal  of 
miserable  drudgery,  in  mastering  beforehand  the  details 
of  the  technical  controversies  which  had  called  for  legis- 
latorial  interference  ;  and  he  discharged  his  functions,  as 
usual,  with  the  warm  approbation  of  his  superiors :  but 
no  result  followed.  This  is  alluded  to,  among  other 
things,  in  his  correspondence  with  Mr.  Southey,  during 
the  printing  of  Marmion.  I  shall  now  go  back  to  ex 
tract  some  of  these  letters ;  they  will  not  only  enable  the 
reader  to  fill  up  the  outline  of  the  preceding  narrative,  as 
regards  Scott's  own  various  occupations  at  this  period, 
but  illustrate  very  strikingly  the  readiness  with  which, 
however  occupied,  he  would  turn  aside,  whenever  he  saw 
any  opportunity  of  forwarding  the  pursuits  and  interests 
of  other  literary  men. 

Mr.  Southey  had  written  to  Scott,  on  the  27th  Sep. 
tember  1807,  informing  him  that  he  had  desired  his 
booksellers  to  forward  a  copy  of  Palmerin  of  England, 
then  on  the  eve  of  publication ;  announcing  also  his 
Chronicle  of  the  Cid ;  and  adding,  "  I  rejoice  to  heaT 
that  we  are  to  have  another  Lay,  and  hope  we  may 
Dave  as  many  Last  Lays  of  the  Minstrel,  as  our  an* 


LETTERS    TO    SODTHEY 1807. 

cestors  had  Last  Words  of  Mr.  Baxter."    Scott's  answv 
was  this :  — 

"  To  Robert  Southey,  Esq. 

"  Ashestiel,  1st  October  1807. 

"My  Dear  Southey,  —  It  will  give  me  the  most  sincere 
pleasure  to  receive  any  token  of  your  friendly  remembrance, 
more  especially  in  the  shape  of  a  romance  of  knight-errantry. 
You  know  so  well  how  to  furbish  the  arms  of  a  preux  cheva 
lier,  without  converting  him  a  la  Tressan  into  a  modern  light 
dragoon,  that  my  expectations  from  Palmerin  are  very  high, 
and  I  have  given  directions  to  have  him  sent  to  this  retreat  so 
soon  as  he  reaches  Edinburgh.  The  half-guinea  for  Hogg's 
poems  was  duly  received.  The  uncertainty  of  your  residence 
prevented  the  book  being  sent  at  the  time  proposed  —  it  shall 
be  forwarded  from  Edinburgh  to  the  bookseller  at  Carlisle, 
who  will  probably  know  how  to  send  it  safe.  I  hope  very  soon 
to  send  you  my  Life  of  Dryden,  and  eke  my  last  Lay  —  (by 
the  way,  the  former  ditty  was  only  proposed  as  the  lay  of  the 
last  Minstrel,  not  his  last  fitt.)  I  grieve  that  you  have  re 
nounced  the  harp ;  but  still  I  confide,  that,  having  often 
touched  it  so  much  to  the  delight  of  the  hearers,  you  will 
return  to  it  again  after  a  short  interval.  As  I  don't  much 
admire  compliments,  you  may  believe  me  sincere  when  I  tell 
you,  that  I  have  read  Madoc  three  times  since  my  first  cursory 
perusal,  and  each  time  with  increased  admiration  of  the  poetry. 
But  a  poem  whose  merits  are  of  that  higher  tone  does  not  im 
mediately  take  with  the  public  at  large.  It  is  even  possible 
that  during  your  own  life  —  and  may  it  be  as  long  as  every 
real  lover  of  literature  can  wish  —  you  must  be  contented  with 
the  applause  of  the  few  whom  nature  has  gifted  with  the  rare 
taste  for  discriminating  in  poetry.  But  the  mere  readers  of 
verse  must  one  day  come  in,  and  then  Madoc  will  assume  hia 
•  eal  place  at  the  feet  of  Milton.  Now  this  opinion  of  mine 
•was  not  that  (to  speak  frankly)  which  I  formed  on  reading 
t)-«  poem  at  first,  though  I  then  felt  much  of  its  merit.  I  hope 


266  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

you  have  not,  and  don't  mean  to  part  with  the  copyright.  I 
do  not  think  Wordsworth  and  you  understand  the  bookselling 
animal  well  enough,  and  wish  you  would  one  day  try  my  friend 
Constable,  who  would  give  any  terms  for  a  connexion  with  you. 
I  am  most  anxious  to  see  the  Cid.  Do  you  know  I  committed 
a  theft  upon  you  (neither  of  gait,  kine,  nor  horse,  nor  outside 
nor  inside  plenishing,  such  as  my  forefathers  sought  in  Cumber 
land),  but  of  many  verses  of  the  Queen  Auragua,*  or  howso 
ever  you  spell  her  name  ?  I  repeated  them  to  a  very  great 
lady  (the  Princess  of  Wales),  who  was  so  much  delighted  with 
them,  that  I  think  she  got  them  by  heart  also.  She  asked  a 
copy,  but  that  I  declined  to  give,  under  pretence  I  could  not 
give  an  accurate  one  ;  but  I  promised  to  prefer  her  request  to 
you.  If  you  wish  to  oblige  her  R.  H.,  I  will  get  the  verses 
transmitted  to  her ;  if  not,  the  thing  may  be  passed  over. 

"  Many  thanks  for  your  invitation  to  Keswick,  which  I  hope 
to  accept,  time  and  season  permitting.  Is  your  brother  with 
you  ?  if  so,  remember  me  kindly.f  Where  is  Wordsworth, 
and  what  doth  he  do  ?  I  wrote  him  a  few  lines  some  weeks 
ago,  which  I  suspect  never  came  to  hand.  I  suppose  you  are 
possessed  of  all  relating  to  the  Cid,  otherwise  I  would  mention 
an  old  romance,  chiefly  relating  to  his  banishment,  which  is  in 
John  Frere's  possession,  and  from  which  he  made  some  lively 
translations  in  a  tripping  Alexandrine  stanza.  I  dare  say  he 
would  communicate  the  original,  if  it  could  be  of  the  least  use.  J 
I  am  an  humble  petitioner  that  your  interesting  Spanish  bal 
lads  be  in  some  shape  appended  to  the  Cid.  Be  assured  they 
will  give  him  wings.  There  is  a  long  letter  written  with  a  pen 
like  a  stick.  I  beg  my  respects  to  Mrs.  South ey,  in  which  Mrs. 
Scott  joins ;  and  I  am,  very  truly  and  affectionately,  yours, 

"WALTER    SCOTT." 

*  The  ballad  of  Queen  Orraca  was  first  published  in  the  Edinburgh 
Annual  Register  for  1808. 

t  Dr.  Henry  Southey  had  studied  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

}  Mr.  Southey  introduced,  in  the  appendix  to  his  Chronicle  of  th« 
Cid,  some  specimens  of  Mr.  Frere's  admirable  translation  of  the  an 
cient  Poewa  del  Cid,  to  which  Scott  here  alludes. 


LETTERS    TO    SOUTHEY 1807.  267 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  Edinburgh,  November  1807. 

"  My  Dear  Southey, —  I  received  your  letter  some  time  ago, 
but  had  then  no  opportunity  to  see  Constable,  as  I  was  resid 
ing  at  some  distance  from  Edinburgh.  Since  I  came  to  town 
I  spoke  to  Constable,  whom  I  find  anxious  to  be  connected 
with  you.  It  occurs  to  me  that  the  only  difference  between 
him  and  our  fathers  in  the  Row  is  on  the  principle  contained 
in  the  old  proverb  :  —  He  that  would  thrive  —  must  rise  by  Jive ; 
—  He  that  has  thriven  —  may  lye  till  seven.  Constable  would 
thrive,  and  therefore  bestows  more  pains  than  our  fathers  who 
have  thriven.  I  do  not  speak  this  without  book,  because  I 
know  he  has  pushed  off  several  books  which  had  got  aground 
in  the  Row.  But,  to  say  the  truth,  I  have  always  found  ad 
vantage  in  keeping  on  good  terms  with  several  of  the  trade, 
but  never  suffering  any  one  of  them  to  consider  me  as  a  mo 
nopoly.  They  are  very  like  farmers,  who  thrive  best  at  a  high 
rent ;  and,  in  general,  take  most  pains  to  sell  a  book  that  hag 
cost  them  money  to  purchase.  The  bad  sale  of  Thalaba  is 
truly  astonishing ;  it  should  have  sold  off  in  a  twelvemonth  at 
farthest. 

"  As  you  occasionally  review,  will  you  forgive  my  suggesting 
a  circumstance  for  your  consideration,  to  which  you  will  give 
exactly  the  degree  of  weight  you  please.  I  am  perfectly  cer 
tain  that  Jeffrey  would  think  himself  both  happy  and  honoured 
'in  receiving  any  communications  which  you  might  send  him, 
choosing  your  books  and  expressing  your  own  opinions.  The 
terms  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  are  ten  guineas  a-sheet,  and 
will  shortly  be  advanced  considerably.  I  question  if  the  same 
unpleasant  sort  of  work  is  anywhere  else  so  well  compensated. 
The  only  reason  which  occurs  to  me  as  likely  to  prevent  your 
affording  the  Edinburgh  some  critical  assistance,  is  the  severity 
tf  the  criticisms  upon  Madoc  and  Thalaba.  I  do  not  know  if 
Shis  will  be  at  all  removed  by  assuring  you,  as  I  can  do  upon 
my  honour,  that  Jeffrey  has,  notwithstanding  the  flippancy  of 
these  articles,  the  most  sincere  respect  both  for  your  person 


268  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER     SCOTT. 

and  talents.  The  other  day  I  designedly  led  the  conversation 
on  that  subject,  and  had  the  same  reason  I  always  have  had  to 
consider  his  attack  as  arising  from  a  radical  difference  in  point 
of  taste,  or  rather  feeling  of  poetry,  but  by  no  means  from  any 
thing  approaching  either  to  enmity  or  a  false  conception  of 
your  talents.  I  do  not  think  that  a  difference  of  this  sort 
should  prevent  you,  if  you  are  otherwise  disposed  to  do  so, 
from  carrying  a  proportion  at  least  of  your  critical  labours  to  a 
much  better  market  than  the  Annual.*  Pray  think  of  this, 
and  if  you  are  disposed  to  give  your  assistance,  I  am  positively 
certain  that  I  can  transact  the  matter  with  the  utmost  delicacy 
towards  both  my  friends.  I  am  certain  you  may  add  £100 
a-year,  or  double  the  sum,  to  your  income  in  this  way  with 
almost  no  trouble;  and,  as  times  go,  that  is  no  trifle. 

"  I  have  to  thank  you  for  Palmerin,  which  has  been  my  af 
ternoon  reading  for  some  days.  I  like  it  very  much,  although 
it  is,  I  think,  considerably  inferior  to  the  Amadis.  But  I  wait 
with  double  anxiety  for  the  Cid,  in  which  I  expect  to  find  very 
much  information  as  well  as  amusement.  One  discovery  I 
have  made  is,  that  we  understand  little  or  nothing  of  Don 
Quixote  except  by  the  Spanish  romances.  The  English  and 
French  romances  throw  very  little  light  on  the  subject  of  the 
doughty  cavalier  of  La  Mancha.  I  am  thinking  of  publishing 
a  small  edition  of  the  Morte  Arthur,  merely  to  preserve  that 
ancient  record  of  English  chivalry  ;  but  my  copy  is  so  late  as 
1637,  so  I  must  look  out  for  earlier  editions  to  collate.  That 
of  Caxton  is,  I  believe,  introuvable.  Will  you  give  me  your 
opinion  on  this  project  ?  I  have  written  to  Mr.  Frere  about 
the  Spanish  books,  but  I  do  not  very  well  know  if  my  letter 
»oas  reached  him.  I  expect  to  bring  Constable  to  a  point 
respecting  the  poem  of  Hindoo  Mythology.f  I  should  esteem 
myself  very  fortunate  in  being  assisting  in  bringing  forth  a 
twin  brother  of  Thalaba.  Wordsworth  is  harshly  treated  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review,  but  Jeffrey  gives  the  sonnets  as  much 

*  The  Annual  Review,  conducted  by  Dr.  Arthur  Aikin,  commence* 
in  1802,  and  was  discontinued  in  1808. 
t  The  Curse  of  Kehama  was  published  by  Longman  and  Co.  in  181C 


LETTERS    TO    SOUTHED 1807.  269 

praise  as  he  usually  does  to  anybody.  I  made  him  admire  the 
gong  of  Lord  Clifford's  minstrel,  which  I  like  exceedingly  myself. 
But  many  of  Wordsworth's  lesser  poems  are  caviare,  not  only  to 
the  multitude,  but  to  all  who  judge  of  poetry  by  the  established 
rules  of  criticism.  Some  of  them,  I  can  safely  say,  I  like  the 
better  for  these  aberrations  ;  in  others  they  get  beyond  me  — 
at  any  rate,  they  ought  to  have  been  more  cautiously  hazarded. 
I  hope  soon  to  send  you  a  Life  of  Dryden  and  a  Lay  of  former 
times.  The  latter  I  would  willingly  have  bestowed  more  time 
upon  ;  but  what  can  I  do  ?  —  my  supposed  poetical  turn  ruined 
me  in  my  profession,  and  the  least  it  can  do  is  to  give  me 
eome  occasional  assistance  instead  of  it.  Mrs.  Scott  begs  kind 
compliments  to  Mrs.  Southey,  and  I  am  always  kindly  yours, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Southey,  in  reply  to  this  letter,  stated  at  length 
certain  considerations,  political,  moral,  and  critical,  which 
rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  enlist  himself  on  any 
terms  in  the  corps  of  the  Edinburgh-  Reviewers.  In 
speaking  of  his  friend  Wordsworth's  last  work,  which 
had  been  rather  severely  handled  in  this  Review,  he  ex 
presses  his  regret  that  the  poet,  in  his  magnificent  sonnet 
on  Killiecrankie,  should  have  introduced  the  Viscount  of 
Dundee  without  apparent  censure  of  his  character  ;  and, 
passing  to  Scott's  own  affairs,  he  says  —  "  Marmion  is 
expected  as  impatiently  by  me  as  he  is  by  ten  thousand 
others.  Believe  me,  Scott,  no  man  of  real  genius  was 
ever  a  puritanical  stickler  for  correctness,  or  fastidious 
about  any  faults  except  his  own.  The  best  artists,  both 
in  poetry  and  painting,  have  produced  the  most.  Give 
us  more  lays,  and  correct  them  at  leisure  for  after  editions, 
—  not  laboriously,  but  when  the  amendment  comes  nat 
urally  and  unsought  for.  It  never  does  to  sit  down  dog 
gedly  to  correct."  The  rest,  Scott's  answer  will  suffi 
ciently  explain  :  — 


270  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


"  To  Robert  Souihey,  Esq. 

"  Edinburgh,  15th  December  1807. 

"  Dear  Southey,  —  I  yesterday  received  your  letter,  ana 
can  perfectly  enter  into  your  ideas  on  the  subject  of  the  Re 
view  :  —  indeed,  I  dislike  most  extremely  the  late  strain  of 
polilics  which  they  have  adopted,  as  it  seems>  even  on  their 
own  showing,  to  be  cruelly  imprudent.  Who  ever  thought  he 
did  a  service  to  a  person  engaged  in  an  arduous  conflict,  by 
proving  to  him,  or  attempting  to  prove  to  him,  that  he  must 
necessarily  be  beaten  ?  and  what  effect  can  such  language 
have  but  to  accelerate  the  accomplishment  of  the  prophecy 
which  it  contains  ?  And  as  for  Catholic  Emancipation  —  I  am 
not,  God  knows,  a  bigot  in  religious  matters,  nor  a  friend  to 
persecution ;  but  if  a  particular  sect  of  religionists  are  ipso 
facto  connected  with  foreign  politics  —  and  placed  under  the 
spiritual  direction  of  a  class  of  priests,  whose  unrivalled  dex 
terity  and  activity 'are  increased  by  the  rules  which  detach  them 
from  the  rest  of  the  world  —  I  humbly  think  that  we  may  be 
excused  from  intrusting  to  them  those  places  in  the  State 
where  the  influence  of  such  a  clergy,  who  act  under  the  direc 
tion  of  a  passive  tool  of  our  worst  foe,  is  likely  to  be  attended 
with  the  most  fatal  consequences.  If  a  gentleman  chooses  to 
walk  about  with  a  couple  of  pounds  of  gunpowder  in  his  pocket, 
if  I  give  him  the  shelter  of  my  roof,  I  may  at  least  be  permitted 
to  exclude  him  from  the  seat  next  to  the  fire.  So  thinking, 
I  have  felt  your  scruples  in  doing  anything  for  the  Review  of 
late. 

"  As  for  my  good  friend  Dundee,  I  cannot  admit  his  culpa 
bility  is.  the  extent  you  allege ;  and  it  is  scandalous  of  the 
Sunday  oard  to  join  in  your  condemnation,  '  and  yet  come  of 
a  noble  Grseme  ! '  I  admit  he  was  tant  soil  pen  sauvage,  but 
he  was  a  noble  savage ;  and  the  beastly  Covenanters  against 
whom  he  acted,  hardly  had  any  claim  to  be  called  men,  unles? 
what  was  founded  on  their  walking  upon  their  hind  feet.  Yov 
^an  hardly  conceive  the  perfidy,  cruelty,  and  stupidity  of  these 


LETTERS    TO    SOUTHEY 1807.  271 

people,  according  to  the  accounts  they  have  themselves  pre 
served.  But  I  admit  I  had  many  cavalier  prejudices  instilled 
into  me,  as  my  ancestor  was  a  Killiecrankie  man. 

"  1  am  very  glad  the  Morte  Arthur  is  in  your  hands  ;  it  haa 
been  long  a  favourite  of  mine,  and  I  intended  to  have  made 
it  a  handsome  book,  in  the  shape  of  a  small  antique-looking 
quarto,  with  wooden  vignettes  of  costume.  I  wish  you  would 
not  degrade  him  into  a  squat  1 2mo  ;  but  admit  the  temptation 
you  will  probably  feel  to  put  it  into  the  same  shape  with 
Palmerin  and  Amadis.  If  on  this,  or  any  occasion,  you  can 
cast  a  job  in  the  way  of  my  friend  Ballantyne,  I  should  con 
sider  it  as  a  particular  personal  favour,  and  the  convenience 
would  be  pretty  near  the  same  to  you,  as  all  your  proofs  must 
come  by  post  at  any  rate.  If  I  can  assist  you  about  this  mat 
ter,  command  my  services.  The  late  Duke  of  Roxburghe 
once  showed  me  some  curious  remarks  of  his  own  upon  the 
genealogy  of  the  Knights  of  the  Round  Table.  He  was  a 
curious  and  unwearied  reader  of  romance,  and  made  many 
observations  in  writing ;  whether  they  are  now  accessible  or 
no,  I  am  doubtful.  Do  you  follow  the  metrical  or  the  printed 
books  in  your  account  of  the  Round  Table  ?  and  would  your 
task  be  at  all  facilitated  by  the  use  of  a  copy  of  Sir  Lancelot, 
from  the  press  of  Jehan  Dennis,  which  I  have  by  me  ? 

"  As  to  literary  envy,  I  agree  with  you,  dear  Southey,  in 
believing  it  was  never  felt  by  men  who  had  any  powers  of 
their  own  to  employ  to  better  purpose  than  in  crossing  or  jost 
ling  their  companions ;  and  I  can  say  with  a  safe  conscience, 
that  I  am  most  delighted  with  praise  from  those  who  convince 
me  of  their  good  taste  by  admiring  the  genius  of  my  contem 
poraries.  Believe  me  ever,  Dear  Southey,  with  best  compli 
ments  to  Mrs.  8.,  yours  affectionately, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 


The  following  letter  to  another  accomplished  and  at 
tached  friend,  will  bring  us  back  to  the  completion  of 
Marmion :  — 


272  LIFE    OB    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  To  the  Right  Hon.  the  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  London. 

"  Edinburgh,  19th  January  1308. 

"  1  am  much  flattered,  Dear  Lady  Louisa,  by  your  kind  and 
encouraging  remembrance.  Marmion  is,  at  this  instant,  gasp 
ing  upon  Flodden  field,  and  there  I  have  been  obliged  to  leave 
him  for  these  few  days  in  the  death  pangs.  I  hope  I  shall  find 
time  enough  this  morning  to  knock  him  on  the  head  with  two 
or  three  thumping  stanzas.  I  thought  I  should  have  seen  Lady 
Douglas  while  she  was  at  Dalkeith,  but  all  the  Clerks  of  Ses 
sion  (excepting  myself,  who  have  at  present  no  salary)  are 
subject  to  the  gout,  and  one  of  them  was  unluckily  visited 
with  a  fit  on  the  day  I  should  have  been  at  the  Duke's,  so  I 
had  his  duty  and  my  own  to  discharge.  —  Pray,  Lady  Louisa, 
don't  look  for  Marmion  in  Hawthornden  or  anywhere  else, 
excepting  in  the  too  thick  quarto  which  bears  his  name.  As 
to  the  fair  *******,!  beg  her  pardon  with  all  my 
heart  and  spirit ;  but  I  rather  think  that  the  habit  of  writing 
novels  or  romances,  whether  in  prose  or  verse,  is  unfavourable 
to  rapid  credulity  ;  at  least  these  sort  of  folks  know  that  they 
can  easily  make  fine  stories  themselves,  and  will  be  therefore 
as  curious  in  examining  those  of  other  folks  as  a  cunning  vint 
ner  in  detecting  the  sophistication  of  his  neighbour's  claret  by 
the  help  of  his  own  experience.  Talking  of  fair  ladies  and 
fables  reminds  me  of  Mr.  Sharpe's  ballads,*  which  I  suppose 
Lady  Douglas  carried  with  her  to  Bothwell.  They  exhibit,  I 
think,  a  very  considerable  portion  of  imagination,  and  occa 
sionally,  though  not  uniformly,  great  flow  of  versification. 
There  is  one  verse,  or  rather  the  whole  description  of  a  musi 
cal  ghost-lady  sitting  among  the  ruins  of  her  father's  tower, 
that  pleased  me  very  much.  But  his  language  is  too  flowery 
and  even  tawdry,  and  I  quarrelled  with  a  lady  in  the  first 
poem  who  yielded  up  her  affection  upon  her  lover  showing  his 

*  A  small  volume,  entitled  "  Metrical  Legends  and  other  Poems, 
»as  published  in  1807  by  Scott's  friend  Charles  Kirkpatrick  Sharpe 


MARMION    PUBLISHED FEBRUARY    1808.          273 

white  teeth.  White  teeth  ought  to  be  taken  great  care  of  and 
set  great  store  by ;  but  I  cannot  allow  them  to  be  an  object  of 
passionate  admiration  —  it  is  too  like  subduing  a  lady's  heart 
by  grinning.  Grieved  am  I  for  Lady  Douglas's  indisposition, 
which  I  hope  will  be  short,  and  I  am  sure  will  be  tolerable 
with  such  stores  of  amusement  around  her.  Last  nio-ht  I  saw 

O 

all  the  Dalkeith  family  presiding  in  that  happy  scene  of  mixed 
company  and  Babylonian  confusion,  the  Queen's  Assembly.  I 
also  saw  Mr.  Alison  there.  I  hope  your  ladyship  has  not  re 
nounced  your  intention  of  coming  to  Edinburgh  for  a  day  or 
two,  and  that  I  shall  have  the  honour  to  see  you.  We  have 
here  a  very  diverting  lion  and  sundry  wild  beasts ;  but  the 
most  meritorious  is  Miss  Lydia  White,  who  is  what  Oxonians 
call  a  lioness  of  the  first  order,  with  stockings  nineteen-times- 
nine  dyed  blue,  very  lively,  very  good-humoured,  and  ex 
tremely  absurd.  It  is  very  diverting  to  see  the  sober  Scotch 
ladies  staring  at  this  phenomenon.  I  am,  with  great  respect, 
your  ladyship's  honoured  and  obliged  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Marmion  was  published  on  the  23d  of  February.  The 
letter  which  accompanied  the  presentation  copy  to  Sun- 
ninghill,  had  been  preceded  a  few  weeks  before  by  one 
containing  an  abstract  of  some  of  Weber's  German  re 
searches,  which  were  turned  to  account  in  the  third  edi 
tion  of  Sir  Tristrem ;  but  Mr.  Ellis  was  at  this  time  in  a 
very  feeble  state  of  health,  and  that  communication  had 
elicited  no  reply. 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  Edinburgh,  February  23, 1808. 
1  Sleepest  thou,  wakest  thou,  George  Ellis  ?  ' 
"  Be  it  known  that  this  letter  is  little  better  than  a  fehde 
brief,  —  as  to  the  meaning  of  which  is  it  not  written  in  Wach- 
ter's  Thesaurus  and  the  Lexicon  of  Adelung  ?     To  expound 
more  vernacularly,  I  wrote  you,  I  know  not  how  long  ago,  a 
swinging  epistle  of  and  concerning  German  Romances,  with 
VOL.  ii.  18 


274  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Borne  discoveries  not  of  my  own  discovering,  and  other  matter 
not  furiously  to  the  present  purpose.  And  this  I  caused  to  be 
conveyed  to  you  by  ane  gentil  knizt,  Sir  William  Forbes,  knizl, 
who  assures  me  he  left  it  as  directed,  at  Sir  Peter  Parker's. 
Since,'  to  vary  my  style  to  that  of  the  ledger,  '  none  of  yours.' 
To  avenge  myself  of  this  unusual  silence,  which  is  a  manifest 
usurpation  of  my  privileges  (being  the  worst  correspondent  in 
the  world,  Heber  excepted),  I  have  indited  to  you  an  epistle 
in  verse,  and  that  I  may  be  sure  of  its  reaching  your  hands,  I 
have  caused  to  be  thrown  off  2000  copies  thereof,  that  you  may 
not  plead  ignorance. 

"  This  is  oracular,  but  will  be  explained  by  perusing  the  In 
troduction  to  the  5th  canto  of  a  certain  dumpy  quarto,  enti 
tled  Marmion,  a  Tale  of  Flodden-field,  of  which  I  have  to  beg 
your  acceptance  of  a  copy.  '  So  wonder  on  till  time  makes  all 
things  plain.'  One  thing  I  am  sure  you  will  admit,  and  that 
is,  that  —  *  the  hobby-horse  is  not  forgot ; '  *  nay,  you  will  see 
I  have  paraded  in  my  Introductions  a  plurality  of  hobby-horses 

—  a  whole  stud,  on  each  of  which  I  have,  in  my  day,  been  ac 
customed  to  take  an  airing.     This  circumstance  will  also  grat 
ify  our  friend  Douce,  whose  lucubrations  have  been  my  study 
for  some  days.f     They  will,  I  fear,  be  caviare  to  the  multitude, 
and  even  to  the  soi-disant  connoisseurs,  who  have  never  found 
by  experience  what  length  of  time,  of  reading,  and  of  reflec 
tion,  is  necessary  to  collect  the  archseological  knowledge  of 
which  he  has  displayed  such  profusion.     The  style  would  also, 
in  our  Scotch  phrase,  thole  amends,  i.  e.  admit  of  improvement. 
But  his  extensive  and  curious  researches  place  him  at  the  head 
of  the  class  of  black-letter  antiquaries ;  and  his  knowledge  is 
communicated  without  the  manifest  irritation,  which  his  con 
temporaries  have  too  often  displayed  in  matters  of  controversy 

—  without  ostentation,  and  without  self-sufficiency.      I  hope 
the  success  of  his  work  will  encourage  this  modest  and  learned 
antiquary  to  give  us  more  collectanea.     There  are  few  things 

*  "  For,  0,  For,  O,  the  hobby-horse  is  forgot."  —  Hamlet. 
t  Mr.  Donee's  Illustrations  of  Shakspeare  were  published  late  it 

istr. 


MARMION    PUBLISHED  —  FEBRUARY    1808.  275 

I  read  with  more  pleasure.  Charlotte  joins  in  kindest  resj  ecta 
to  Mrs.  Ellis.  I  have  some  hopes  of  being  in  town  this  spring, 
but  I  fear  you  will  be  at  Bath.  When  you  have  run  over 
Marmion,  I  hope  you  will  remember  how  impatient  I  shall  be 
to  hear  your  opinion  sans  phrase.  I  am  sensible  I  run  some 
risk  of  being  thought  to  fall  below  my  former  level,  but  those 
that  will  play  for  the  gammon  must  take  their  chance  of  this.  I 
am  also  anxious  to  have  particular  news  of  your  health.  Ever 
yours  faithfully,  W.  S." 

The  letter  reached  Ellis  before  the  book;  but  how 
well  he  anticipated  the  immediate  current  of  criticism, 
his  answer  will  show. 

"  Before  I  have  seen  the  stranger,"  he  says,  "  and  while  my 
judgment  is  unwarped  by  her  seduction,  I  think  I  can  venture, 
from  what  I  remember  of  the  Lay,  to  anticipate  the  fluctua 
tions  of  public  opinion  concerning  her.  The  first  decision  re 
specting  the  Last  Minstrel  was,  that  he  was  evidently  the  pro 
duction  of  a  strong  and  vivid  mind,  and  not  quite  unworthy 
the  author  of  Glenfinlas  and  the  Eve  of  St.  John ;  but  that  it 
was  difficult  to  eke  out  so  long  a  poem  with  uniform  spirit ; 
that  success  generally  emboldens  writers  to  become  more  care 
less  in  a  second  production  ;  that in  short,  months  elapsed, 

before  one-tenth  of  our  wise  critics  had  discovered  that  a  long 
poem  which  no  one  reader  could  bring  himself  to  lay  down  till 
he  had  arrived  at  the  last  line,  was  a  composition  destined  per 
haps  to  suggest  new  rules  of  criticism,  but  certainly  not  ame 
nable  to  the  tribunal  of  a  taste  formed  on  the  previous  examina 
tion  of  models  of  a  perfectly  different  nature.  That  Minstrel 
is  now  in  its  turn  become  a  standard ;  Marmion  will  therefore 
be  compared  with  this  metre,  and  will  most  probably  be  in  the 
first  instance  pronounced  too  long,  or  too  short,  or  improperly 
divided,  or  &c.  &c.  &c.,  till  the  sage  and  candid  critics  are  com 
pelled,  a  second  time,  by  the  united  voice  of  all  who  can  read 
at  all,  to  confess  that '  aut  prodesse  aut  delectare '  is  the  only 
real  standard  of  poetical  merit.  One  of  my  reasons  for  liking 


276  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

your  Minstrel  was,  that  the  subject  was  purely  and  necessarily 
poetical;  whereas  my  sincere  and  sober  opinion  of  all  the  epic 
poems  I  have  ever  read,  the  Odyssey  perhaps  excepted,  is  that 
they  ought  to  have  been  written  in  prose ;  and  hence,  though 
I  think  with  Mackintosh,  that '  forte  epos  acer  ut  nemo  Varius 
scribit,'  I  rejoice  in  your  choice  of  a  subject  which  cannot  be 
considered  as  epic,  or  conjure  up  in  the  memory  a  number  of 
fantastic  rules,  which,  like  Harpies,  would  spoil  the  banquet 
offered  to  the  imagination.  A  few  days,  however,  will,  I  hope 
enable  me  to  write  avec  connaissance  de  cause." 

I  have,  I  believe,  alluded,  in  a  former  Chapter  of  this 
narrative,  to  a  remark  which  occurs  in  Mr.  Southey's 
Life  of  Cowper,  namely,  that  a  man's  character  may  be 
judged  of  even  more  surely  by  the  letters  which  his 
friends  addressed  to  him,  than  by  those  which  he  himself 
penned  ;  and  I  cannot  but  think  that  —  freely  as  Scott's 
own  feelings  and  opinions  were  poured  from  his  head  and 
heart  to  all  whom  he  considered  as  worthy  of  a  wise  and 
good  man's  confidence  —  the  openness  and  candour  with 
which  the  best  and  most  sagacious  of  his  friends  wrote  to 
him  about  his  own  literary  productions,  will  be  considered 
hereafter  (when  all  the  glories  of  this  age  shall,  like  him, 
have  passed  away),  as  affording  a  striking  confirmation 
of  the  truth  of  the  biographer's  observation.  It  was  thus, 
for  example,  that  Mr.  Southey  himself,  who  happened  to 
be  in  London  when  Marmion  came  out,  expressed  him- 
belf  to  the  author,  on  his  return  to  Keswick  — 

"  Half  th3  poem  I  had  read  at  Heber's  before  my  own  copy 
arrived.  I  went  punctually  to  breakfast  with  him,  and  he  was 
long  enough  dressing  to  let  me  devour  so  much  of  it.  The 
<tory  is  made  of  better  materials  than  the  Lay,  yet  they  are 
not  so  well  fitted  together.  As  a  whole,  it  has  not  pleased  me 
so  much  —  in  parts,  it  has  pleased  me  more.  There  is  nothing 
«o  finely  conceived  in  your  former  poem  as  the  death  of  Mar' 


MARMION.  277 

mion  :  there  is  nothing  finer  in  its  conception  anywhere.  The 
introductory  epistles  I  did  not  wish  away,  because,  as  poems, 
they  gave  me  great  pleasure ;  but  I  wished  them  at  the  end 
of  the  volume,  or  at  the  beginning  —  anywhere  except  where 
they  were.  My  taste  is  perhaps  peculiar  in  disliking  all  inter 
ruptions  in  narrative  poetry.  When  the  poet  lets  his  story 
sleep,  and  talks  in  his  own  person,  it  has  to  me  the  same  sort 
of  unpleasant  effect  that  is  produced  at  the  end  of  an  act 
You  are  alive  to  know  what  follows,  and  lo  —  down  comes  the 
curtain,  and  the  fiddlers  begin  with  their  abominations.  The 
general  opinion,  however,  is  with  me,  in  this  particular  in 
stance " 

I  have  no  right  to  quote  the  rest  of  Mr.  Southey's  let 
ter,  which  is  filled  chiefly  with  business  of  his  own  ;  but 
towards  its  close,  immediately  after  mentioning  a  princely 
instance  of  generosity  on  the  part  of  his  friend  Mr.  Walter 
Savage  Landor  to  a  brother  poet,  he  has  a  noble  sentence, 
which  I  hope  to  be  pardoned  for  extracting,  as  equally 
applicable  to  his  own  character  and  that  of  the  man  he 
was  addressing.  — "  Great  poets,"  says  the  author  of 
Thalaba,  "  have  no  envy ;  little  ones  are  full  of  it !  I 
doubt  whether  any  man  ever  criticised  a  good  poem  ma 
liciously,  who  had  not  written  a  bad  one  himself."  I 
must  not  omit  to  mention,  that  on  his  way  from  London 
down  to  Keswick,  Mr.  Southey  had  visited  at  Stamford 
the  late  industrious  antiquary  Octavius  Gilchrist,  who 
was  also  at  this  time  one  of  Scott's  frequent  correspond 
ents.  Mr.  Gilchrist  writes  (May  21)  to  Scott  —  "  South 
ey  pointed  out  to  me  a  passage  in  Marmion,  which  he 
thought  finer  than  anything  he  remembered." 

Mr.  Wordsworth  knew  Scott  too  well  not  to  use  the 
same  masculine  freedom. 

44  Thank  you,"  he  says,  "  for  Marmion.    I  think  your  end  has 


278  LIFE    OF    SIB   WALTER    SCOTT. 

been  attained.  That  it  is  not  the  end  which  I  should  wish  you 
to  propose  to  yourself,  you  will  be  well  aware,  from  what  you 
know  of  my  notions  of  composition,  both  as  to  matter  and 
manner.  In  the  circle  of  my  acquaintance,  it  seems  as  well 
liked  as  the  Lay,  though  I  have  heard  that  in  the  world  it  is 
not  so.  Had  the  poem  been  much  better  than  the  Lay,  it 
could  scarcely  have  satisfied  the  public,  which  has  too  much 
of  the  monster,  the  moral  monster,  in  its  composition.  The 
spring  has  burst  out  upon  us  all  at  once,  and  the  vale  is  now 
in  exquisite  beauty ;  a  gentle  shower  has  fallen  this  morning,' 
and  I  hear  the  thrush,  who  has  built  in  my  orchard,  singing 
amain.  How  happy  we  should  be  to  see  you  here  again  ! 
Ever,  my  Dear  Scott,  your  sincere  friend,  W.  W." 

I  pass  over  a  multitude  of  the  congratulatory  effusions 
of  inferior  names,  but  must  not  withhold  part  of  a  letter 
on  a  folio  sheet,  written  not  in  the  first  hurry  of  excite 
ment,  but  on  the  2d  of  May,  two  months  after  Marmion 
had  reached  Sunninghill. 

"  I  have,"  says  Ellis,  "  been  endeavouring  to  divest  myself 
of  those  prejudices  to  which  the  impression  on  my  own  palate 
would  naturally  give  rise,  and  to  discover  the  sentiments  of 
those  who  have  only  tasted  the  general  compound,  after  seeing 
the  sweetmeats  picked  out  by  my  comrades  and  myself.  I 
have  severely  questioned  all  my  friends  whose  critical  discern 
ment  I  could  fairly  trust,  and  mean  to  give  you  the  honest  re 
sult  of  their  collective  opinions ;  for  which  reason,  inasmuch  as 
I  shall  have  a  good  deal  to  say,  besides  which,  there  seems  to 
be  a  natural  connexion  between  foolscap  and  criticism,  I  have 
ventured  on  this  expanse  of  paper.  In  the  first  place,  then, 
all  the  world  are  agreed  that  you  are  like  the  elephant  men 
tioned  in  the  Spectator,  who  was  the  greatest  elephant  in  the 
tvorld  except  himself,  and  consequently,  that  the  only  question 
at  issue  is,  whether  the  Lay  or  Marmion  shall  be  reputed  the 
most  pleasing  poem  in  our  language  —  save  and  except  one  or 
two  of  Dryden's  fables.  But,  with  respect  to  the  two  rivals. 


ELLIS    ON    MARMION.  279 

I  think  the  Lay  is,  on  the  whole,  the  greatest  favourite.  It  is 
admitted  that  the  fable  of  Marmion  is  greatly  superior —  that 
it  contains  a  greater  diversity  of  character  —  that  it  inspires 
more  interest  —  and  that  it  is  by  no  means  inferior  in  point 
of  poetical  expression ;  but  it  is  contended  that  the  incident 
of  Deloraine's  journey  to  Melrose  surpasses  anything  in  Mar 
mion,  and  that  the  personal  appearance  of  the  Minstrel,  who, 
though  the  last,  is  by  far  the  most  charming  of  all  minstrels,  is 
by  no  means  compensated  by  the  idea  of  an  author  shorn  of 
his  picturesque  beard,  deprived  of  his  harp,  and  writing  letters 
to  his  intimate  friends.  These  introductory  epistles,  indeed, 
though  excellent  in  themselves,  are  in  fact  only  interruptions 
to  the  fable ;  and  accordingly,  nine  out  of  ten  have  perused 
them  separately,  either  after  or  before  the  poem — and  it  is 
obvious  that  they  cannot  have  produced,  in  either  case,  the 
effect  which  was  proposed  —  viz.  of  relieving  the  reader's  at 
tention,  and  giving  variety  to  the  whole.  Perhaps,  continue 
these  critics,  it  would  be  fair  to  say  that  Marmion  delights  us 
in  spite  of  its  introductory  epistles  —  while  the  Lay  owes  its 
principal  charm  to  the  venerable  old  minstrel  :  —  the  two 
poems  may  be  considered  as  equally  respectable  to  the  talents 
of  the  author ;  but  the  first,  being  a  more  perfect  whole,  will 
be  more  constantly  preferred.  Now,  all  this  may  be  very  true 
—  but  it  is  no  less  true  that  everybody  has  already  read  Mar 
mion  more  than  once —  that  it  is  the  subject  of  general  conver 
sation  —  that  it  delights  all  ages  and  all  tastes,  and  that  it  is 
universally  allowed  to  improve  upon  a  second  reading.  My 
own  opinion  is,  that  both  the  productions  are  equally  good  in 
their  different  ways :  yet,  upon  the  whole,  I  had  rather  be  the 
author  of  Marmion  than  of  the  Lay,  because  I  think  its  spe 
cies  of  excellence  of  much  more  difficult  attainment.  What 
degree  of  bulk  may  be  essentially  necessary  to  the  corporeal 
part  of  an  Epic  poem,  I  know  not ;  but  sure  I  am  that  the 
Btory  of  Marmion  might  have  furnished  twelve  books  as  easily 
as  six  —  that  the  masterly  character  of  Constance  would  not 
have  been  less  bewitching  had  it  been  much  more  minutely 
painted  —  and  that  De  Wilton  might  have  been  dilated  witb 


280  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

great  ease,  and  even  to  considerable  advantage; — in  shoit, 
that  had  it  been  your  intention  merely  to  exhibit  a  spirited 
romantic  story,  instead  of  making  that  story  subservient  to 
the  delineation  of  the  manners  which  prevailed  at  a  certain 
period  of  our  history,  the  number  and  variety  of  your  charac 
ters  would  have  suited  any  scale  of  painting.  Marmion  is 
to  Deloraine  what  Tom  Jones  is  to  Joseph  Andrews;  — 
the  varnish  of  high  breeding  nowhere  diminishes  the  promi 
nence  of  the  features  —  and  the  minion  of  a  king  is  as  light 
and  sinewy  a  cavalier  as  the  Borderer,  —  rather  less  ferocious, 
more  wicked,  less  fit  for  the  hero  of  a  ballad,  and  far  more 
for  the  hero  of  a  regular  poem.  On  the  whole,  I  can  sincerely 
assure  you,  *  sans  phrase,'  that  had  I  seen  Marmion  without 
knowing  the  author,  I  should  have  ranked  it  with  Theodore 
and  Honoria,  —  that  is  to  say,  on  the  very  top  shelf  of  English 
poetry.  Now  for  faults." 

Mr.  Ellis  proceeds  to  notice  some  minor  blemishes, 
which  he  hoped  to  see  erased  in  a  future  copy ;  but  as 
most,  if  not  all,  of  these  were  sufficiently  dwelt  on  by 
the  professional  critics,  whose  strictures  are  affixed  to  the 
poem  in  the  last  collective  edition,  and  as,  moreover, 
Scott  did  not  avail  himself  of  any  of  the  hints  thus  pub 
licly,  as  well  as  privately  tendered  for  his  guidance,  I 
shall  not  swell  my  page  by  transcribing  more  of  this  ele 
gant  letter.  The  part  I  have  given  may  no  doubt  be 
considered  as  an  epitome  of  the  very  highest  and  most 
refined  of  London  table-talk  on  the  subject  of  Marmion, 
during  the  first  freshness  of  its  popularity,  and  before  the 
Edinburgh  Review,  the  only  critical  journal  of  which 
any  one  in  those  days  thought  very  seriously,  had  pro 
nounced  its  verdict. 

When  we  consider  some  parts  of  that  judgment,  to. 
gether  with  the  author's  personal  intimacy  with  the  editor 
and  the  aid  which  he  had  of  late  been  affording  to  the 


EDINBURGH    REVIEW    ON    MARMION.  281 

Journal  itself,  it  must  be  allowed  that  Mr.  Jeffrey  ac 
quitted  himself  on  this  occasion  in  a  manner  highly  cred 
itable  to  his  courageous  sense  of  duty.  The  Number 
containing  the  article  on  Marmion,  was  accompanied  by 
this  note :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Castle  Street. 

"  Queen  Street,  Tuesday. 

"  Dear  Scott,  —  If  I  did  not  give  you  credit  for  more  mag 
nanimity  than  other  of  your  irritable  tribe,  I  should  scarcely 
venture  to  put  this  into  your  hands.  As  it  is,  I  do  it  with  no 
little  solicitude,  and  earnestly  hope  that  it  will  make  no  differ 
ence  in  the  friendship  which  has  hitherto  subsisted  between  us. 
I  have  spoken  of  your  poem  exactly  as  I  think,  and  though  I 
cannot  reasonably  suppose  that  you  will  be  pleased  with  every 
thing  I  have  said,  it  would  mortify  me  very  severely  to  believe 
I  had  given  you  pain.  If  you  have  any  amity  left  for  me,  you 
will  not  delay  very  long  to  tell  me  so.  In  the  meantime,  I  am 
very  sincerely  yours,  F.  JEFFREY." 

The  reader  who  has  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  April 
1808,  will  I  hope  pause  here  and  read  the  article  as  it 
stands  ;  endeavouring  to  put  himself  into  the  situation 
of  Scott  when  it  was  laid  upon  his  desk,  together  with 
this  ominous  billet  from  the  critic,  who,  as  it  happened, 
had  been  for  some  time  engaged  to  dine  that  same  Tues 
day  at  his  table  in  Castle  Street.  I  have  not  room  to 
transcribe  the  whole;  but  no  unfair  notion  of  its  spirit 
and  tenor  may  be  gathered  from  one  or  two  of  the  prin 
cipal  paragraphs.  After  an  ingenious  little  dissertation  on 
epic  poetry  in  general,  the  reviewer  says  — 

"  We  are  inclined  to  suspect  that  the  success  of  the  work 
now  before  us  will  be  less  brilliant  than  that  of  the  author's 
former  publication,  though  we  are  ourselves  of  opinion  that 
its  intrinsic  merits  are  nearly,  if  not  altogether  efjual ;  and 


282  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that,  if  it  had  had  the  fate  to  be  the  elder  born,  it  would  have 
inherited  as  fair  a  portion  of  renown  as  has  fallen  to  the  lot 
of  its  predecessor.  It  is  a  good  deal  longer,  indeed,  and  some 
what  more  ambitious;  and  it  is  rather  clearer,  that  it  has 
greater  faults  than  that  it  has  greater  beauties  —  though,  for 
our  own  parts,  we  are  inclined  to  believe  in  both  propositions. 
It  has  more  flat  and  tedious  passages,  and  more  ostentation  of 
historical  and  antiquarian  lore :  but  it  has  also  greater  rich 
ness  and  variety,  both  of  character  and  incident;  and  if  it  haa 
less  sweetness  and  pathos  in  the  softer  passages,  it  has  certain 
ly  more  vehemence  and  force  of  colouring  in  the  loftier  and 
busier  representations  of  action  and  emotion.  The  place  of 
the  prologuising  minstrel  is  but  ill  supplied,  indeed,  by  the 
epistolary  dissertations  which  are  prefixed  to  each  book  of  the 
present  poem  ;  and  the  ballad-pieces  and  mere  episodes  which 
it  contains  have  less  finish  and  poetical  beauty ;  but  there  is 
more  airiness  and  spirit  in  the  higher  delineations ;  and  the 
story,  if  not  more  skilfully  conducted,  is  at  least  better  com 
plicated,  and  extended  through  a  wider  field  of  adventure. 
The  characteristics  of  both,  however,  are  evidently  the  same ; 
a  broken  narrative  —  a  redundancy  of  minute  description  — 
bursts  of  unequal  and  energetic  poetry  —  and  a  general  tone 
of  spirit  and  animation,  unchecked  by  timidity  or  affectation, 
and  unchastened  by  any  great  delicacy  of  taste  or  elegance  of 
fancy." 

******* 

"  But  though  we  think  this  last  romance  of  Mr.  Scott's 
about  as  good  as  the  former,  and  allow  that  it  affords  great 
indications  of  poetical  talent,  we  must  remind  our  readers 
that  we  never  entertained  much  partiality  for  this  sort  of 
composition,  and  ventured  on  a  former  occasion  to  express 
our  regret  that  an  author  endowed  with  such  talents  should 
consume  them  in  imitations  of  obsolete  extravagance,  and  in 
the  representation  of  manners  and  sentiments  in  which  none 
of  his  readers  can  be  supposed  to  take  much  interest,  except 
the  few  who  can  judge  of  their  exactness.  To  write  a  mod- 
era  romance  of  chivalry,  seems  to  be  much  such  a  phantasy 


EDINBURGH    REVIEW    ON    MARMION.  283 

as  to  build  a  modern  abbey  or  an  English  pagoda.  For  once, 
however,  it  may  be  excused  as  a  pretty  caprice  of  genius ; 
but  a  second  production  of  the  same  sort  is  entitled  to  less 
indulgence,  and  imposes  a  sort  of  duty  to  drive  the  author 
from  so  idle  a  task,  by  a  fair  exposition  of  the  faults  which 
are,  in  a  manner,  inseparable  from  its  execution.  His  genius, 
seconded  by  the  omnipotence  of  fashion,  has  brought  chivalry 
again  into  temporary  favour.  Fine  ladies  and  gentlemen  now 
talk  indeed  of  donjons,  keeps,  tabards,  scutcheons,  tressures, 
caps  of  maintenance,  portcullises,  wimples,  and  we  know  not 
what  besides ;  just  as  they  did,  in  the  days  of  Dr.  Darwin's 
popularity,  of  gnomes,  sylphs,  oxygen,  gossamer,  polygynia, 
and  polyandria.  That  fashion,  however,  passed  rapidly  away, 
and  Mr.  Scott  should  take  care  that  a  different  sort  of  ped 
antry  does  not  produce  the  same  effects." 

The  detailed  exposition  of  fault  follows  ;  and  it  is,  I 
am  sure,  done  in  a  style  on  which  the  critic  cannot  now 
reflect  with  perfect  equanimity,  any  more  than  on  the 
lofty  and  decisive  tone  of  the  sweeping  paragraphs  by 
which  it  was  introduced.  All  this,  however,  I  can  sup 
pose  Scott  to  have  gone  through  with  great  composure ; 
but  he  must,  I  think,  have  wondered,  to  say  the  least, 
when  he  found  himself  accused  of  having  "  throughout 
neglected  Scottish  feelings  and  Scottish  characters ! "  — 
Re  who  had  just  poured  out  all  the  patriotic  enthusiasm 
of  his  soul  in  so  many  passages  of  Marmion  which  every 
Scotchman  to  the  end  of  time  will  have  by  heart ;  painted 
the  capital,  the  court,  the  camp,  the  heroic  old  chieftains 
of  Scotland,  in  colours  instinct  with  a  fervour  that  can 
never  die ;  and  dignified  the  most  fatal  of  her  national 
misfortunes  by  a  celebration  as  loftily  pathetic  as  ever 
blended  pride  with  sorrow,  —  a  battle-piece  which  even 
his  critic  had  pronounced  to  be  the  noblest  save  in  Ho 
mer!  But  not  even  this  injustice  was  likely  to  wound 


284  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

him  very  deeply.  Coming  from  one  of  the  recent  wit 
nesses  of  his  passionate  agitation  on  the  Mound,  perhap^ 
he  would  only  smile  at  it. 

At  all  events,  Scott  could  make  allowance  for  the  pet- 
ulancies  into  which  men  the  least  disposed  to  injure  the 
feelings  of  others  will  sometimes  be  betrayed,  when  the 
critical  rod  is  in  their  hands.  He  assured  Mr.  Jeffrey 
that  the  article  had  not  disturbed  his  digestion,  though 
he  hoped  neither  his  booksellers  nor  the  public  would 
agree  with  the  opinions  it  expressed;  and  begged  he 
would  come  to  dinner  at  the  hour  previously  appointed. 
Mr.  Jeffrey  appeared  accordingly,  and  was  received  by 
his  host  with  the  frankest  cordiality  ;  but  had  the  mor 
tification  to  observe  that  the  mistress  of  the  house,  though 
perfectly  polite,  was  not  quite  so  easy  with  him  as  usual. 
She,  too,  behaved  herself  with  exemplary  civility  during 
the  dinner  ;  but  could  not  help  saying,  in  her  broken  Eng 
lish,  when  her  guest  was  departing,  "  Well,  good-night,  Mr. 
Jeffrey  —  dey  tell  me  you  have  abused  Scott  in  de  Re 
view,  and  I  hope  Mr.  Constable  has  paid  you  very  well 
for  writing  it."  This  anecdote  was  not  perhaps  worth 
giving;  but  it  has  been  printed  already  in  an  exaggerated 
shape,  so  I  thought  it  as  well  to  present  the  edition  which 
I  have  derived  from  the  lips  of  all  the  three  persons  con 
cerned.  No  one,  I  am  sure,  will  think  the  worse  of  any 
i>f  them  for  it,  —  least  of  all  of  Mrs.  Scott.  She  might 
well  be  pardoned,  if  she  took  to  herself  more  than  her 
own  share  in  the  misadventures  as  well  as  the  successes 
of  the  most  affectionate  of  protectors.  It  was,  I  believe, 
about  this  time  when,  as  Scott  has  confessed,  "  the  popu 
larity  of  Marmion  gave  him  such  a  heeze  he  had  for  a 
moment  almost  lost  his  footing/'  that  a  shrewd  and  sly 
observer,  Mrs.  Grant  of  Laggan,  said,  wittily  enough. 


MARMION.  285 

npon  leaving  a  brilliant  assembly  where  the  poet  had 
been  surrounded  by  all  the  buzz  and  glare  of  fashiona 
ble  ecstacy  —  "Mr.  Scott  always  seems  to  me  like  a 
glass,  through  which  the  rays  of  admiration  pass  with 
out  sensibly  affecting  it ;  but  the  bit  ot  paper  that  lies 
beside  it  will  presently  be  in  a  blaze  —  and  no  wcnder.** 
I  shall  not,  after  so  much  of  and  about  criticism,  say 
anything  more  of  Marmion  in  this  place,  than  that  I 
have  always  considered  it  as,  on  the  whole,  the  greatest 
of  Scott's  poems.  There  is  a  certain  light,  easy,  virgin 
charm  about  the  Lay,  which  we  look  for  in  vain  through 
the  subsequent  volumes  of  his  verse ;  but  the  superior 
strength,  and  breadth,  and  boldness  both  of  conception 
and  execution,  in  the  Marmion,  appear  to  me  indisputa 
ble.  The  great  blot,  the  combination  of  mean  felony 
with  so  many  noble  qualities  in  the  character  of  the 
hero,  was,  as  the  poet  says,  severely  commented  on  at 
the  time  by  the  most  ardent  of  his  early  friends,  Ley- 
den  ;  but  though  he  admitted  the  justice  of  that  criticism, 
he  chose  "  to  let  the  tree  lie  as  it  had  fallen."  He  was 
also  sensible  that  many  of  the  subordinate  and  connect 
ing  parts  of  the  narrative  are  flat,  harsh,  and  obscure  — 
but  would  never  make  any  serious  attempt  to  do  away 
with  these  imperfections ;  and  perhaps  they,  after  all, 
Veighten  by  contrast  the  effect  of  the  passages  of  high- 
wrought  enthusiasm  which  alone  he  considered,  in  after 
days,  with  satisfaction.  As  for  the  "  epistolary  disserta- 
ions,"  it  must,  I  take  it,  be  allowed  that  they  interfered 
with  the  flow  of  the  story,  when  readers  were  turning 
the  leaves  with  the  first  ardour  of  curiosity  ;  and  they 
were  not,  in  fact,  originally  intended  to  be  interwoven 
in  any  fashion  with  the  romance  of  Marmion.  Though 
the  author  himself  does  not  allude  to,  and  had  perhaps 


286  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

forgotten  the  circumstance  when  writing  the  Introduc 
tory  Essay  of  1830  —  they  were  announced,  by  an  ad 
vertiBement  early  in  1807,  as  "  Six  Epistles  from  Ettrick 
Forest,"  to  be  published  in  a  separate  volume,  similar  to 
that  of  the  Ballads  and  Lyrical  Pieces  ;  and  perhaps  it 
might  have  been  better  that  this  first  plan  had  been  ad 
hered  to.  But  however  that  may  be,  are  there  any  pages, 
among  all  he  ever  wrote,  that  one  would  be  more  sorry 
he  should  not  have  written  ?  They  are  among  the  most 
delicious  portraitures  that  genius  ever  painted  of  itself, 
—  buoyant,  virtuous,  happy  genius  —  exulting  in  its  own 
energies,  yet  possessed  and  mastered  by  a  clear,  calm, 
modest  mind,  and  happy  only  in  diffusing  happiness 
around  it. 

With  what  gratification  those  Epistles  were  read  by 
the  friends  to  whom  they  were  addressed,  it  would  be  su 
perfluous  to  show.  He  had,  in  fact,  painted  them  almost 
as  fully  as  himself;  and  who  might  not  have  been  proud 
to  find  a  place  in  such  a  gallery  ?  The  tastes  and  habits 
of  six  of  those  men,  in  whose  intercourse  Scott  found  the 
greatest  pleasure  when  his  fame  was  approaching  its  me 
ridian  splendour,  are  thus  preserved  for  posterity ;  and 
when  I  reflect  with  what  avidity  we  catch  at  the  least 
bint  which  seems  to  afford  us  a  glimpse  of  the  intimate 
.  ircle  of  any  great  poet  of  former  ages,  I  cannot  but  be 
lieve  that  posterity  would  have  held  this  record  precious, 
even  had  the  individuals  been  in  themselves  far  less 
remarkable  than  a  Rose,  an  Ellis,  a  Heber,  a  Skene,  a 
Marriott,  and  an  Erskine. 

Many  other  friends,  however,  have  found  a  part  in 
these  affectionate  sketches ;  and  I  doubt  whether  any 
manifestation  of  public  applause  afforded  the  poet  sc 
tnuch  pleasure  as  the  letter  in  which  one  of  these,  al 


MA.RMION.  287 

uded  to  in  the  fourth  Epistle  as  then  absent  from  Scot 
land  by  reason  of  his  feeble  health,  acknowledged  the 
emotions  that  had  been  stirred  in  him  when  he  came 
upon  that  unexpected  page.  This  was  Colin  Mackenzie 
of  Portmore,  the  same  who  beat  him  in  a  competition  of 
rhymes  at  the  High  School,  and  whose  ballad  of  Ellan- 
donnan  Castle  had  been  introduced  into  the  third  volume 
of  the  Minstrelsy.  This  accomplished  and  singular  ly 
modest  man,  now  no  more,  received  Marmion  at  Lymp- 
stone  in  Devonshire. 

"  My  dear  Walter,"  he  says,  "  amidst  the  greetings  that  will 
crowd  on  you,  I  know  that  those  of  a  hearty,  sincere,  admir 
ing  old  friend  will  not  be  coldly  taken.  I  am  not  going  to  at 
tempt  an  enumeration  of  beauties,  but  I  must  thank  you  for 
the  elegant  and  delicate  allusion  in  which  you  express  your 
friendship  for  myself — Forbes  —  and,  above  all,  that  sweet 
memorial  of  his  late  excellent  father.*  I  find  I  have  got  the 
mal  de  pays,  and  must  return  to  enjoy  the  sight  and  society  of 
a  few  chosen  friends.  You  are  not  unaware  of  the  place  you 
hold  on  my  list,  and  your  description  of  our  committees  f  has 
inspired  me  with  tenfold  ardour  to  renew  a  pleasure  so  highly 
enjoyed,  and  remembered  with  such  enthusiasm.  Adieu,  my 
dear  friend.  Ever  yours,  C.  M." 

His  next-door  neighbour  at  Ashestiel,  Mr.  Pringle  ot 
Whytbank,  "  the  long-descended  lord  of  Yair,"  writes  not 
Jess  touchingly  on  the  verses  in  the  second  Epistle,  where 
bis  beautiful  place  is  mentioned,  and  the  poet  introduces 

"  those  sportive  boys, 
Companions  of  Irs  mountain  joys" — • 

*  Mr.  Mackenzie  had  married  a  daughter  of  Sir  William  Forbes  of 
Pitsligo,  Bart.,  the  biographer  of  Beattie. 

t  The  supper  meetings  of  the  Cavalry  Club.  —  See  Marmion}  Intro* 
1  action  to  Canto  IV. 


288  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  paints  the  rapture  with  which  they  had  heard  him 
"  call  Wallace'  rampart  holy  ground."  "  Your  own  be 
nevolent  heart,"  says  the  good  laird,  "  would  have  enjoyed 
the  scene,  could  you  have  witnessed  the  countenances  of 
my  little  flock  grouped  round  your  book ;  and  perhaps 
you  would  have  discovered  that  the  father,  though  the 
least  audible  at  that  moment,  was  not  the  most  insensible 
tc  the  honour  bestowed  upon  his  children  and  his  parent 
stream,  both  alike  dear  to  his  heart.  May  my  boys  feel 
an  additional  motive  to  act  well,  that  they  may  cast  no 
discredit  upon  their  early  friend  !  " 

But  there  was  one  personal  allusion  which,  almost  be 
fore  his  ink  was  dry,  the  poet  would  fain  have  cancelled. 
Lord  Scott,  the  young  heir  of  Buccleuch,  whose  casual 
absence  from  "  Yarrow's  bowers "  was  regretted  in  that 
same  epistle  (addressed  to  his  tutor,  Mr.  Marriott)  — 

"  No  youthful  baron 's  left  to  grace 
The  forest  sheriff's  lonely  chase, 
And  ape  in  manly  step  and  tone 
The  majesty  of  Oberon." 

—  This  promising  boy  had  left  Yarrow  to  revisit  it  no 
more.  He  died  a  few  days  after  Marmion  was  published, 
and  Scott,  in  writing  on  the  event  to  his  uncle  Lord  Mon 
tagu  (to  whom  the  poem  was  inscribed),  signified  a  fear 
that  these  verses  might  now  serve  but  to  quicken  the  sor 
rows  of  the  mother.  Lord  Montagu  answers  —  "I  have 
been  able  to  ascertain  Lady  Dalkeith's  feelings  in  a  man- 
nsr  that  will,  I  think,  be  satisfactory  to  you,  particularly 
as  it  came  from  herself,  without  my  giving  her  the  pain 
of  being  asked.  In  a  letter  I  received  yesterday,  giving 
directions  about  some  books,  she  writes  as  follows  :  — 'And 
pray  send  me  Marmion  too  —  this  may  seem  odd  to  you. 


MARMION.  289 

but  at  some  moments  I  am  soothed  by  things  which  at 
other  times  drive  me  almost  mad.'"  On  the  7th  of 
April,  Scott  says  to  Lady  Louisa  Stuart  —  "  The  death 
of  poor  dear  Lord  Scott  was  such  a  stunning  blow  to  me, 
that  I  really  felt  for  some  time  totally  indifferent  to  the 
labours  of  literary  correction.  I  had  very  great  hopes 
from  that  boy,  who  was  of  an  age  to  form,  on  the  prin 
ciples  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  his  feelings  tow 
ards  the  numerous  families  who  depend  on  them.  But 
God's  will  be  done.  I  intended  to  have  omitted  the 
lines  referring  to  him  in  Marmion  in  the  second  edition ; 
for  as  to  adding  any,  I  could  as  soon  write  the  Iliad. 
But  I  am  now  glad  I  altered  my  intention,  as  Lady  Dal- 
keith  has  sent  for  the  book,  and  dwells  with  melancholy 
pleasure  on  whatever  recalls  the  memory  of  the  poor 
boy.  She  has  borne  her  distress  like  an  angel,  as  she  is, 
and  always  has  been  ;  but  God  only  can  cure  the  wounds 
he  inflicts." 

One  word  more  as  to  these  personal  allusions.  While 
he  was  correcting  a  second  proof  of  the  passage  where 
Pitt  and  Fox  are  mentioned  together,  at  Stanmore  Pri 
ory,  in  April  1807,  Lord  Abercorn  suggested  that  the 
compliment  to  the  Whig  statesman  ought  to  be  still  fur 
ther  heightened,  and  several  lines  — 

"  For  talents  mourn  untimely  lost, 
When  best  employed,  and  wanted  most"  &c.  — * 

*  In  place  of  this  couplet,  and  the  ten  lines  which  follow  it,  the  orig 
inal  MS-  of  Marmion  has  only  the  following: 

"  If  genius  high  and  judgment  sound, 
And  wit  that  loved  to  play,  n^t  wound, 
And  all  the  reasoning  powers  divine, 
To  penetrate,  resolve,  combine, 
Could  save  one  mortal  of  the  herd 
From  error  —  Fox  had  never  err'd." 
7OI»    II.  19 


290  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

were  added  accordingly.  I  have  heard,  indeed,  that  they 
came  from  the  Marquis's  own  pen.  Ballantyne,  how 
ever,  from  some  inadvertence,  had  put  the  sheet  to  press 
before  the  revise,  as  it  is  called,  arrived  in  Edinburgh, 
and  some  few  copies  got  abroad  in  which  the  additional 
couplets  were  omitted.  A  London  journal  (the  Morning 
Chronicle)  was  stupid  and  malignant  enough  to  insinuate 
that  the  author  had  his  presentation  copies  struck  off 
with,  or  without,  them  —  according  as  they  were  for 
Whig  or  Tory  hands.  I  mention  the  circumstance  now, 
only  because  I  see  by  a  letter  of  Heber's  that  Scott  had 
thought  it  worth  his  while  to  contradict  the  absurd  charge 
in  the  newspapers  of  the  day. 

The  feelings  of  political  partisanship  find  no  place  in 
this  poem  ;  but  though  the  Edinburgh  reviewers  chose  to 
complain  of  its  "  manifest  neglect  of  Scottish  feelings,"  I 
take  leave  to  suspect  that  the  boldness  and  energy  of 
British  patriotism  which  breathes  in  so  many  passages, 
may  have  had  more  share  than  that  alleged  omission  in 
pointing  the  pen  that  criticised  Marmion.  Scott  had 
sternly  and  indignantly  rebuked  and  denounced  the  then 
too  prevalent  spirit  of  anti-national  despondence  ;  he  had 
put  the  trumpet  to  his  lips,  and  done  his  part,  at  least,  to 
sustain  the  hope  and  resolution  of  his  countrymen  in  that 
straggle  from  which  it  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review  that  no  sane  observer  of  the  times  could  antici 
pate  anything  but  ruin  and  degradation.  He  must  ever 
be  considered  as  the  "  mighty  minstrel "  of  the  Antigalli- 
can  war ;  and  it  was  Marmion  that  first  announced  him 
in  that  character. 

Be  all  this  as  it  may,  Scott's  connexion  with  the  Edin 
burgh  Review  was  now  broken  off;  and  indeed  it  was 
oever  renewed,  except  in  one  instance,  many  years  after 


MARMION.  291 

when  the  strong  wish  to  serve  poor  Maturin  shook  him 
for  a  moment  from  his  purpose.  The  loftiest  and  purest 
of  human  beings  seldom  act  but  under  a  mixture  of  mo 
tives,  and  I  shall  not  attempt  to  guess  in  what  proportions 
lie  was  swayed  by  aversion  to  the  political  doctrines 
which  the  journal  had  lately  been  avowing  with  increased 
openness  —  by  dissatisfaction  with  its  judgments  of  his 
own  works  —  or,  lastly,  by  the  feeling  that,  whether 
those  judgments  were  or  were  not  just,  it  was  but  an  idle 
business  for  him  to  assist  by  his  own  pen  the  popularity 
of  the  vehicle  that  diffused  them.  That  he  was  influ 
enced  more  or  less  by  all  of  these  considerations,  appears 
highly  probable  ;  and  I  fancy  I  can  trace  some  indica 
tions  of  each  of  them  in  a  letter  with  which  I  am  fa 
voured  by  an  old  friend  of  mine,  —  a  warm  lover  of  liter 
ature,  and  a  sincere  admirer  both  of  Scott  and  Jeffrey, 
and  though  numbered  among  the  Tories  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  yet  one  of  the  most  liberal  section  of  his  party, — 
who  happened  to  visit  Scotland  shortly  after  the  article 
on  Marmion  appeared,  and  has  set  down  his  recollections 
of  the  course  of  table-talk  at  a  dinner  where  he  for  the 
first  time  met  Scott  in  company  with  the  brilliant  editor 
of  the  Edinburgh  Review  :  — 

"There  were,"  he  says,  "only  a  few  people  besides 
the  two  lions  —  and  assuredly  I  have  seldom  passed  a 
more  agreeable  day.  A  thousand  subjects  of  literature, 
antiquities,  and  manners,  were  started ;  and  much  was  I 
struck,  as  you  may  well  suppose,  by  the  extent,  correct 
ness,  discrimination,  and  accuracy  of  Jeffrey's  informa 
tion  equally  so  with  his  taste,  acuteness,  and  wit,  in 
dissecting  every  book,  author,  and  «tory  that  came  in  our 
way.  Nothing  could  surpass  the  variety  of  his  knowl 
edge,  but  the  easy  rapidity  of  his  manner  of  producing  it. 


292  LIFE    OF    SIR     WALTER    SCOTT. 

He  was  then  in  his  meridian.  Scott,  delighted  to  draw 
him  out,  delighted  also  to  talk  himself,  and  displayed,  I 
think,  even  a  larger  range  of  anecdote  and  illustration ; 
remembering  everything,  whether  true  or  false,  that  was 
characteristic  or  impressive  ;  everything  that  was  good, 
or  lovely,  or  lively.  It  struck  me  that  there  was  this 
great  difference  —  Jeffrey,  for  the  most  part,  entertained 
us,  when  books  were  under  discussion,  with  the  detection 
of  faults,  blunders,  absurdities,  or  plagiarisms  :  Scott  took 
up  the  matter  where  he  left  it,  recalled  some  compensat 
ing  beauty  or  excellence  for  which  no  credit  had  been 
allowed,  and  by  the  recitation,  perhaps,  of  one  fine  stanza, 
set  the  poor  victim  on  his  legs  again.  I  believe  it  was 
just  about  this  time  that  Scott  had  abandoned  his  place 
in  Mr.  Jeffrey's  corps.  The  journal  had  been  started 
among  the  clever  young  society  with  which  Edinburgh 
abounded  when  they  were  both  entering  life  as  barris 
ters;  and  Jeffrey's  principal  coadjutors  for  some  time 
were  Sydney  Smith,  Brougham,  Horner,  Scott  himself 
—  and  on  scientific  subjects,  Playfair;  but  clever  con 
tributors  were  sought  for  in  all  quarters.  Wit  and  fun 
were  the  first  desiderata,  and,  joined  with  general  talent 
and  literature,  carried  all  before  them.  Neutrality,  or 
something  of  the  kind,  as  to  party  politics,  seems  to  have 
been  originally  asserted  —  the  plan  being,  as  Scott  under 
stood,  not  to  avoid  such  questions  altogether,  but  to  let 
them  be  handled  by  Whig  or  Tory  indifferently,  if  only 
the  writer  could  make  his  article  captivating  in  point  of 
information  and  good  writing.  But  it  was  not  long  before 
Brougham  dipped  the  concern  deep  in  witty  Whiggery; 
ftnd  it  was  thought  at  the  time  that  some  very  foolish 
neglects  on  the  part  of  Pitt  had  a  principal  share  in 
making  several  of  these  brilliant  young  men  decide  on 


SCOTT    AND    JEFFREY — 1808.  293 

carrying  over  their  weapons  to  the  enemy's  camp.  Scott 
was  a  strong  Tory,  nay,  by  family  recollections  and  poeti 
cal  feelings  of  association,  a  Jacobite.  Jeffrey,  however, 
was  an  early  friend  —  and  thus  there  was  a  confliction 
of  feelings  on  both  sides.  Scott,  as  I  was  told,  remon 
strated  against  the  deepening  Whiggery —  Jeffrey  al 
leged  that  he  could  not  resist  the  wit.  Scott  offered  to 
try  his  hand  at  a  witty  bit  of  Toryism  —  but  the  editor 
pleaded  off,  upon  the  danger  of  inconsistency.  These 
differences  first  cooled  —  and  soon  dissolved  their  federa 
tion.  —  To  return  to  our  gay  dinner.  As  the  claret  was 
taking  its  rounds,  Jeffrey  introduced  some  good-natured 
eulogy  of  his  old  supporters  —  Sydney  Smith,  Brougham, 
and  Homer.  '  Come,'  says  Scott,  '  you  can't  say  too 
much  about  Sydney  or  Brougham,  but  I  will  not  admire 
your  Horner :  he  always  put  me  in  mind  of  Obadiah's 
bull,  who,  although,  as  Father  Shandy  observed,  he  never 
produced  a  calf,  went  through  his  business  with  such  a 
grave  demeanour,  that  he  always  maintained  his  credit 
in  the  parish ! '  The  fun  of  the  illustration  tempted  him 
to  this  sally,  I  believe ;  but  Horner's  talents  did  not  lie  in 
humour,  and  his  economical  labours  were  totally  uncon 
genial  to  the  mind  of  Scott." 

I  have  printed  this  memorandum  just  as  it  came  to  my 
hands ;  but  I  certainly  never  understood  the  writer  to  be 
pledging  himself  for  the  story  which  he  gives  "  as  he  was 
told."  No  person  who  knows  anything  of  the  character 
and  history  of  Mr.  Jeffrey  can  for  a  moment  believe  that 
he  ever  dreamt  of  regulating  the  political  tone  of  his 
Review  upon  such  considerations  as  are  here  ascribed  to 
him.  It  is  obvious  that  the  light  badinage  of  the  Outer- 
House  had  been  misinterpreted  by  some  matter-of-fact 
vmbra  of  the  Mountain. 


294  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

I  shall  conclude  this  chapter  with  a  summary  of  book 
sellers'  accounts.  Marmion  was  first  printed  in  a  splen 
did  quarto,  price  one  guinea  and  a  half.  The  2000 
copies  of  this  edition  were  all  disposed  of  in  less  than  a 
month,  when  a  second  of  3000  copies,  in  8vo,  was  sent  to 
press.  There  followed  a  third  and  a  fourth  edition,  each 
of  3000,  in  1809  ;  a  fifth  of  2000,  early  in  1810;  and  a 
sixth  of  3000,  in  two  volumes,  crown  8vo,  with  twelve 
designs  by  Singleton,  before  the  end  of  that  year;  a 
seventh  of  4000,  and  an  eighth  of  5000  copies  8vo,  in 
1811  ;  a  ninth  of  3000  in  1815  ;  a  tenth  of  500,  in  1820 ; 
an  eleventh  of  500,  and  a  twelfth  of  2000  copies,  in 
foolscap,  both  in  1825.  The  legitimate  sale  in  this  coun 
try,  therefore,  down  to  the  time  of  its  being  included  in 
the  first  collective  edition  of  his  poetical  works,  amounted 
to  31,000 ;  and  the  aggregate  of  that  sale,  down  to  the 
period  at  which  I  am  writing  (May  1836),  may  be  stated 
at  50,000  copies.  I  presume  it  is  right  for  me  to  facili 
tate  the  task  of  future  historians  of  our  literature  by  pre- 
erving  these  details  as  often  as  I  can.  Such  particulars 
respecting  many  of  the  great  works  even  of  the  last  cen 
tury,  are  already  sought  for  with  vain  regret;  and  I 
anticipate  no  day  when  the  student  of  English  civilisation 
will  pass  without  curiosity  the  contemporary  reception 
of  the  Tale  of  Flodden  Field. 


EDITION    OF    DRYDEN 1808  295 


CHAPTER  XVH. 

Edition  of  Dryden  published  —  and  criticised  by  Mr.  Hallam 
—  Weber's  Romances  —  Editions  of  Queenhoo-Hall  —  Cap 
tain  Carleton's  Memoirs  —  The  Memoirs  of  Robert  Cary, 
Earl  of  Monmouth  —  The  Sadler  Papers  —  and  the  Somers' 
Tracts  —  Edition  of  Swift  begun  —  Letters  to  Joanna  Baillie 
and  George  Ellis  on  the  Affairs  of  the  Peninsula  —  John 
Struthers  —  James  Hogg —  Visit  of  Mr.  Morritt  —  Mr.  Mor- 
ritfs  Reminiscences  of  Ashestiel —  Scott's  Domestic  Life. 

1808. 

BEFORE  Marmion  was  published,  a  heavy  task,  begun 
earlier  than  the  poem,  and  continued  throughout  its  prog 
ress,  had  been  nearly  completed ;  and  there  appeared,  in 
the  last  week  of  April  1808,  "  The  Works  of  John  Dry- 
den,  now  first  collected ;  illustrated  with  notes  historical, 
critical,  and  explanatory,  and  a  Life  of  the  Author.  — 
By  Walter  Scott,  Esq.  Eighteen  volumes,  8vo."  This 
was  the  bold  speculation  of  William  Miller  of  Albemarle 
Street,  London ;  and  the  editor's  fee,  at  forty  guineas 
the  volume,  was  £756.  The  bulk  of  the  collection,  the 
neglect  into  which  a  majority  of  the  pieces  included  in  it 
had  fallen,  the  obsoleteness  of  the  party  politics  which 
had  so  largely  exercised  the  author's  pen,  and  the  inde 
corum,  not  seldom  running  into  flagrant  indecency,  by 
which  transcendent  genius  had  ministered  to  the  appe- 


296  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SOOT-". 

tites  of  a  licentious  age,  all  combined  to  make  the  wium- 
est  of  Scott's  friends  and  admirers  doubt  whether  even 
his  skill  and  reputation  would  be  found  sufficient  to  en 
sure  the  success  of  this  undertaking.  It  was,  however, 
better  received  than  any  one,  except  perhaps  the  courage 
ous  bookseller  himself,  had  anticipated.  The  entire  work 
was  reprinted  in  1821  ;  and  more  lately  the  Life  of  Dry- 
den  has  been  twice  republished  in  collective  editions  of 
Scott's  prose  miscellanies;  nor,  perhaps,  does  that  class 
of  his  writings  include  any  piece  of  considerable  extent 
that  has,  on  the  whole,  obtained  higher  estimation. 

This  edition  of  Dryden  was  criticised  in  the  Edin 
burgh  Review  for  October  1808,  with  great  ability,  and, 
on  the  whole,  with  admirable  candour.  The  industry 
and  perspicacity  with  which  Scott  had  carried  through 
his  editorial  researches  and  annotations  were  acknowl 
edged  in  terms  which,  had  he  known  the  name  of  his 
reviewer,  must  have  been  doubly  gratifying  to  his  feel 
ings  ;  and  it  was  confessed  that,  in  the  life  of  his  author, 
he  had  corrected  with  patient  honesty,  and  filled  up  with 
lucid  and  expansive  detail,  the  sometimes  careless  and 
often  naked  outline  of  Johnson's  masterly  Essay  on  the 
Bame  subject.  It  would  be  superfluous  to  quote  in  this 
place  a  specimen  of  critical  skill  which  has  already  en 
joyed  such  wide  circulation,  and  which  will  hereafter,  no 
doubt,  be  included  in  the  miscellaneous  prose  works  of 
HALLAM.  The  points  of  political  faith  on  which  that 
great  writer  dissents  from  the  editor  of  Dryden,  would, 
even  if  I  had  the  inclination  to  pursue  such  a  discussion, 
lead  me  far  astray  from  the  immediate  object  of  these 
pages ;  they  embrace  questions  on  which  the  bes*  and 
wisest  of  our  countrymen  will  probably  continue  to  take 
opposite  sides,  as  long  as  our  past  history  excites  a  living 


EDITION    OP    DRYDEN.  297 

interest,  and  our  literature  is  that  of  an  active  nation.  On 
the  poetical  character  of  Diyden  I  think  the  editor  and 
his  critic  will  be  found  to  have  expressed  substantially 
much  the  same  judgment ;  when  they  appear  to  differ, 
the  battle  strikes  me  as  being  about  words  rather  than 
things,  as  is  likely  to  be  the  case  when  men  of  such 
abilities  and  attainments  approach  a  subject  remote  from 
their  personal  passions.  As  might  have  been  expected, 
the  terse  and  dexterous  reviewer  has  often  the  better  in 
this  logomachy ;  but  when  the  balance  is  struck,  we  dis 
cover  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  Scott's  broad  and  mascu 
line  understanding  had,  by  whatever  happy  hardihood, 
grasped  the  very  result  to  which  others  win  their  way 
by  the  more  cautious  processes  of  logical  investigation. 
While  nothing  has  been  found  easier  than  to  attack  his 
details,  his  general  views  on  critical  questions  have  sel 
dom,  if  ever,  been  successfully  impugned. 

I  wish  I  could  believe  that  Scott's  labours  had  been 
sufficient  to  recall  Dryden  to  his  rightful  station,  not  in 
the  opinion  of  those  who  make  literature  the  business  or 
chief  solace  of  their  lives  —  for  with  them  he  had  never 
forfeited  it  —  but  in  the  general  favour  of  the  intelligent 
public.  That  such  has  been  the  case,  however,  the  not 
rapid  sale  of  two  editions,  aided  as  they  were  by  the 
greatest  of  living  names,  can  be  no  proof;  nor  have  I 
observed  among  the  numberless  recent  speculations  of 
the  English  booksellers,  a  single  reprint  of  even  those 
tales,  satires,  and  critical  essays,  not  to  be  familiar  with 
which  would,  in  the  last  age,  have  been  considered  as 
disgraceful  in  any  one  making  the  least  pretension  to 
letters.  In  the  hope  of  exciting  the  curiosity,  at  least, 
pf  some  of  the  thousands  of  young  persons  who  seem 
to  be  growing  up  in  contented  ignorance  of  one  of  the 


298          LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

greatest  of  our  masters,  I  shall  transcribe  what  George 
Ellis — whose  misgivings  about  Scott's  edition,  when  first 
undertaken,  had  been  so  serious  —  was  pleased  to  write 
some  months  after  its  completion :  — 

"  Claremont,  23d  September  1808. 

"  I  must  confess  that  I  took  up  the  book  with  some  degree 
of  trepidation,  considering  an  edition  of  such  a  writer  as  on 
every  account  periculosce  plenum  opus  alece ;  but  as  soon  as  I 
became  acquainted  with  your  plan  I  proceeded  boldly,  and 
really  feel  at  this  moment  sincerely  grateful  to  you  for  much 
exquisite  amusement.  It  now  seems  to  me  that  your  critical 
remarks  ought  to  have  occurred  to  myself.  Such  a  passionate 
admirer  of  Dryden's  fables,  the  noblest  specimen  of  versifica 
tion  (in  my  mind)  that  is  to  be  found  in  any  modern  language, 
ought  to  have  perused  his  theatrical  pieces  with  more  candour 
than  I  did,  and  to  have  attributed  to  the  bad  taste  of  the  age, 
rather  than  to  his  own,  the  numerous  defects  by  which  those 
hasty  compositions  are  certainly  deformed.  1  ought  to  have 
considered  that  whatever  Dryden  wrote  must,  for  some  reason 
or  other,  be  worth  reading;  that  his  bombast  and  his  indeli 
cacy,  however  disgusting,  were  not  without  their  use  to  any 
one  who  took  an  interest  in  our  literary  history ;  that  —  in 
short,  there  are  a  thousand  reflections  which  I  ought  to  have 
made  and  never  did  make,  and  the  result  was  that  your  Dry- 
den  was  to  me  a  perfectly  new  book.  It  is  certainly  painful 
to  see  a  race-horse  in  a  hackney-chaise,  but  when  one  consid 
ers  that  he  will  suffer  infinitely  less  from  the  violent  exertion 
to  which  he  is  condemned,  than  a  creature  of  inferior  race  — 
and  that  the  wretched  cock-tail  on  whom  the  same  task  is 
usually  imposed,  must  shortly  become  a  martyr  in  the  service, 
• —  one's  conscience  becomes  more  at  ease,  and  we  are  enabled 
)o  enjoy  Dr.  Johnson's  favourite  pleasure  of  rapid  motion 
without  much  remorse  on  the  score  of  its  cruelty.  Since, 
then,  your  hackneyman  is  not  furnished  with  a  whip,  and  you 
can  so  easily  canter  from  post  to  post,  go  on  and  prosper  J " 


EDITION    OF    DRYDEN.  299 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  Scott's  Biography  of  Dry- 
den  —  the  only  life  of  a  great  poet  which  he  has  left  us, 
and  also  his  only  detailed  work  on  the  personal  fortunes 
of  one  to  whom  literature  was  a  profession  —  it  was 
penned  just  when  he  had  began  to  apprehend  his  own 
destiny.  On  this  point  of  view,  forbidden  to  contempo 
rary  delicacy,  we  may  now  pause  with  blameless  curios 
ity.  Seriously  as  he  must  have  in  those  days  been 
revolving  the  hazards  of  literary  enterprise,  he  could 
not,  it  is  probable,  have  handled  any  subject  of  this  class 
without  letting  out  here  and  there  thoughts  and  feelings 
proper  to  his  own  biographer's  province  ;  but,  widely  as 
he  and  his  predecessor  may  appear  to  stand  apart  as 
regards  some  of  the  most  important  both  of  intellectual 
and  moral  characteristics,  they  had  nevertheless  many 
features  of  resemblance,  both  as  men  and  as  authors ; 
and  I  doubt  if  the  entire  range  of  our  annals  could 
have  furnished  a  theme  more  calculated  to  keep  Scott's 
scrutinizing  interest  awake,  than  that  which  opened 
on  him  as  he  contemplated  step  by  step  the  career  of 
Dryden. 

There  are  grave  lessons  which  that  story  was  not 
needed  to  enforce  upon  his  mind :  he  required  no  such 
beacon  to  make  him  revolt  from  paltering  with  the  dig 
nity  of  woman,  or  the  passions  of  youth,  or  insulting  by 
splenetic  levities  the  religious  convictions  of  any  portion 
of  his  countrymen.  But  Dryden's  prostitution  of  his 
genius  to  the  petty  bitternesses  of  political  warfare,  and 
the  consequences  both  as  to  the  party  he  served,  and  the 
antagonists  he  provoked,  might  well  supply  matter  for 
serious  consideration  to  the  author  of  the  Melville  song 
*  Where,"  says  Scott,  "  is  the  expert  swordsman  that  does 
not  delight  in  the  flourish  of  his  weapon  ?  and  a  bravo 


300  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

man  will  least  of  all  withdraw  himself  from  his  ancient 
standard  when  the  tide  of  battle  beats  against  it."  But 
he  says  also,  —  and  I  know  enough  of  his  own  then  re 
cent  experiences,  in  his  intercourse  with  some  who  had 
been  among  his  earliest  and  dearest  associates,  not  to 
apply  the  language  to  the  circumstances  that  suggested 
it  — "  He  who  keenly  engages  in  political  controversy 
must  not  only  encounter  the  vulgar  abuse  which  he  may 
justly  contemn,  but  the  altered  eye  of  friends  whose  re 
gard  is  chilled."  Nor,  when  he  adds  that  "  the  protect 
ing  zeal  of  his  party  did  not  compensate  Dryden  for  the 
loss  of  those  whom  he  alienated  in  their  service,"  can  I 
help  connecting  this  reflection  too  with  his  own  subsequent 
abstinence  from  party  personalities,  in  which,  had  the 
expert  swordsman's  delight  in  the  flourish  of  his  weapon 
prevailed,  he  might  have  rivalled  the  success  of  either 
Dryden  or  Swift,  to  be  repaid  like  them  by  the  settled 
rancour  of  Whigs,  and  the  jealous  ingratitude  of  Tories. 
It  is  curious  enough  to  compare  the  hesitating  style 
of  his  apology  for  that  tinge  of  evanescent  superstition 
which  seems  to  have  clouded  occasionally  Dryden's  bright 
and  solid  mind,  with  the  open  avowal  that  he  has  "  pride 
in  recording  his  author's  decided  admiration  of  old  ballads 
and  popular  tales ; "  and  perhaps  his  personal  feelings 
were  hardly  less  his  prompter  where  he  dismisses  with 
brief  scorn  the  sins  of  negligence  and  haste,  which  had 
been  so  often  urged  against  Dryden.  "  Nothing,"  he 
gays,  "is  so  easily  attained  as  the  power  of  presenting 
the  extrinsic  qualities  of  fine  painting,  fine  music,  or  fine 
poetry ;  the  beauty  of  colour  and  outline,  the  combina 
tion  of  notes,  the  melody  of  versification,  may  be  imitated 
by  artists  of  mediocrity ;  and  many  will  view,  hear,  01 
peruse  their  performances,  without  being  able  positively 


EDITION    OF    DRYDEN.  301 

to  discover  why  they  should  not,  since  composed  accord 
ing  to  all  the  rules,  afford  pleasure  equal  to  those  of  Ra 
phael,  Handel,  or  Dryden.  The  deficiency  lies  in  the 
vivifying  spirit,  which,  like  alcohol,  may  be  reduced  to 
the  same  principle  in  all  the  fine  arts.  The  French  are 
said  to  possess  the  best  possible  rules  for  building  shipa 
of  war,  although  not  equally  remarkable  for  their  power 
of  fighting  them.  When  criticism  becomes  a  pursuit 
separate  from  poetry,  those  who  follow  it  are  apt  to  for 
get  that  the  legitimate  ends  of  the  art  for  which  they  lay 
down  rules,  are  instruction  and  delight,  and  that  these 
points  being  attained,  by  what  road  soever,  entitles  a  poet 
to  claim  the  prize  of  successful  merit.  Neither  did  the 
learned  authors  of  these  disquisitions  sufficiently  attend 
to  the  general  disposition  of  mankind,  which  cannot  be 
contented  even  with  the  happiest  imitations  of  former 
excellence,  but  demands  novelty  as  a  necessary  ingredi 
ent  for  amusement.  To  insist  that  every  epic  poem  shall 
have  the  plan  of  the  Iliad,  and  every  tragedy  be  mod 
elled  by  the  rules  of  Aristotle,  resembles  the  principle 
of  the  architect  who  should  build  all  his  houses  with  the 
same  number  of  windows  and  of  stories.  It  happened, 
too,  inevitably,  that  the  critics,  in  the  plenipotential  au 
thority  which  they  exercised,  often  assumed  as  indispen 
sable  requisites  of  the  drama,  or  epopeia,  circumstances 
which,  in  the  great  authorities  they  quoted,  were  alto 
gether  accidental  or  indifferent.  These  they  erected  into 
laws,  and  handed  down  as  essential ;  although  the  forms 
prescribed  have  often  as  little  to  do  with  the  merit  and 
success  of  the  original  from  whi^h  they  are  taken,  as  the 
shape  of  the  drinking  glass  with  the  flavour  of  the  wine 
which  it  contains."  These  sentences  appear,  from  the 
nates,  to  have  been  penned  immediately  after  the  biogra- 


302  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

pher  of  Dry  den  (who  wrote  no  epic)  had  perused  the 
Edinburgh  Review  on  Marmion. 

I  conclude  with  a  passage,  in  writing  which  he  seems 
to  have  anticipated  the  only  serious  critical  charge  that 
was  ever  brought  against  his  edition  of  Dry  den  as  a 
whole  —  namely,  the  loose  and  irregular  way  in  which 
his  own  a3sthetical  notions  are  indicated,  rather  than  ex 
pounded.  "  While  Dryden,"  says  Scott,  "  examined,  dis 
cussed,  admitted,  or  rejected  the  rules  proposed  by  others, 
he  forbore,  from  prudence,  indolence,  or  a  regard  for  the 
freedom  of  Parnassus,  to  erect  himself  into  a  legislator. 
His  doctrines  are  scattered  without  system  or  pretence  to 
it:  —  it  is  impossible  to  read  far  without  finding  some 
maxim  for  doing,  or  forbearing,  which  every  student  of 
poetry  will  do  well  to  engrave  upon  the  tablets  of  his 
memory ;  but  the  author's  mode  of  instruction  is  neither 
harsh  nor  dictatorial." 

On  the  whole,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  success 
of  Dryden  in  rapidly  reaching,  and  till  the  end  of  a  long 
life  holding  undisputed,  the  summit  of  public  favour  and 
reputation,  in  spite  of  his  "  brave  neglect "  of  minute  fin 
ishing,  narrow  laws,  and  prejudiced  authorities,  must  have 
had  a  powerful  effect  in  nerving  Scott's  hope  and  resolu 
tion  for  the  wide  ocean  of  literary  enterprise  into  which 
he  had  now  fairly  launched  his  bark.  Like  Dryden,  he 
felt  himself  to  be  "  amply  stored  with  acquired  knowl 
edge,  much  of  it  the  fruits  of  early  reading  and  applica 
tion  ; "  anticipated  that,  though,  "  while  engaged  in  the 
hurry  of  composition,  or  overcome  by  the  lassitude  of 
continued  literary  labour,"  he  should  sometimes  "  draw 
with  too  much  liberality  on  a  tenacious  memory,"  no 
"  occasional  imperfections  would  deprive  him  of  his 
praise  ;  "  in  short,  made  up  his  mind  that  "  pointed  and 


ASHESTIEL 1808.  303 

nicely-turned  lines,  sedulous  study,  and  long  and  repeated 
correction  and  revision,"  would  all  be  dispensed  with,  — 
provided  their  place  were  supplied,  as  in  Dryden,  by 
"  rapidity  of  conception,  a  readiness  of  expressing  every 
idea,  without  losing  anything  by  the  way,"  "  perpetual 
animation  and  elasticity  of  thought ; "  and  language 
"never  laboured,  never  loitering,  never  (in  Dryden's 
own  phrase)  cursedly  confined.'" 

Scott's  correspondence,  about  the  time  when  his  Dry- 
den  was  published,  is  a  good  deal  occupied  with  a  wild 
project  of  his  friend  Henry  Weber  —  that  of  an  exten 
sive  edition  of  our  Ancient  Metrical  Romances,  for 
which,  in  their  own  original  dimensions,  the  enthusiastic 
German  supposed  the  public  appetite  to  have  been  set 
on  edge  by  the  "  Specimens  "  of  Ellis,  and  imperfectly 
gratified  by  the  text  of  Sir  Tristrem.  Scott  assured  him 
that  Ellis's  work  had  been  popular,  rather  in  spite  than 
by  reason  of  the  antique  verses  introduced  here  and 
there  among  his  witty  and  sparkling  prose  ;  while  Ellis 
told  him,  with  equal  truth,  that  the  Tristrem  had  gone 
through  two  editions,  simply  owing  to  the  celebrity  of  its 
editor's  name  ;  and  that,  of  a  hundred  that  had  purchased 
the  book,  ninety-nine  had  read  only  the  preface  and 
notes,  but  not  one  syllable  of  True  Thomas's  "  quaint 
Inglis."  Weber,  in  reply  to  Ellis,  alleged  that  Scott 
had  not  had  leisure  to  consider  his  plan  so  fully  as  it 
deserved ;  that  nothing  could  prevent  its  success,  pro 
vided  Scott  would  write  a  preliminary  essay,  and  let  his 
name  appear  in  the  title-page,  along  with  his  own  ;  —  and 
though  Scott  wholly  declined  this  last  proposal,  he  per 
sisted  for  some  months  in  a  negotiation  with  the  London 
booksellers,  which  ended  as  both  his  patrons  had  fore 
seen. 


'304  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  But  how  is  this  ?  "  —  (Ellis  writes)  —  "  Weber  tells  me  he 
is  afraid  Mr,  Scott  will  not  be  able  to  do  anything  for  the  rec 
ommendation  of  his  Romances,  because  he  is  himself  engaged 
in  no  less  than  five  different  literary  enterprises,  some  of  them 
of  immense  extent.  Five  ?  Why,  no  combination  of  blood 
and  bone  can  possibly  stand  this ;  and  Sir  John  Sinclair,  how 
ever  successful  in  pointing  out  the  best  modes  of  feeding  com 
mon  gladiators,  has  not  discovered  the  means  of  training  minds 
to  such  endless  fatigue.  I  dare  not  ask  you  for  an  account  of 
these  projects,  nor  even  for  a  letter  during  the  continuance 
of  this  seven  years'  apprenticeship,  and  only  request  that  you 
will,  after  the  completion  of  your  labours,  take  measures  to  lay 
my  ghost,  which  will  infallibly  be  walking  before  that  time, 
and  suffering  all  the  pains  of  unsatisfied  curiosity.  Seriously, 
I  don't  quite  like  your  imposing  on  yourself  such  a  series  of 
tasks.  Some  one  is,  I  believe,  always  of  service  —  because, 
whatever  you  write  at  the  same  time,  con  amore,  conies  in  as 
a  relaxation,  and  is  likely  to  receive  more  spirit  and  gaiety 
from  that  circumstance  ;  besides  which,  every  species  of  study 
perhaps  is  capable  of  furnishing  allusions,  and  adding  vigour 
and  solidity  to  poetry.  Too  constant  attention  to  what  they 
call  their  art,  and  too  much  solicitude  about  its  minutiae,  has 
been,  I  think,  the  fault  of  every  poet  since  Pope ;  perhaps  it 
was  his  too  —  perhaps  the  frequent  and  varied  studies  imposed 
upon  him  by  his  necessities  contributed,  in  some  measure,  to 
Dryden's  characteristic  splendour  of  style.  Yet,  surely,  the 
best  poet  of  the  age  ought  not  to  be  incessantly  employed  in 
the  drudgeries  of  literature.  I  shall  lament  if  you  are  effect 
ually  distracted  from  the  exercise  of  the  talent  in  which  you 
are  confessedly  without  a  rival." 

The  poet  answers  as  follows  :  — 

"  My  giving  my  name  to  Weber's  Romances  is  out  of  the 
question,  as  assuredly  I  have  not  time  to  do  anything  that  can 
entitle  it  to  stand  in  his  title-page ;  but  I  will  do  all  I  can  for 
him  in  the  business.  By  the  by,  I  wish  he  would  be  eithe? 


ASHESTIEL 1808.  30£ 

more  chary  in  his  communications  on  the  subject  of  my  em 
ployments,  or  more  accurate.  I  often  employ  his  assistance  in 
making  extracts,  &c.,  and  I  may  say  to  him  as  Lord  Ogleby 
does  to  Canton,  that  he  never  sees  me  badiner  a  little  with  a 
subject,  but  he  suspects  mischief — to  wit,  an  edition.  In  the 
mean  time,  suffice  it  to  say,  that  I  have  done  with  poetry  for 
some  time  —  it  is  a  scourging  crop,  and  ought  not  to  be  hastily 
repeated.  Editing,  therefore,  may  be  considered  as  a  green 
crop  of  turnips  or  peas,  extremely  useful  for  those  whose  cir 
cumstances  do  not  admit  of  giving  their  farm  a  summer  fallow. 
Swift  is  my  grande  opus  at  present,  though  I  am  under  engage 
ments,  of  old  standing,  to  write  a  Life  of  Thomson  from  some 
original  materials.  I  have  completed  an  edition  of  some  State 
Papers  of  Sir  Ralph  Sadler,  which  I  believe  you  will  find  curi 
ous;  I  have,  moreover,  arranged  for  republication  the  more 
early  volumes  of  Somers's  Tracts ;  but  these  are  neither  toil 
some  nor  exhausting  labours.  Swift,  in  fact,  is  my  only  task 
of  great  importance.  My  present  official  employment  leaves 
my  time  very  much  my  own,  even  while  the  courts  are  sitting 
—  and  entirely  so  in  the  vacation.  My  health  is  strong,  and 
my  mind  active ;  I  will  therefore  do  as  much  as  I  can  with 
justice  to  the  tasks  I  have  undertaken,  and  rest  when  ad 
vanced  age  and  more  independent  circumstances  entitle  me  to 
repose." 

This  letter  is  dated  Ashestiel,  October  8,  1808  ;  but  it 
carries  us  back  to  the  month  of  April,  when  the  Dryden 
was  completed.  His  engagements  with  London  publish 
ers  respecting  the  Somers  and  the  Sadler,  were,  I  believe, 
entered  into  before  the  end  of  1807  ;  but  Constable  ap 
pears  to  have  first  ascertained  them,  when  he  accompa 
nied  the  second  cargo  of  Marmion  to  the  great  southern 
market ;  and,  alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  losing  his  hold 
on  Scott's  industry,  he  at  once  invited  him  to  follow  up 
his  Dryden  by  an  Edition  of  Swift  on  the  same  scale,  — 
offering,  moreover,  to  double  the  rate  of  payment  whhh 


306  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

he  had  contracted  for  with  the  London  publisher  of  the 
Dry  den  ;  that  is  to  say,  to  give  him  £1500  for  the  new 
undertaking.  This  munificent  tender  was  accepted  with 
out  hesitation  ;  and  as  early  as  May  1808,  I  find  Scott 
writing  to  his  literary  allies  in  all  directions  for  books, 
pamphlets,  and  MSS.,  materials  likely  to  be  serviceable 
in  completing  and  illustrating  the  Life  and  Works  of  the 
Dean  of  St.  Patrick's.  While  these  were  accumulating 
about  him,  which  they  soon  did  in  greater  abundance 
than  he  had  anticipated,  he  concluded  his  labours  on 
Sadler's  State  Papers,  characteristically  undervalued  in 
his  letter  to  Ellis,  and  kept  pace,  at  the  same  time,  with 
Ballantyne,  as  the  huge  collection  of  the  Somers'  Tracts 
continued  to  move  through  the  press.  The  Sadler  was 
published  in  the  course  of  1809,  in  three  large  volumes, 
quarto ;  but  the  last  of  the  thirteen  equally  ponderous 
tomes  to  which  Somers  extended,  was  not  dismissed  from 
his  desk  until  towards  the  conclusion  of  1812. 

But  these  were  not  his  only  tasks  during  the  summer 
and  autumn  of  1808  ;  and  if  he  had  not  "jive  different 
enterprises  "  on  his  hands  when  Weber  said  so  to  Ellis, 
he  had  more  than  five  very  soon  after.  He  edited  this 
year  Strutt's  unfinished  romance  of  Queenhoo-Hall,  and 
equipped  the  fourth  volume,  with  a  conclusion  in  the  fash 
ion  of  the  original ;  *  but  how  little  he  thought  of  this 
matter  may  be  guessed  from  one  of  tiis  notes  to  Ballan 
tyne,  in  which  he  says,  "  I  wish  you  would  see  how  far 
the  copy  of  Queenhoo-Hall,  sent  last  night,  extends,  that 
I  may  not  write  more  nonsense  than  enough."  The  pub 
lisher  of  this  work  was  John  Murray,  of  London.  It  was 
immediately  preceded  by  a  reprint  of  Captain  Carleton's 
Memoirs  of  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  to  which 
*  See  General  Preface  to  Waverley,  and  Appendix  No.  II 


EDITIONS    OF    SWIFT,    CARLETON,    ETC.  307 

he  gave  a  lively  preface  and  various  notes ;  and  fol 
lowed  by  a  similar  edition  of  the  Memoirs  of  Robert 
Gary  Earl  of  Monmouth,  —  each  of  these  being  a  sin 
gle  octavo,  printed  by  Ballantyne  and  published  by  Con 
stable. 

The  republication  of  Carleton,*  Johnson's  eulogy  of 
which  fills  a  pleasant  page  in  Boswell,  had  probably  been 
suggested  by  the  lively  interest  which  Scott  took  in  the 
first  outburst  of  Spanish  patriotism  consequent  on  Napo 
leon's  transactions  at  Bayonne.  There  is  one  passage  in 
the  preface  which  I  must  indulge  myself  by  transcribing. 
Speaking  of  the  absurd  recall  of  Peterborough,  from  the 
command  in  which  he  had  exhibited  such  a  wonderful 
combination  of  patience  and  prudence  with  military  dar 
ing,  he  says  —  "  One  ostensible  reason  was,  that  Peter 
borough's  parts  were  of  too  lively  and  mercurial  a  qual 
ity,  and  that  his  letters  showed  more  wit  than  became  a 
General ;  —  a  commonplace  objection,  raised  by  the  dull 
malignity  of  commonplace  minds,  against  those  whom 
they  see  discharging  with  ease  and  indifference  the  tasks 
which  they  themselves  execute  (if  at  all)  with  the  sweat 
if  their  brow  and  in  the  heaviness  of  their  hearts.  There 
is  a  certain  hypocrisy  in  business,  whether  civil  or  mili 
tary,  as  well  as  in  religion,  which  they  will  do  well  to 
observe  who,  not  satisfied  with  discharging  their  duty, 
desire  also  the  good  repute  of  men."  It  was  not  long 
before  some  of  the  dull  malignants  of  the  Parliament 
House  began  to  insinuate  what  at  length  found  a  dull 
and  dignified  mouthpiece  in  the  House  of  Commons  — 

*  It  seems  to  be  now  pretty  generally  believed  that  Carleton's  Me 
moirs  were  among  the  numberless  fabrications  of  De  Foe ;  but  in  this 
case  (if  the  fact  indeed  be  so),  as  in  that  of  his  Cavalier,  he  no  doubt 
had  before  him  the  rude  journal  of  some  officer  who  had  fought  and  bled 
n  the  campaigns  described  with  such  an  inimitable  air  of  truth. 


308  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that  if  a  Clerk  of  Session  had  any  real  business  to  do,  it 
could  not  be  done  well  by  a  man  who  found  time  for 
more  literary  enterprises  than  any  other  author  of  the 
age  undertook  —  "wrote  more  books,"  Lord  Archibald 
Hamilton  serenely  added,  "than  any  body  could  find 
leisure  to  read  "  —  and,  moreover,  mingled  in  general  so 
ciety  as  much  as  many  that  had  no  pursuit  but  pleasure. 

The  eager  struggling  of  the  different  booksellers  to 
engage  Scott  at  this  time,  is  a  very  amusing  feature  in 
the  voluminous  correspondence  before  me.  Had  he  pos 
sessed  treble  the  energy  for  which  it  was  possible  to  give 
any  man  credit,  he  could  never  have  encountered  a  tithe 
of  the  projects  that  the  post  brought  day  after  day  to  him, 
announced  with  extravagant  enthusiasm,  and  urged  with 
all  the  arts  of  conciliation.  I  shall  mention  only  one  out 
of  at  least  a  dozen  gigantic  schemes  which  were  thus  pro 
posed  before  he  had  well  settled  himself  to  his  Swift ;  and 
I  do  so,  because  something  of  the  kind  was  a  few  years 
later  carried  into  execution.  This  was  a  General  Edition 
of  British  Novelists,  beginning  with  De  Foe  and  reach 
ing  to  the  end  of  the  last  century ;  to  be  set  forth  with 
biographical  prefaces  and  illustrative  notes  by  Scott,  and 
printed  of  course  by  Ballantyne.  The  projector  was 
Murray,  who  was  now  eager  to  start  on  all  points  in  the 
race  with  Constable ;  but  this  was  not,  as  we  shall  see 
presently,  the  only  business  that  prompted  my  enterpris 
ing  friend's  first  visit  to  Ashestiel. 

Conversing  with* Scott,  many  years  afterwards,  about 
the  tumult  of  engagements  in  which  he  was  thus  involved, 
he  said,  "Ay,  it  was  enough  to  tear  me  to  pieces,  but 
.here  was  a  wonderful  exhilaration  about  it  all :  my  blood 
was  kept  at  fever-pitch  —  I  felt  as  if  I  could  have  grap 
pled  with  anything  and  everything ;  then,  there  waa 


EDITORIAL    PROJECTS.  309 

hardly  one  of  all  my  schemes  that  did  not  afford  me  the 
means  of  serving  some  poor  devil  of  a  brother  author. 
There  were  always  huge  piles  of  materials  to  be  arranged, 
sifted,  and  indexed  —  volumes  of  extracts  to  be  tran 
scribed —  journeys  to  be  made  hither  and  thither,  for 
ascertaining  little  facts  and  dates,  —  in  short,  I  could 
commonly  keep  half-a-dozen  of  the  ragged  regiment  of 
Parnassus  in  tolerable  case."  I  said  he  must  have  felt 
something  like  what  a  locomotive  engine  on  a  railway 
might  be  supposed  to  do,  when  a  score  of  coal  waggons 
are  seen  linking  themselves  to  it  the  moment  it  gets  the 
steam  up,  and  it  rushes  on  its  course  regardless  of  the 
burden.  "  Yes,"  said  he,  laughing,  and  making  a  crash 
ing  cut  with  his  axe  (for  we  were  felling  larches)  ;  "but 
there  was  a  cursed  lot  of  dung  carts  too."  He  was 
seldom,  in  fact,  without  some  of  these  appendages  ;  and  I 
admired  nothing  more  in  him  than  the  patient  courtesy, 
the  unwearied  gentle  kindness  with  which  he  always 
treated  them,  in  spite  of  their  delays  and  blunders,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  almost  incredible  vanity  and  presumption 
which  more  than  one  of  them  often  exhibited  in  the 
midst  of  their  fawning ;  and  I  believe,  with  all  their 
faults,  the  worst  and  weakest  of  them  repaid  Mm  by  a 
sariine  fidelity  of  affection.  This  part  of  Scott's  char 
acter  recalls  by  far  the  most  pleasing  trait  in  that  of  his 
last  predecessor  in  me  plenitude  of  literary  authority  — 
Dr.  Johnson.  There  was  perhaps  nothing  (except  the 
one  great  blunder)  that  had  a  worse  effect  on  the  course 
of  his  pecuniary  fortunes,  than  the  readiness  with  which 
Jie  exerted  his  interest  with  the  booksellers  on  behalf  of 
inferior  writers.  Even  from  the  commencement  of  his 
connexion  with  Constable  in  particular,  I  can  trace  a 
continual  series  of  such  applications.  They  stimulated 


310  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  already  too  sanguine  publisher  to  numberless  risks ; 
and  when  these  failed,  the  result  was,  in  one  shape  or 
another,  some  corresponding  deduction  from  the  fair 
profits  of  his  own  literary  labour.  "  I  like  well,"  Con 
stable  was  often  heard  to  say  in  the  sequel,  "  I  like  well 
Scott's  ain  bairns  —  but  heaven  preserve  me  from  those 
of  his  fathering  !  " 

Every  now  and  then,  however,  he  had  the  rich  com 
pensation  of  finding  that  his  interference  had  really  pro 
moted  the  worldly  interests  of  some  meritorious  obscure. 
Early  in  1808  he  tasted  this  pleasure,  in  the  case  of 
a  poetical  shoemaker  of  Glasgow,  Mr.  John  Struthers,  a 
man  of  rare  worth  and  very  considerable  genius,  whose 
"  Poor  Man's  Sabbath  "  was  recommended  to  his  notice 
by  Joanna  Baillie,  and  shortly  after  published,  at  his  de 
sire,  by  Mr.  Constable.  He  thus  writes  to  Miss  Baillie 
from  Ashestiel,  on  the  9th  of  May  1808 :  — 

"  Your  letter  found  me  in  this  quiet  corner,  and  while  it 
always  gives  me  pride  and  pleasure  to  hear  from  you,  I  am 
truly  concerned  at  Constable's  unaccountable  delays.  I  sup 
pose  that,  in  the  hurry  of  his  departure  for  London,  his  promise 
to  write  Mr.  Struthers  had  escaped ;  as  for  any  desire  to  quit 
his  bargain,  it  is  out  of  the  question.  If  Mr.  Struthers  will  send 
;o  my  house  in  Castle  Street,  the  manuscript  designed  for  the 
press,  I  will  get  him  a  short  bill  for  the  copy-money  the  mo 
ment  Constable  returns,  or  perhaps  before  he  comes  down. 
He  may  rely  on  the  bargain  being  definitively  settled,  and  the 
printing  will,  I  suppose,  be  begun  immediately  on  the  great 
bibliopolist's  return ;  on  which  occasion  I  shall  have,  according 
to  good  old  phrase,  *  a  crow  to  pluck  with  him,  and  a  pock  to 
put  the  feathers  in.'  I  heartily  wish  we  could  have  had  the 
honour  to  see  Miss  Agnes  and  you  at  our  little  farm,  which  is 
now  in  its  glory  —  all  the  twigs  bursting  into  leaf,  and  all  the 
lambs  skipping  on  the  hills.  I  have  been  fishing  almost  from 


JOHN    8TRUTHER8.  311 

fiorning  till  night ;  and  Mrs.  Scott,  and  two  ladies  our  guests, 
are  wandering  about  on  the  banks  in  the  most  Arcadian  fash 
ion  in  the  world.  We  are  just  on  the  point  of  setting  out  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  '  bonny  bush  aboon  Traquhair,'  which  I  be 
lieve  will  occupy  us  all  the  morning.  Adieu,  my  dear  Miss 
Baillie.  Nothing  will  give  me  more  pleasure  than  to  hear  that 
you  have  found  the  northern  breezes  fraught  with  inspiration. 
You  are  not  entitled  to  spare  yourself,  and  none  is  so  deeply 
interested  in  your  labours  as  your  truly  respectful  friend  and 
admirer,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  F.  S.  —  We  quit  our  quiet  pastures  to  return  to  Edinburgh 
on  the  10th.  So  Mr.  Struthers'  parcel  will  find  me  there,  if 
he  is  pleased  to  intrust  me  with  the  care  of  it." 

Mr.  Struthers'  volume  was  unfortunate  in  bearing  a 
title  so  very  like  that  of  James  Grahame's  Sabbath, 
which,  though  not  written  sooner,  had  been  published  a 
year  or  two  before.  This  much  interfered  with  its  suc 
cess,  yet  it  was  not  on  the  whole  unsuccessful :  it  put 
some  £30  or  £40  into  the  pocket  of  a  good  man,  to  whom 
this  was  a  considerable  supply ;  but  it  made  his  name  and 
character  known,  and  thus  served  him  far  more  essen 
tially;  for  he  wisely  continued  to  cultivate  his  poetical 
talents  without  neglecting  the  opportunity,  thus  afforded 
him  through  them,  of  pursuing  his  original  calling  under 
better  advantages.  It  is  said  that  the  solitary  and  medi- 
tauve  generation  of  cobblers  have  produced  a  larger  list 
of  murders  and  other  domestic  crimes  than  any  other 
mechanical  trade  except  the  butchers ;  but  the  sons  of 
Crispin  have,  to  balance  their  account,  a  not  less  dispro 
portionate  catalogue  of  poets  ;  and  foremost  among  these 
btands  the  pious  author  of  the  Poor  Man's  Sabbath  ;  one 
»f  the  very  few  thai  have  had  sense  and  fortitude  to  resist 
the  innumerable  temptations  to  which  any  measure  of 


312  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

celebrity  exposes  persons  of  their  class.  I  believe  Mr 
Struthers  still  survives  to  enjoy  the  retrospect  of  a  long 
and  virtuous  life.  His  letters  to  Scott  are  equally  credit 
able  to  his  taste  and  his  feelings,  and  some  time  after  we 
shall  find  him  making  a  pilgrimage  of  gratitude  to  As- 
hestiel.* 

James  Hogg  was  by  this  time  beginning  to  be  gener 
ally  known  and  appreciated  in  Scotland;  and  the  popu 
larity  of  his  "  Mountain  Bard  "  encouraged  Scott  to  more 
strenuous  intercession  in  his  behalf.  I  have  before  me 
a  long  array  of  letters  on  this  subject,  which  passed  be 
tween  Scott  and  the  Earl  of  Dalkeith  and  his  brother 
Lord  Montagu,  in  1808.  Hogg's  prime  ambition  at  this 
period  was  to  procure  an  ensigncy  in  a  militia  regiment, 
and  he  seems  to  have  set  little  by  Scott's  representations 
that  the  pay  of  such  a  situation  was  very  small,  and  that, 
if  he  obtained  it,  he  would  probably  find  his  relations 
with  his  brother  officers  far  from  agreeable.  There  was, 
however,  another  objection  which  Scott  could  not  hint  to 
the  aspirant  himself,  but  which  seems  to  have  been  duly 
considered  by  those  who  were  anxious  to  promote  his 
views.  Militia  officers  of  that  day  were  by  no  means  un 
likely  to  see  their  nerves  put  to  the  test ;  and  the  Shep 
herd's  —  though  he  wrote  some  capital  war-songs,  espe 
cially  Donald  Macdonald  —  were  not  heroically  si  rong. 
This  was  in  truth  no  secret  among  his  early  intimates, 
though  he  had  not  measured  himself  at  all  exactly  on 

*  I  am  happy  to  learn,  as  this  page  passes  through  the  press,  from 
tL.y  friend  Mr.  John  Kerr  of  Glasgow,  that  about  three  years  ago  Mr. 
Struthers  was  appointed  keeper  of  Stirling's  Library,  a  collection  of 
aome  consequence  in  fiat  city.  The  selection  of  him  for  this  respect 
»We  situation  reflects  honour  on  the  directors  of  the  institution.  — 
t  December,  1836.) 


JAMES    HOGG  —  1808.  313 

that  score,  and  was  even  tempted,  when  he  found  there 
was  no  chance  of  the  militia  epaulette,  to  threaten  that  he 
would  "  list  for  a  soldier  "  in  a  marching  regiment.  Not 
withstanding  at  least  one  melancholy  precedent,  the  Ex 
cise,  which  would  have  suited  him  almost  as  badly  as 
"  hugging  Brown  Bess,"  was  next  thought  of;  and  the 
Shepherd  himself  seems  to  have  entered  into  that  plan 
with  considerable  alacrity :  but  I  know  not  whether  he 
changed  his  mind,  or  what  other  cause  prevented  such  an 
appointment  from  taking  place.  After  various  shiftings 
he  at  last  obtained,  as  we  shall  see,  from  the  late  Duke 
of  Buccleuch's  munificence,  the  gratuitous  life-rent  of  a 
small  farm  in  the  vale  of  Yarrow  ;  and  had  he  contented 
himself  with  the  careful  management  of  its  fields,  the  rest 
of  his  days  might  have  been  easy.  But  he  could  not 
withstand  the  attractions  of  Edinburgh,  which  carried 
him  away  from  Altrive  for  months  every  year  ;  and  when 
at  home,  a  warm  and  hospitable  disposition,  so  often 
stirred  by  vanity  less  pardonable  than  his,  made  him  con 
cert  his  cottage  into  an  unpaid  hostelrie  for  the  reception 
of  endless  troops  of  thoughtless  admirers ;  and  thus,  in 
spite  of  much  help  and  much  forbearance,  he  was  never 
out  of  one  set  of  pecuniary  difficulties  before  he  had 
began  to  weave  the  meshes  of  some  fresh  entanglement. 
In  pace  requiescat.  There  will  never  be  such  an  Ettrick 
Shepherd  again. 

The  following  is  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  Scott's  to 
nis  brother  Thomas,  dated  20th  June  1808  :  — 

"Excellent  news  to-day  from  Spain  —  yet  I  wish  the  pa 
triots  had  a  leader  of  genius  and  influence.  I  fear  the  Castil- 
ran  nobility  are  more  sunk  than  the  common  people,  and  that 
t  will  be  easier  to  find  armies  than  generals.  A  Wallace 
Oundee,  or  Montrose,  would  be  the  man  tor  Spain  at  this  ino 


314  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ment.  It  is,  however,  a  consolation,  that  though  the  grandees 
of  the  earth,  when  the  post  of  honour  becomes  the  post  of 
danger,  may  be  less  ambitious  of  occupying  it,  there  may  be 
some  hidalgo  among  the  mountains  of  Asturias  with  all  the 
spirit  of  the  Cid  Ruy  Diaz,  or  Don  Pelayo,  or  Don  Quixote  if 
you  will,  whose  gallantry  was  only  impeachable  from  the  ob 
jects  on  which  he  exercised  it.  It  strikes  me  as  very  singular 
to  have  all  the  places  mentioned  in  Don  Quixote  and  Gil  Bias 
now  the  scenes  of  real  and  important  events.  Gazettes  dated 
from  Oviedo,  and  gorges  fortified  in  the  Sierra  Morena,  Founds 
like  history  in  the  land  of  romance. 

"  James  Hogg  has  driven  his  pigs  to  a  bad  market.  I  am 
endeavouring,  as  a  pis  aller,  to  have  him  made  an  Excise  offi 
cer,  that  station  being,  with  respect  to  Scottish  geniuses,  the 
grave  of  all  the  Capulets.  Witness  Adam  Smith,  Burns," 
&c. 

I  mentioned  the  name  of  Joanna  Baillie  (for  *'  who," 
as  Scott  says  in  a  letter  of  this  time,  "  ever  speaks  of 
Miss  Sappho  ?  ")  in  connexion  with  the  MS.  of  the  Poor 
Man's  Sabbath.  From  Glasgow,  where  she  had  found 
out  Struthers  in  April,  she  proceeded  to  Edinburgh,  and 
took  up  her  abode  for  a  week  or  two  under  Scott's  roof. 
Their  acquaintance  was  thus  knit  into  a  deep  and  re 
spectful  affection  on  both  sides ;  and  henceforth  they 
maintained  a  close  epistolary  correspondence,  which  will, 
I  think,  supply  this  compilation  with  some  of  the  most 
interesting  of  its  materials.  But  within  a  few  weeks 
after  Joanna's  departure,  he  was  to  commence  another 
intimacy  not  less  sincere  and  cordial ;  and  when  I  name 
Mr,  Morritt  of  Rokeby,  I  have  done  enough  to  prepare 
many  of  my  readers  to  expect  not  inferior  gratification 
from  the  still  more  abundant  series  of  letters  in  which, 
from  this  time  to  the  end  of  his  life,  Scott  communicated 
his  thoughts  and  feelings  to  one  of  the  most  accomplished 


LETTER    TO    LADY    LOUISA    STUART.  315 

men  that  ever  shared  his  confidence.  He  had  now 
reached  a  period  of  life  after  which  real  friendships  are 
but  seldom  formed ;  and  it  is  fortunate  that  another  Eng 
lish  one  had  been  thoroughly  compacted  before  death  cut 
the  ties  between  him  and  George  Ellis — because  his 
dearest  intimates  within  Scotland  had  of  course  but  a 
slender  part  in  his  written  correspondence. 

Several  friends  had  written  to  recommend  Mr.  Mor- 
ritt  to  his  acquaintance  —  among  others,  Mr.  W.  S.  Rose 
and  Lady  Louisa  Stuart.  His  answer  to  her  ladyship  I 
must  insert  here,  for  the  sake  of  the  late  inimitable  Lydia 
White,  who  so  long  ruled  without  a  rival  in  the  3oft 
realm  of  blue  Mayfair :  — 

"  Edinburgh,  16th  June  1808. 

"  My  Dear  Lady  Louisa,  —  Nothing  will  give  us  more  pleas 
ure  than  to  have  the  honour  of  showing  every  attention  in  our 
power  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morritt,  and  I  am  particularly  happy 
in  a  circumstance  that  at  once  promises  me  a  great  deal  of 
pleasure  in  the  acquaintance  of  your  Ladyship's  friends,  and 
affords  me  the  satisfaction  of  hearing  from  you  again.  Pray 
don't  triumph  over  me  too  much  in  the  case  of  Lydia.  I  stood 
a  very  respectable  siege ;  but  she  caressed  my  wife,  coaxed  my 
children,  and  made,  by  dint  of  cake  and  pudding,  some  im 
pression  even  upon  the  affections  of  my  favourite  dog :  —  so, 
when  all  the  outworks  were  carried,  the  main  fortress  had  n<? 
choice  but  to  surrender  on  honourable  terms.  To  the  best  of 
my  thinking,  notwithstanding  the  cerulean  hue  of  her  stock 
ings,  and  a  most  plentiful  stock  of  eccentric  affectation,  she  is 
really  at  bottom  a  good-natured  woman,  with  much  liveliness 
and  some  talent.  She  is  now  set  out  to  the  Highlands,  where 
ghe  is  likely  to  encounter  many  adventures.  Mrs.  Scott  and 
J  went  as  far  as  Loch  Catrine  with  her,  from  which  jaunt  I 
Vave  just  returned.  We  had  most  heavenly  weather,  which 
was  peculiarly  favourable  to  my  fair  companions'  zeal  for 
•ketching  every  object  that  fell  in  their  way,  from  a  castle  t« 


SI 6  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

a  pigeon-house.  Did  your  Ladyship  ever  travel  with  a  drau> 
ing  companion  ?  Mine  drew  like  cart-horses,  as  well  in  labo 
rious  zeal  as  in  effect ;  for,  after  all,  I  could  not  help  hinting 
that  the  cataracts  delineated  bore  a  singular  resemblance  to 
haycocks,  and  the  rocks  much  correspondence  to  largo  old- 
fashioned  cabinets  with  their  folding-doors  open.  So  much  for 
Lydia,  whom  I  left  on  her  journey  through  the  Highlands, 
but  by  what  route  she  had  not  resolved.  I  gave  her  three 
plans,  and  think  it  likely  she  will  adopt  none  of  them  :  more 
over,  when  the  executive  government  of  postilions,  landlords, 
and  Highland  boatmen  devolves  upon  her  English  servant 
instead  of  me,  I  am  afraid  the  distresses  of  the  errant  dam 
sels  will  fall  a  little  beneath  the  dignity  of  romances.  All 
this  nonsense  is  entre  nous,  for  Miss  White  has  been  actively 
zealous  in  getting  me  some  Irish  correspondence  about  Swift, 
and  otherwise  very  obliging. 

"  It  is  not  with  my  inclination  that  I  fag  for  the  booksellers ; 
but  what  can  I  do  ?  My  poverty  and  not  my  will  consents. 
The  income  of  my  office  is  only  reversionary,  and  my  private 
fortune  much  limited.  My  poetical  success  fairly  destroyed 
my  prospects  of  professional  success,  and  obliged  me  to  retire 
from  the  Bar ;  for  though  I  had  a  competent  share  of  informa 
tion  and  industry,  who  would  trust  their  cause  to  the  author 
of  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  ?  Now,  although  I  do  allow 
that  an  author  should  take  care  of  his  literary  character,  yet 
I  think  the  least  thing  that  his  literary  character  can  do  in 
return  is  to  take  some  care  of  the  author,  who  is  unfortunately, 
like  Jeremy  in  Love  for  Love,  furnished  with  a  set  of  tastes 
and  appetites  which  would  do  honour  to  the  income  of  a  Duke 
if  he  had  it.  Besides,  I  go  to  work  with  Swift  con  amore ; 
for,  like  Dryden,  he  is  an  early  favourite  of  mine.  The  Mar- 
mion  is  nearly  out,  and  1  have  made  one  or  two  alterations  on 
the  third  edition,  with  which  the  press  is  now  groaning.  So 
soon  as  it  is,  it  will  make  the  number  of  copies  published  within 
the  space  of  six  months  amount  to  eight  thousand,  —  an  im 
mense  number  surely,  and  enough  to  comfort  the  author's 
wounded  feelings,  had  the  claws  of  the  reviewers  been  able  to 


M2.     MORRIT  —  1808.  317 

reach  him  through  the  steel  jack  of  true  Border  indifference* 
Your  ladyship's  much  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Morritt  reached  Edinburgh  soon  after 
this  letter  was  written.  Scott  showed  them  the  lions  of 
the  town  and  its  vicinity,  exactly  as  if  he  had  nothing 
else  to  attend  to  but  their  gratification  ;  and  Mr.  Morritt 
recollects  with  particular  pleasure  one  long  day  spent  in 
rambling  along  the  Esk  by  Roslin  and  Hawthornden, 

"  Where  Jonson  sat  in  Drummond's  social  shade," 
down  to  the  old  haunts  of  Lasswade. 

"  When  we  approached  that  village,"  says  the  Memorandum 
with  which  Mr.  Morritt  favours  me,  "  Scott,  who  had  laid  hold 
of  my  arm,  turned  along  the  road  in  a  direction  not  leading 
to  the  place  where  the  carriage  was  to  meet  us.  -  After  walk 
ing  some  minutes  towards  Edinburgh,  I  suggested  that  we 
were  losing  the  scenery  of  the  Esk,  and,  besides,  had  Dalkeith 
Palace  yet  to  see.  '  Yes,'  said  he,  '  and  I  have  been  bringing 
you  where  there  is  little  enough  to  be  seen  —  only  that  Scotch 
cottage '  —  one  by  the  road  side,  with  a  small  garth ;  — '  but, 
though  not  worth  looking  at,  I  could  not  pass  it.  It  was  our 
first  country-house  when  newly  married,  and  many  a  contriv 
ance  we  had  to  make  it  comfortable.  I  made  a  dining-table 
for  it  with  my  own  hands.  Look  at  these  two  miserable  wil 
low-trees  on  either  side  the  gate  into  the  enclosure  ;  they  are 
tied  together  at  the  top  to  be  an  arch,  and  a  cross  made  of  two 
sticks  over  them  is  not  yet  decayed.  To  be  sure,  it  is  not 
nrach  of  a  lion  to  show  a  stranger ;  but  I  wanted  to  see  it  again 
myself,  for  I  assure  you  that  after  I  had  constructed  it,  mamma 
(Mrs.  Scott)  '  and  I  both  of  us  thought  it  so  fine,  we  turned  out 
to  see  it  by  moonlight,  and  walked  backwards  from  it  to  the 
cottage  door,  in  admiration  of  our  own  magnificence  and  ita 
picturesque  effect.  I  did  want  to  see  if  it  was  still  there  — 
so  now  we  will  look  after  the  barouche,  and  make  the  best  of 


318  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

our  way  to  Dalkeith.'  Such  were  the  natural  feelings  that 
endeared  the  Author  of  Marmlon  and  the  Lay  to  those  who 
*  saw  him  in  his  happier  hours  of  social  pleasure.'  His  person 
at  that  time  may  be  exactly  known  from  Raeburn's  first  pic 
ture,  which  had  just  been  executed  for  his  bookseller,  Con 
stable,  and  which  was  a  most  faithful  likeness  of  him  and  his 
dog  Camp.  The  literal  fidelity  of  the  portraiture,  however, 
is  its  principal  merit.  The  expression  is  serious  and  contem 
plative,  very  unlike  the  hilarity  and  vivacity  then  habitual  to 
his  speaking  face,  but  quite  true  to  what  it  was  in  the  absence 
of  such  excitement.  His  features  struck  me  at  first  as  com 
monplace  and  heavy,  —  but  they  were  almost  always  lighted 
up  by  the  flashes  of  the  mind  within.  This  required  a  hand 
more  masterly  than  Raeburn's ;  and  indeed,  in  my  own  opin 
ion,  Chantrey  alone  has  in  his  bust  attained  that,  in  his  case, 
most  difficult  task  of  portraying  the  features  faithfully,  and  yet 
giving  the  real  and  transient  expression  of  the  countenance 
when  animated. 

"  We  passed  a  week  in  Edinburgh,  chiefly  in  his  society  and 
that  of  his  friends  the  Mackenzies.  We  were  so  far  on  our 
way  to  Brahan  Castle,  in  Ross-shire.  Scott  unlocked  all  his 
antiquarian  lore,  and  supplied  us  with  numberless  data,  such 
as  no  guide-book  could  have  furnished,  and  such  as  his  own 
Monkbarns  might  have  delighted  to  give.  It  would  be  idle  to 
tell  how  much  pleasure  and  instruction  his  advice  added  to  a 
tour  in  itself  so  productive  of  both,  as  well  as  of  private  friend 
ships  and  intimacies,  now  too  generally  terminated  by  death, 
but  never  severed  by  caprice  or  disappointment.  His  was 
added  to  the  number  by  our  reception  now  in  Edinburgh,  and, 
on  our  return  from  the  Highlands,  at  Ashestiel  —  where  he 
tad  made  us  promise  to  visit  him,  saying  that  the  farm-house 
had  pigeon-holes  enough  for  such  of  his  friends  as  could  live, 
like  him,  on  Tweed  salmon  and  Forest  mutton.  There  he  was 
the  cherished  friend  and  kind  neighbour  of  every  middling  Sel 
kirkshire  yeoman,  just  as  easily  as  in  Edinburgh  he  was  the 
companion  of  clever  youth  and  narrative  old  age  in  refined 
society.  He  carried  us  one  day  to  Melrose  Abbey  or  Newark 


MR.    MORR1TI —  1808  319 

—  another,  to  course  with  mountain  greyhounds  by  Yarrow 
braes  or  St.  Mary's  loch,  repeating  every  ballad  or  legendary 
tale  connected  with  the  scenery  —  and  on  a  third,  we  must  all 
go  to  a  farmer's  kirn,  or  harvest-home,  to  dance  with  Border 
lasses  on  a  barn  floor,  drink  whiskey  punch,  and  enter  with  him 
into  all  the  gossip  and  good  fellowship  of  his  neighbours,  on  a 
complete  footing  of  unrestrained  conviviality,  equality,  and  mu 
tual  respect.  His  wife  and  happy  young  family  were  clustered 
round  him,  and  the  cordiality  of  his  reception  would  have  un 
bent  a  misanthrope. 

"  At  this  period  his  conversation  was  more  equal  and  ani 
mated  than  any  man's  that  I  ever  knew.  It  was  most  char 
acterised  by  the  extreme  felicity  and  fun  of  his  illustrations, 
drawn  from  the  whole  encyclopsedia  of  life  and  nature,  in  a 
style  sometimes  too  exuberant  for  written  narrative,  but  which 
to  him  was  natural  and  spontaneous.  A  hundred  stories,  al 
ways  apposite,  and  often  interesting  the  mind  by  strong  pathos, 
or  eminently  ludicrous,  were  daily  told,  which,  with  many 
more,  have  since  been  transplanted,  almost  in  the  same  lan 
guage,  into  the  Waverley  novels  and  his  other  writings.  These 
and  his  recitations  of  poetry,  which  can  never  be  forgotten  by 
those  who  knew  him,  made  up  the  charm  that  his  boundless 
memory  enabled  him  to  exert  to  the  wonder  of  the  gaping 
lovers  of  wonders.  But  equally  impressive  and  powerful  was 
the  language  of  his  warm  heart,  and  equally  wonderful  were 
the  conclusions  of  his  vigorous  understanding,  to  those  who 
could  return  or  appreciate  either.  Among  a  number  of  such 
recollections,  I  have  seen  many  of  the  thoughts  which  then 
passed  through  his  mind  embodied  in  the  delightful  prefaces 
annexed  late  in  life  to  his  poetry  and  novels.  Those  on  liter 
ary  quarrels  and  literary  irritability  are  exactly  what  he  then 
expressed.  Keenly  enjoying  literature  as  he  did,  and  indulg 
ing  his  own  love  of  it  in  perpetual  composition,  he  always 
maintained  the  same  estimate  of  it  as  subordinate  and  auxili- 
%ry  to  the  purposes  of  life,  and  rather  talked  of  men  and 
events  than  of  books  and  criticism.  Literary  fame,  he  always 
laid,  was  a  bright  feather  in  the  cap,  but  not  the  substantia* 


320  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

cover  of  a  well-protected  head.  This  sound  and  manly  feeling 
was  what  I  have  seen  described  by  some  of  his  biographers  as 
pride  ;  and  it  will  always  be  thought  so  by  those  whose  own 
vanity  can  only  be  gratified  by  the  admiration  of  others,  and 
who  mistake  shows  for  realities.  None  valued  the  love  and 
applause  of  others  more  than  Scott;  but  it  was  to  the  love 
and  applause  of  those  he  valued  in  return  that  he  restricted 
the  feeling  —  without  restricting  the  kindness.  Men  who  did 
not,  or  would  not,  understand  this,  perpetually  mistook  him — 
and,  after  loading  him  with  undesired  eulogy,  perhaps  in  hia 
own  house  neglected  common  attention  or  civility  to  other 
parts  of  his  family.  It  was  on  such  an  occasion  that  I  heard 
him  murmur  in  my  ear,  '  Author  as  I  am,  I  wish  these  good 
people  would  recollect  that  I  began  with  being  a  gentleman, 
and  don't  mean  to  give  up  the  character.'  Such  was  all  along 
his  feeling,  and  this,  with  a  slight  prejudice  common  to  Scotch 
men  in  favour  of  ancient  and  respectable  family  descent,  con 
stituted  what  in  Grub  Street  is  called  his  pride.  It  was,  at 
least,  what  Johnson  would  have  justly  called  defensive  pride. 
From  all  other,  and  still  more  from  mere  vanity,  I  never  knew 
any  man  so  remarkably  free." 

The  farmer  at  whose  annual  kirn  Scott  and  all  his 
household  were,  in  those  days,  regular  guests,  was  Mr. 
Laidlaw,  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  tenant  on  the  lands  of 
Peel,  which  are  only  separated  from  the  eastern  terrace 
of  Ashestiel  by  the  ravine  and  its  brook.  Mr.  Laidlaw 
was  himself  possessed  of  some  landed  property  in  the 
same  neighbourhood,  and  being  considered  as  wealthy, 
and  fond  of  his  wealth,  he  was  usually  called  among  the 
country  people  Laird  Nippy  ;  an  expressive  designation 
which  it  would  be  difficult  to  translate.  Though  a  very 
dry,  demure,  and  taciturn  old  presbyterian,  he  could  not 
resist  the  Sheriff's  jokes ;  nay,  he  even  gradually  sub- 
dued  his  scruples  so  far  as  to  become  a  pretty  constant 
attendant  at  his  "  English  printed  prayers  "  on  the  Sun* 


LAIRD    NIPPY    OF   THE    PEEL.  321 

days ;  which,  indeed,  were  by  this  time  rather  more 
popular  than  quite  suited  the  capacity  of  the  parlour- 
chapel.  Mr.  Laidlaw's  wife  was  a  woman  of  superior 
Toind  and  manners  —  a  great  reader,  and  one  of  the  few 
S>  whom  Scott  liked  lending  his  books ;  for  most  strict 
*,nd  delicate  was  he  always  in  the  care  of  them,  and  in 
deed,  hardly  any  trivial  occurrence  ever  seemed  to  touch 
his  temper  at  all,  except  anything  like  irreverent  treat 
ment  of  a  book.  The  intercourse  between  the  family  at 
A.shestiel  and  this  worthy  woman  and  her  children,  was  a 
xmstant  interchange  of  respect  and  kindness ;  but  I  re- 
aaember  to  have  heard  Scott  say  that  the  greatest  compli 
ment  he  had  ever  received  in  his  life  was  from  the  rigid 
old  farmer  himself;  for,  years  after  he  had  left  Ashestiel, 
he  discovered  casually  that  special  care  had  been  taken 
to  keep  the  turf  seat  on  the  Shirra's  Jcnowe  in  good  re 
pair  ;  and  this  was  much  from  Nippy. 

And  here  I  must  set  down  a  story  which,  most  readers 
will  smile  to  be  told,  was  often  repeated  by  Scott ;  and 
always  with  an  air  that  seemed  to  me,  in  spite  of  his 
endeavours  to  the  contrary,  as  grave  as  the  usual  aspect 
of  Laird  Nippy  of  the  Peel.  This  neighbour  was  a  dis 
tant  kinsman  of  his  dear  friend  William  Laidlaw ;  — 
BO  distant,  that  elsewhere  in  that  condition  they  would 
scarcely  have  remembered  any  community  of  blood ;  — 
but  they  both  traced  their  descent,  in  the  ninth  degree, 
to  an  ancestress  who,  in  the  days  of  John  Knox,  fell  into 
trouble  from  a  suspicion  of  witchcraft.  In  her  time  the 
Laidlaws  were  rich  and  prosperous,  and  held  rank  among 
the  best  gentry  of  Tweeddale  •,  but  in  some  evil  hour,  her 
husband,  the  head  of  his  blood,  reproached  her  with  her 
addiction  to  the  black  art,  and  she,  in  her  anger,  cursed 
the  name  and  lineage  of  Laidlaw.  Her  youngest  son, 

VOL.  II.  21 


822  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTEK    SCOTT. 

who  stood  by,  implored  her  to  revoke  the  malediction 
but  in  vain.  Next  day,  however,  on  the  renewal  of  his 
entreaties,  she  carried  him  with  her  into  the  woods,  made 
him  slay  a  heifer,  sacrificed  it  to  the  power  of  evil  in  his 
presence,  and  then,  collecting  the  ashes  in  her  apron, 
invited  the  youth  to  see  her  commit  them  to  the  river. 
u  Follow  them,"  said  she,  "  from  stream  to  pool,  as  long 
as  they  float  visible,  and  as  many  streams  as  you  shall 
then  have  passed,  for  so  many  generations  shall  your  de 
scendants  prosper.  After  that,  they  shall  like  the  rest  of 
the  name,  be  poor,  and  take  their  part  in  my  curse."  The 
streams  he  counted  were  nine  ;  "  and  now,"  Scott  would 
say, "  look  round  you  in  this  country,  and  sure  enough 
the  Laidlaws  are  one  and  all  landless  men,  with  the 
single  exception  of  Auld  Nippy ! "  Many  times  had  I 
heard  both  him  and  William  Laidlaw  tell  this  story,  be 
fore  any  suspicion  got  abroad  that  Nippy's  wealth  rested 
on  insecure  foundations.  Year  after  year,  we  never  e&* 
corted  a  stranger  by  the  Peel,  but  I  heard  the  tale ;  — 
and  at  last  it  came  with  a  new  conclusion  ;  —  "  and  now, 
think  whatever  we  choose  of  it,  my  good  friend  Nippy  is 
a  bankrupt."  * 

Mr.  Morritt's  mention  of  the  "  happy  young  family 
clustered  round  him  "  at  Mr.  Laidlaw's  kirn,  reminds  me 
that  I  ought  to  say  a  few  words  on  Scott's  method  of 
treating  his  children  in  their  early  days.  He  had  now 
two  boys  and  two  girls  ;  —  and  he  never  had  more.t  He 

*  I  understand  the  use  of  the  word  bankrupt  here  has  given  offence 
—  and  possibly  it  was  not  the  exact  word  Scott  employed.  In  com 
mon  parlance,  however,  a  man  is  said  to  be  bankrupt,  when  his  worldly 
affairs  have  undergone  some  disastrous  change  —  and  such  was  cer 
tainly  the  case  with  Mr.  Laidlaw  —  before  he  left  his  old  possession  o* 
Vhe  Peel.  [1839.] 

t  1  may  as  well  transcribe  here  the  rest  of  the  record  in  Scott's  family 


DOMESTIC    LIFE 1808.  323 

was  not  one  of  those  who  take  much  delight  in  a  mere 
infant ;  but  no  father  ever  devoted  more  time  and  tender 
care  to  his  offspring  than  he  did  to  each  of  his,  as  they 
successively  reached  the  age  when  they  could  listen  to 
him,  and  understand  his  talk.  Like  their  mute  play 
mates,  Camp  and  the  greyhounds,  they  had  at  all  times 
free  access  to  his  study ;  he  never  considered  their  tattle 
as  any  disturbance ;  they  went  and  came  as  pleased  their 
fancy;  he  was  always  ready  to  answer  their  questions; 
and  when  they,  unconscious  how  he  was  engaged,  en 
treated  him  to  lay  down  his  pen  and  tell  them  a  story,  he 
would  take  them  on  his  knee,  repeat  a  ballad  or  a  legend, 
kiss  them,  and  set  them  down  again  to  their  marbles  or 
ninepins,  and  resume  his  labour  as  if  refreshed  by  the 
interruption.  From  a  very  early  age  he  made  them  dine 
at  table,  and  "  to  sit  up  to  supper  "  was  the  great  reward 
when  they  had  been  "  very  good  bairns."  In  short,  he 
considered  it  as  the  highest  duty  as  well  as  the  sweetest 
pleasure  of  a  parent  to  be  the  companion  of  his  children ; 

Bible.  After  what  was  quoted  in  a  former  chapter,  it  thus  pro 
ceeds  :  — 

"  24to  die  Octobris  1799.  —  Margareta  C.  Scott,  flium  apud  Edinbur- 
gum  edidit.  15°  Novembris  1799,  in  Ecclesiam  Christianam  recepta  fuit 
per  baptismum  dicta  filia,  nomenque  ei  adjectum  Charlotta  Sophia,  per 
virum  referendum  Danielem  Sandford;  sponsoribus  prcenobili  Arthuro 
Marchione  de  Downshire,  Sophia  Dumergue,  et  Anna  Rutherford  matre 
mea. 

"  Margareta  C,  Scott  puerum  edidit.  28™  Octobris  A.  D.  1801  apud 
Edinburgum ;  nomenque  ei  adjectum  Gualterus,  cum  per  v.  rev.  Doctor  em 
Danielem  Sandford  baptizatus  erat. 

"  M.  C.  Scott  filiam  edidit  apud  Edinburgum  2*>  die  February  1803, 
yuce  in  Ecclesiam  recepta  fuit  per  vir^m  reverendum  Doctorem  Sand- 
Cord,  nomenque  ei  adjectum  Anna  Scott. 

«  241°  Decem:  1805.  —  M.  C.  Scott  apud  Edinburgum  puerum  edidit, 
•sui  baptizatus  erat  per  virum  reveren/lum  Joannem  Thomson,  Ministrun 
4e  Duddingstone  prope  Edinburgum,  nomenque  Carolus  illi  datum  " 


324  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

he  partook  all  their  little  joys  and  sorrows,  and  made  his 
kind  unformal  instructions  to  blend  so  easily  and  play 
fully  with  the  current  of  their  own  sayings  and  doings, 
that  so  far  from  regarding  him  with  any  distant  awe,  it 
was  never  thought  that  any  sport  or  diversion  could  go 
on  in  the  right  way,  unless  papa  were  of  the  party,  or 
that  the  rainiest  day  could  be  dull  so  he  were  at  home. 

Of  the  irregularity  of  his  own  education  he  speaks 
with  considerable  regret,  in  the  autobiographical  frag 
ment  written  this  year  at  Ashestiel ;  yet  his  practice 
does  not  look  as  if  that  feeling  had  been  strongly  rooted 
in  his  mind;  —  for  he  never  did  show  much  concern 
about  regulating  systematically  what  is  usually  called 
education  in  the  case  of  his  own  children.  It  seemed,  on 
the  contrary,  as  if  he  attached  little  importance  to  any 
thing  else,  so  he  could  perceive  that  the  young  curiosity 
was  excited  —  the  intellect,  by  whatever  springs  of  inter 
est,  set  in  motion.  He  detested  and  despised  the  whole 
generation  of  modern  children's  books,  in  which  the  at 
tempt  is  made  to  convey  accurate  notions  of  scientific 
minutiae :  delighting  cordially,  on  the  other  hand,  in  those 
of  the  preceding  age,  which,  addressing  themselves  chiefly 
to  the  imagination,  obtain  through  it,  as  he  believed,  the 
best  chance  of  stirring  our  graver  faculties  also.  He  ex 
ercised  the  memory,  by  selecting  for  tasks  of  recitation 
passages  of  popular  verse  the  most  likely  to  catch  the 
fancy  of  children ;  and  gradually  familiarized  them  with 
the  ancient  history  of  their  own  country,  by  arresting  at 
tention,  in  the  course  of  his  own  oral  narrations,  on  inci 
dents  and  characters  of  a  similar  description.  Nor  did 
he  neglect  to  use  the  same  means  of  quickening  curiosity 
as  to  the  events  of  sacred  history.  On  Sunday  he  never 
rode  —  at  least  not  until  his  growing  infirmity  made  hiy 


DOMESTIC    EDUCATION.  325 

pony  almost  necessary  to  him  —  for  it  was  his  principle 
that  all  domestic  animals  have  a  full  right  to  their  Sab 
bath  of  rest ;  but  after  he  had  read  the  church  service, 
he  usually  walked  with  his  whole  family,  dogs  included, 
to  some  favourite  spot  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the 
house  —  most  frequently  the  ruined  tower  of  Elibank  — 
and  there  dined  with  them  in  the  open  air  on  a  basket  of 
cold  provisions,  mixing  his  wine  with  the  water  of  the 
brook  beside  which  they  all  were  grouped  around  him  on 
the  turf;  and  here,  or  at  home,  if  the  weather  kept  them 
from  their  ramble,  his  Sunday  talk  was  just  such  a  series 
of  biblical  lessons  as  that  which  we  have  preserved  for 
the  permanent  use  of  rising  generations,  in  his  Tales  of  a 
Grandfather,  on  the  early  history  of  Scotland.  I  wish  he 
had  committed  that  other  series  to  writing  too ;  —  how 
different  that  would  have  been  from  our  thousand  com 
pilations  of  dead  epitome  and  imbecile  cant !  He  had  his 
Bible,  the  Old  Testament  especially,  by  heart;  and  on 
these  days  inwove  the  simple  pathos  or  sublime  enthu 
siasm  of  Scripture,  in  whatever  story  he  was  telling,  with 
the  same  picturesque  richness  as  he  did,  in  his  week-day 
tales,  the  quaint  Scotch  of  Pitscottie,  or  some  rude  ro 
mantic  old  rhyme  from  Barbour's  Bruce  or  Blind  Harry's 
Wallace. 

By  many  external  accomplishments,  either  in  girl  or 
boy,  he  set  little  store.  He  delighted  to  hear  his  daugh 
ters  sing  an  old  ditty,  or  one  of  his  own  framing ;  but,  so 
the  singer  appeared  to  feel  the  spirit  of  her  ballad,  he 
was  not  at  all  critical  of  the  technical  execution.  There 
was  one  thing,  however,  on  which  he  fixed  his  heart 
hardly  less  than  the  ancient  Persians  of  the  Cyropaedia : 
like  them,  next  to  love  of  truth,  he  held  love  of  horse 
manship  for  the  prime  point  of  education.  As  soon  as 


326  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

his  eldest  girl  could  sit  a  pony,  she  was  made  the  regulaf 
attendant  of  his  mountain  rides ;  and  they  all,  as  they 
attained  sufficient  strength,  had  the  like  advancement. 
He  taught  them  to  think  nothing  of  tumbles,  and  habitu 
ated  them  to  his  own  reckless  delight  in  perilous  fords 
and  flooded  streams ;  and  they  all  imbibed  in  great  per 
fection  his  passion  for  horses  —  as  well,  I  may  venture 
to  add,  as  his  deep  reverence  for  the  more  important 
article  of  that  Persian  training.  "  Without  courage,"  he 
said,  "there  cannot  be  truth;  and  without  truth  there 
can  be  no  other  virtue." 

He  had  a  horror  of  boarding-schools ;  never  allowed 
his  girls  to  learn  any  thing  out  of  his  own  house  ;  and 
chose  their  governess  —  Miss  Miller  —  who  about  this 
time  was  domesticated  with  them,  and  never  left  them 
while  they  needed  one,  —  with  far  greater  regard  to  her 
kind  good  temper  and  excellent  moral  and  religious  prin 
ciples,  than  to  the  measure  of  her  attainments  in  what 
are  called  fashionable  accomplishments.  The  admirable 
system  of  education  for  boys  in  Scotland  combines  all  the 
advantages  of  public  and  private  instruction ;  his  carried 
their  satchels  to  the  High-School,  when  the  family  was  in 
Edinburgh,  just  as  he  had  done  before  them,  and  shared 
of  course  the  evening  society  of  their  happy  home.  But 
he  rarely,  if  ever,  left  them  in  town,  when  he  could  him 
self  be  in  the  country ;  and  at  Ashestiel  he  was,  for 
better  or  for  worse,  his  eldest  boy's  daily  tutor,  after  he 
began  Latin. 

The  following  letter  will  serve,  among  other  things,  to 
supply  a  few  more  details  of  the  domestic  life  of  Ashe» 
tiel :  — 


LETTER    TO    JOANNA    BAILLIE SEPT.    1808.        327 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie ,  Hampstead. 

"  Sept.  20,  1808. 

"  My  Dear  Miss  Baillie,  —  The  law,  you  know,  makes  the 
husband  answerable  for  the  debts  of  his  wife,  and  therefore 
gives  him  a  right  to  approach  her  creditors  with  an  offer  of 
ayment ;  so  that,  after  witnessing  many  fruitless  and  broken 
resolutions  of  my  Charlotte,  I  am  determined,  rather  than  she 
and  I  shall  appear  longer  insensible  of  your  goodness,  to  in 
trude  a  few  lines  on  you  to  answer  the  letter  you  honoured 
her  with  some  time  ago.  The  secret  reason  of  her  procrasti 
nation  is,  I  believe,  some  terror  of  writing  in  English  —  which 
you  know  is  not  her  native  language  —  to  one  who  is  as  much 
distinguished  by  her  command  of  it  as  by  the  purposes  she 
adapts  it  to.  I  wish  we  had  the  command  of  what  my  old 
friend  Pitscottie  calls  4  a  blink  of  the  sun  or  a  whip  of  the 
whirlwind,'  to  transport  you  to  this  solitude  before  the  frost 
has  stript  it  of  its  leaves.  It  is  not,  indeed  (even  I  must  con 
fess),  equal  in  picturesque  beauty  to  the  banks  of  Clyde  and 
Evan ;  *  but  it  is  so  sequestered,  so  simple,  and  so  solitary,  that 
i*  seems  just  to  have  beauty  enough  to  delight  its  inhabitants, 
without  a  single  attraction  for  any  visitor,  except  those  who 
come  for  its  inhabitants'  sake.  And  in  good  sooth,  whenever 
I  was  tempted  to  envy  the  splendid  scenery  of  the  lakes  of 
Westmoreland,  I  always  endeavoured  to  cure  my  fit  of  spleen 
by  recollecting  that  they  attract  as  many  idle,  insipid,  and  in 
dolent  gazers,  as  any  celebrated  beauty  in  the  land,  and  that 
our  scene  of  pastoral  hills  and  pure  streams  is  like  Touch 
stone's  mistress,  *  a  poor  thing,  but  mine  own.'  I  regret,  how 
ever,  that  these  celebrated  beauties  should  have  frowned,  wept 
or  pouted  upon  you,  when  you  honoured  them  by  your  visit 
in  summer.  Did  Miss  Agnes  Baillie  and  you  meet  with  any 
of  the  poetical  inhabitants  of  that  district  —  Wordsworth, 

*  Miss  Bailee  was  born  at  Long-Caiderwood,  near  Hamilton    is 
»janarkshire. 


328  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Southey,  or  Coleridge  ?  The  two  former  would,  I  am  sure, 
have  been  happy  in  paying  their  respects  to  you ;  with  the 
habits  and  tastes  of  the  latter  I  am  less  acquainted. 

"  Time  has  lingered  with  me  from  day  to  day  in  expectation 
of  being  called  southward ;  I  now  begin  to  think  my  journey 
will  hardly  take  place  till  winter,  or  early  in  spring.  One  of 
the  most  pleasant  circumstances  attending  it  will  be  the  oppor 
tunity  to  pay  my  homage  to  you,  and  to  claim  withal  a  certain 
promise  concerning  a  certain  play,  of  which  you  were  so  kind 
as  to  promise  me  a  reading.  I  hope  you  do  not  permit  indo 
lence  to  lay  the  paring  of  her  little  finger  upon  you ;  we  can 
not  afford  the  interruption  to  your  labours  which  even  that 
might  occasion.  And  '  what  are  you  doing  ?  '  your  politeness 
will  lead  you  to  say  :  in  answer,  —  Why,  I  am  very  like  a  cer 
tain  ancient  king,  distinguished  in  the  Edda,  who,  when  Lok 
paid  him  a  visit,  — 

'  Was  twisting  of  collars  his  dogs  to  hold, 
And  combing  the  mane  of  his  courser  bold.' 

If  this  idle  man's  employment  required  any  apology,  we  must 
seek  it  in  the  difficulty  of  seeking  food  to  make  savoury  messes 
for  our  English  guests ;  for  we  are  eight  miles  from  market, 
and  must  call  in  all  the  country  sports  to  aid  the  larder.  We 
had  here,  two  days  ago,  a  very  pleasant  English  family,  the 
Morritts  of  Rokeby  Park,  in  Yorkshire.  The  gentleman  wan 
dered  over  all  Greece,  and  visited  the  Troad,  to  aid  in  confut 
ing  the  hypothesis  of  old  Bryant,  who  contended  that  Troy 
town  was  not  taken  by  the  Greeks.  His  erudition  is,  how 
ever,  not  of  an  overbearing  kind,  which  was  lucky  for  me,  who 
am  but  a  slender  classical  scholar.  Charlotte's  kindest  and 
best  wishes  attend  Miss  Agnes  Baillie,  in  which  I  heartily  and 
respectfully  join ;  —  to  you  she  offers  her  best  apology  for  not 
writing,  and  hopes  for  your  kind  forgiveness.  I  ought  perhaps 
to  make  one  for  taking  the  task  off  her  hands,  but  we  are  both 
at  your  mercy ;  and  I  am  ever  your  most  faithful,  obedient, 
and  admiring  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT. 


ASHESTIEL SEPT.    1808.  329 

"  P.  S.  —  I  have  had  a  visit  from  the  author  of  the  Poor 
Man's  Sabbath,  whose  affairs  with  Constable  are,  I  hope,  set 
tled  to  his  satisfaction.  I  got  him  a  few  books  more  than  were 
originally  stipulated,  and  have  endeavoured  to  interest  Lord 
Leven,*  and  through  him  Mr.  Wilberforce,  and  through  them 
both,  the  saints  in  general,  in  the  success  of  this  modest  and 
apparently  worthy  man.  Lord  Leven  has  promised  his  exer 
tions;  and  the  interest  of  the  party,  if  exerted,  would  save  a 
work  tenfold  inferior  in  real  merit.  What  think  you  of  Spain  ? 
The  days  of  William  Wallace  and  the  Cid  Ruy  Diaz  de  Bivar 
seem  to  be  reviving  there." 

*  Alexander,  tenth  Earl  of  Leven,  had  married  a  lady  of  the  Eng 
lish  family  of  Thornton,  whose  munificent  charities  are  familiar  to  the 
readers  of  Cowper's  Life  and  Letters ;  hence,  probably,  his  Lordship's 
influence  with  the  party  alluded  to  in  the  text. 


END  OF  VOL*  II. 


MEMOIES 


OF  THE 


LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  XVHL 

Muarrel  with  Messrs.  Constable  and  Hunter  —  John  Ballantyne 
established  as  a  Bookseller  in  Edinburgh  —  Scott's  Literary 
Projects —  The  Edinburgh  Annual  Register,  fyc.  —  Meeting 
of  James  Ballantyne  and  John  Murray  —  Murray's  Visit 
to  Ashestiel  —  Politics  —  The  Peninsular  War  —  Project  of 
the  Quarterly  Review  —  Correspondence  with  Ellis,  Gifford, 
Morritt,  Southey,  Sharpe,  fyc. 

1808-1809. 

THE  reader  does  not  need  to  be  reminded  that  Scott 
at  this  time  had  business  enough  on  his  hand,  besides 
combing  the  mane  of  Brown  Adam,  and  twisting  couples 
for  Douglas  and  Percy.  He  was  deep  in  Swift ;  and 
the  Ballantyne  press  was  groaning  under  a  multitude  of 
works,  some  of  them  already  mentioned,  with  almost  all 
of  which  his  hand  as  well  as  his  head  had  something, 
more  or  less,  to  do.  But  a  serious  change  was  about  to 
take  place  in  his  relations  with  the  spirited  publishing 
house  which  had  hitherto  been  the  most  efficient  sup 
porters  of  that  press ;  and  his  letters  begin  to  be  much 


8  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

occupied  with  differences  and  disputes  which,  uninterest 
ing  as  the  details  would  now  be,  must  have  cost  him 
many  anxious  hours  in  the  apparently  idle  autumn  of 
1808.  Mr.  Constable  had  then  for  his  partner  Mr.  Al 
exander  Gibson  Hunter,  afterwards  Laird  of  Blackness, 
to  whose  intemperate  language,  much  more  than  to  any 
part  of  Constable's  own  conduct,  Scott  ascribed  this  un 
fortunate  alienation  ;  which,  however,  as  well  as  most  of 
my  friend's  subsequent  misadventures,  I  am  inclined  to 
trace  in  no  small  degree,  to  the  influence  which  a  third 
person,  hitherto  unnamed,  was  about  this  time  beginning 
to  exercise  over  the  concerns  of  James  Ballantyne. 

John  Ballantyne,  a  younger  brother  of  Scott's  school 
fellow,  was  originally  destined  for  the  paternal  trade  of  a 
merchant  —  (that  is  to  say,  a  dealer  in  everything  from 
fine  broadcloth  to  children's  tops)  —  at  Kelso.  The 
father  seems  to  have  sent  him  when  very  young  to 
London,  where,  whatever  else  he  may  have  done  in  the 
way  of  professional  training,  he  spent  some  time  in  the 
banking-house  of  Messrs.  Currie.  On  returning  to  Kelso, 
however,  the  "  department "  which  more  peculiarly  de 
volved  upon  him  was  the  tailoring  one.*  His  personal 
Labits  had  not  been  improved  by  his  brief  sojourn  in  the 
Great  City,  and  his  business,  in  consequence  (by  his  own 
statement)  of  the  irregularity  of  his  life,  gradually  melted 
to  nothing  in  his  hands.  Early  in  1805,  his  goods  were 
sold  off,  and  barely  sufficed  to  pay  his  debts.  The  worthy 
old  couple  found  refuge  with  their  ever  affectionate  el 
dest  son,  who  provided  his  father  with  some  little  occu 
pation  (real  or  nominal)  about  the  printing-office  ;  and 

*  The  first  time  that  William  Laidlaw  saw  John  Ballantyne,  he  ha<j 
come  to  Selkirk  to  measure  the  troopers  of  the  Yeomanry  Cavalry,  o 
whom  Laidlaw  was  one,  for  new  breeches.  [1839.] 


THE  BALLANTYNES.  9 

thus  John  himself  again  quitted  his  native  place,  under 
circumstances  which,  as  I  shall  show  in  the  sequel,  had 
left  a  deep  and  painful  trace  even  upon  that  volatile 
mind. 

He  had,  however,  some  taste,  and  he  at  least  fancied 
himself  to  have  some  talent  for  literature  ;  *  and  the  rise 
of  his  elder  brother,  who  also  had  met  with  no  success  in 
his  original  profession,  was  before  him.  He  had  acquired 
in  London  great  apparent  dexterity  in  book-keeping  and 
accounts.  He  was  married  by  this  time  ;  and  it  might 
naturally  be  hoped,  that  with  the  severe  lessons  of  the 
past,  he  would  now  apply  sedulously  to  any  duty  that 
might  be  intrusted  to  him.  The  concern  in  the  Canon- 
gate  was  a  growing  one,  and  James  Ballantyne's  some 
what  indolent  habits  were  already  severely  tried  by  its 
multifarious  management.  The  Company  offered  John 
a  salary  of  £200  a-year  as  clerk ;  and  the  destitute  ex- 
merchant  was  too  happy  to  accept  the  proposal.f 

He  was  a  quick,  active,  intrepid  little  fellow ;  and  in 
society  so  very  lively  and  amusing,  so  full  of  fun  and 
merriment,  such  a  thoroughly  light-hearted  droll,  all-over 
quaintness  and  humorous  mimicry ;  and  moreover,  such 
a  keen  and  skilful  devotee  to  all  manner  of  field-sports, 

*  John  Ballantyne,  upon  the  marvellous  success  of  Waverley,  wrote 
aid  published  a  novel,  called  "  The  Widow's  Lodgings."  More 
wretched  trash  never  was. 

t  The  reader,  who  compares  this  account  of  John  Ballantyne's  early 
tife  with  that  given  in  the  former  (English)  edition  of  this  work  (Vol. 
jff.  p.  190),  will  observe  some  alterations  that  I  have  made  —  but  they 
are  none  of  them  as  to  points  of  the  very  slightest  importance.  The 
sketch  of  John's  career,  drawn  up  by  himself,  shortly  before  his  death 
confirms  every  word  I  had  said  as  to  anything  of  substantial  conse 
quence  —  and  indeed  tells  the  story  more  unfavorably  for  him  than  I 
did  —  or  do.  It  was  printed  in  Vol.  V.  of  the  first  edition,  p.  77 ;  and 
will  be  reprinted  in  its  proper  place,  sub  anno  1821.  [1839.] 


10  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

from  fox-hunting  to  badger-baiting  inclusive,  that  it  was 
no  wonder  he  should  have  made  a  favourable  impression 
on  Scott,  when  he  appeared  in  Edinburgh  in  this  destitute 
plight,  and  offered  to  assist  James  in  book-keeping,  which 
the  latter  never  understood,  or  could  bring  himself  to 
attend  to  with  regularity.  The  contrast  between  the 
two  brothers  was  not  the  least  of  the  amusement ;  indeed 
that  continued  to  amuse  him  to  the  last.  The  elder  of 
these  is  painted  to  the  life  in  an  early  letter  of  Ley  den's, 
which,  on  the  Doctor's  death,  he,  though  not  (I  fancy) 
without  wincing,  permitted  Scott  to  print :  —  "  Methinks 
I  see  you  with  your  confounded  black  beard,  bull-neck, 
and  upper  lip  turned  up  to  your  nose,  while  one  of  your 
eyebrows  is  cocked  perpendicularly,  and  the  other  forms 
pretty  well  the  base  of  a  right-angled  triangle,  open 
ing  your  great  gloating  eyes,  and  crying  —  Hut,  Ley- 
den  !  !  !  "  James  was  a  short,  stout,  well-made  man,  and 
would  have  been  considered  a  handsome  one,  but  for 
these  grotesque  frowns,  starts,  and  twistings  of  his  feat 
ures,  set  off  by  a  certain  mock  majesty  of  walk  and  ges 
ture,  which  he  had  perhaps  contracted  from  his  usual 
companions,  the  emperors  and  tyrants  of  the  stage.  His 
voice  in  talk  was  grave  and  sonorous,  and  he  sung  well 
(theatrically  well),  in  a  fine  rich  bass.  John's  tone  in  sing 
ing  was  a  sharp  treble  —  in  conversation  something  be 
tween  a  croak  and  a  squeak.  Of  his  style  of  story-telling 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  the  late  Charles  Mathews's  "  old 
Scotch  lady  "  was  but  an  imperfect  copy  of  the  original, 
which  the  great  comedian  first  heard  in  my  presence  from 
his  lips.*  He  was  shorter  than  Jarnes,  but  lean  as  a 
scarecrow,  and  he  rather  hopped  than  walked:  his  feat 

*  The  reader  will  find  an  amusing  anecdote  of  Johnny  in  the  Me 
•noire  of  Mathews,  by  his  widow,  vol   ii.  p.  382.     [1839.] 


THE    BALLANTl.NKb.  11 

ures,  too,  were  naturally  good,  and  he  twisted  them  about 
quite  as  much,  but  in  a  very  different  fashion.  The  elder 
brother  was  a  gourmand  —  the  younger  liked  his  bottle 
and  his  bowl,  as  well  as,  like  Johnny  Armstrong,  "a 
hawk,  a  hound,  and  a  fair  woman."  Scott  used  to  call 
the  one  Aldiborontiphoscophornio  —  the  other  Rigdum- 
funnidos.  They  both  entertained  him  ;  they  both  loved 
and  revered  him ;  and  I  believe  would  have  shed  their 
heart's  blood  in  his  service  ;  but  they  both,  as  men  of 
affairs,  deeply  injured  him  —  and  above  all,  the  day  that 
brought  John  into  pecuniary  connexion  with  him  was  the 
blackest  in  his  calendar.  A  more  reckless,  thoughtless, 
improvident  adventurer  never  rushed  into  the  serious 
responsibilities  of  business ;  but  his  cleverness,  his  vivac 
ity,  his  unaffected  zeal,  his  gay  fancy  always  seeing  the 
light  side  of  everything,  his  imperturbable  good-humour, 
and  buoyant  elasticity  of  spirits,  made  and  kept  him  such 
a  favourite,  that  I  believe  Scott  would  have  as  soon  have 
ordered  his  dog  to  be  hanged,  as  harboured,  in  his  dark 
est  hour  of  perplexity,  the  least  thought  of  discarding 
"jocund  Johnny." 

The  great  bookseller  of  Edinburgh  was  a  man  of  cal 
ibre  infinitely  beyond  these  Ballantynes.  Though  with 
a  strong  dash  of  the  sanguine,  without  which,  indeed, 
there  can  be  no  great  projector  in  any  walk  of  life,  Archi 
bald  Constable  was  one  of  the  most  sagacious  personi 
that  ever  followed  his  profession.  A  brother  poet  of 
Scott  says  to  him,  a  year  or  two  before  this  time,  "  Our 
butteracious  friend  at  the  Cross  turns  out  a  deep  draw- 
well  ; "  and  another  eminent  literatoV,  still  more  closely 
connected  with  Constable,  had  already,  I  believe,  christ. 
ened  him  "  The  Crafty."  Indeed,  his  fair  and  very 
aandsome  physiognomy  carried  a  bland  astuteness  of  ex- 


12  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

pression,  not  to  be  mistaken  by  any  who  could  read  the 
plainest  of  nature's  handwriting.  He  made  no  preten 
sions  to  literature  —  though  he  was  in  fact  a  tolerable 
judge  of  it  generally,  and  particularly  well  skilled  in  the 
department  of  Scotch  antiquities.  He  distrusted  himself, 
however,  in  such  matters,  being  conscious  that  his  early 
education  had  been  very  imperfect ;  and  moreover,  he 
wisely  considered  the  business  of  a  critic  as  quite  as  much 
out  of  his  "  proper  line  "  as  authorship  itself.  But  of  that 
"  proper  line,"  and  his  own  qualifications  for  it,  his  esti 
mation  was  ample ;  and  —  often  as  I  may  have  smiled  at 
the  lofty  serenity  of  his  self-complacence  —  I  confess  1 
now  doubt  whether  he  rated  himself  too  highly  as  a 
master  in  the  true  science  of  the  bookseller.  He  had, 
indeed,  in  his  mercantile  character,  one  deep  and  fatal 
flaw  —  for  he  hated  accounts,  and  systematically  refused, 
during  the  most  vigorous  years  of  his  life,  to  examine  or 
sign  a  balance-sheet ;  but  for  casting  a  keen  eye  over  the 
remotest  indications  of  popular  taste  —  for  anticipating 
the  chances  of  success  and  failure  in  any  given  variety 
of  adventure  —  for  the  planning  and  invention  of  his 
calling  —  he  was  not,  in  his  own  day  at  least,  surpassed ; 
and  among  all  his  myriad  of  undertakings,  I  question  if 
any  one  that  really  originated  with  himself,  and  continued 
to  be  superintended  by  his  own  care,  ever  did  fail.  He 
was  as  bold  as  far-sighted  —  and  his  disposition  was  as  lil> 
eral  as  his  views  were  wide.  Had  he  and  Scott  from  the 
beginning  trusted  as  thoroughly  as  they  understood  each 
other ;  had  there  been  no  third  parties  to  step  in,  flatter 
ing  an  overweening  vanity  on  the  one  hand  into  pre- 
Bumption,  and  on  the  other  side  spurring  the  enterprise 
that  wanted  nothing  but  a  bridle,  I  have  no  doubt  theii 
joint  career  might  have  been  one  of  unbroken  prosperity 


ARCHIBALD    CONSTABLE.  13 

But  the  Ballantynes  were  jealous  of  the  superior  mind, 
bearing,  and  authority  of  Constable  ;  and  though  he  too 
had  a  liking  for  them  both  personally  —  esteemed  James's 
literary  tact,  and  was  far  too  much  of  a  humourist  not  to 
be  very  fond  of  the  younger  brother's  company  —  he 
could  never  away  with  the  feeling  that  they  intervened 
unnecessarily,  and  left  him  but  the  shadow,  where  he 
ought  to  have  had  the  substantial  lion's  share,  of  confi 
dence.  On  his  part,  again,  he  was  too  proud  a  man  to 
give  entire  confidence  where  that  was  withheld  from  him 
self;  and  more  especially,  I  can  well  believe  that  a  frank 
ness  of  communication  as  to  the  real  amount  of  his  capital 
and  general  engagements  of  business,  which  would  have 
been  the  reverse  of  painful  to  him  in  habitually  confiden 
tial  intercourse  with  Scott,  was  out  of  the  question  where 
Scott's  proposals  and  suggestions  were  to  be  met  in  con 
ference,  not  with  his  own  manly  simplicity,  but  the  buck 
ram  pomposity  of  the  one,  or  the  burlesque  levity  of  the 
other,  of  his  plenipotentiaries. 

The  disputes  in  question  seem  to  have  begun  very 
shortly  after  the  contract  for  the  Life  and  Edition  of 
Swift  had  been  completed;  and  we  shall  presently  see 
reason  to  infer  that  Scott  to  a  certain  degree  was  in 
fluenced  at  the  moment  by  a  soreness  originating  in  the 
recent  conduct  of  Mr.  Jeffrey's  Journal  —  that  great 
primary  source  of  the  wealth  and  authority  of  the  house 
»f  Constable.  The  then  comparatively  little-known  book 
seller  of  London,  who  was  destined  to  be  ultimately  Con 
stable's  most  formidable  rival  in  more  than  one  depart' 
ment  of  publishing,  has  told  me,  that  when  he  read  the 
article  on  Marmion,  and  another  on  general  politics,  in 
the  same  number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  he  said  to 
Himself — "Walter  Scott  has  feelings  both  as  a  gentle- 


14  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

man  and  a  Tory,  which  these  people  must  now  have 
wounded ;  —  the  alliance  between  him  and  the  whole 
clique  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  its  proprietor  included, 
is  shaken ; "  and,  as  far  at  least  as  the  political  part  of 
the  affair  was  concerned,  John  Murray's  sagacity  was  not 
at  fault.  We  have  seen  with  what  thankful  alacrity  he 
accepted  a  small  share  in  the  adventure  of  Marmion  — 
and  with  what  brilliant  success  that  was  crowned ;  nor  ia 
it  wonderful  that  a  young  bookseller,  conscious  of  ample 
energies,  should  now  have  watched  with  eagerness  the 
circumstances  which  seemed  not  unlikely  to  place  within 
his  own  reach  a  more  intimate  connexion  with  the  first 
great  living  author  in  whose  works  he  had  ever  had  any 
direct  interest.  He  forthwith  took  measures  for  improv 
ing  and  extending  his  relations  with  James  Ballantyne, 
through  whom,  as  he  guessed,  Scott  could  best  be  ap 
proached.  His  tenders  of  employment  for  the  Canongate 
press  were  such,  that  the  apparent  head  of  the  firm  pro 
posed  a  conference  at  Ferrybridge,  in  Yorkshire  ;  and 
there  Murray,  after  detailing  some  of  his  own  literary 
plans  —  particularly  that  already  alluded  to,  of  a  Novel 
ist's  Library  —  in  his  turn  sounded  Ballantyne  so  far,  as 
to  resolve  at  once  on  pursuing  his  journey  into  Scotland. 
Ballantyne  had  said  enough  to  satisfy  him  that  the  pro 
ject  of  setting  up  a  new  publishing  house  in  Edinburgh, 
in  opposition  to  Constable,  was  already  all  but  matured 
and  he,  on  the  instant,  proposed  himself  for  its  active  co- 
operator  in  the  metropolis.  The  printer  proceeded  t<* 
open  his  budget  further,  mentioning,  among  other  things, 
that  the  author  of  Marmion  had  "  both  another  Scotch 
poem  and  a  Scotch  novel  on  the  stocks ;  "  and  had,  more 
over,  chalked  out  the  design  of  an  Edinburgh  Annual 
Register,  to  be  conducted  in  opposition  to  the  politics  anc 


THE    EDINBURGH    REVIEW,    ETC.  —  1808.  15 

sriticism  of  Constable's  Review.  These  tidings  might 
have  been  enough  to  make  Murray  proceed  farther 
northwards ;  but  there  was  a  scheme  of  his  own  which 
had  for  some  time  deeply  occupied  his  mind,  and  the  last 
article  of  this  communication  determined  him  to  embrace 
the  opportunity  of  opening  it  in  person  at  Ashestiel. 
He  arrived  there  about  the  middle  of  October.  The 
26th  Number  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  containing  Mr. 
Brougham's  celebrated  article,  entitled,  "  Don  Cevallos, 
wi  the  usurpation  of  Spain,"  had  just  been  published; 
and  one  of  the  first  things  Scott  mentioned  in  conversa 
tion  was,  that  he  had  so  highly  resented  the  tone  of  that 
essay,  as  to  give  orders  that  his  name  might  be  discon 
tinued  on  tha  list  of  subscribers.*  Mr.  Murray  could 
not  have  wished  better  auspices  for  the  matter  he  had 
come  to  open ;  and,  shortly  after  his  departure,  Scott 
writes  as  follows,  to  his  prime  political  confidant:  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq.,  Claremont. 

"Ashestiel,  Nov.  2d,  1808. 

"  Dear  Ellis,  —  We  had,  equally  to  our  joy  and  surprise,  a 
flying  visit  from  Heber,  about  three  weeks  ago.  He  staid  but 
three  days  —  but,  between  old  stories  and  new,  we  made  them 
very  merry  in  their  passage.  During  his  stay,  John  Murray, 
the  bookseller  in  Fleet  Street,  who  has  more  real  knowledge 
of  what  concerns  his  business  than  any  of  his  brethren  —  at 
least  than  any  of  them  that  I  know  —  came  to  canvass  a  most 
important  plan,  of  which  I  am  now,  in  '  dern  privacie/  to  give 

*  "  When  the  26th  Number  appeared,  Mr.  Scott  wrote  to  Constable 
in  these  terms :  — '  The  Edinburgh  Review  had  become  such  as  to  ren 
der  it  impossible  for  me  to  continue  a  contributor  to  it.  —  Now,  it  ia 
such  as  I  can  no  longer  continue  to  receive  or  read  it.'  The  list  of  the 
then  subscribers  exhibits  in  an  indignant  dash  of  Constable's  pen  op- 
posite  Mr.  Scott's  name,  the  word  — '  STOPT  !  !  ! '  "  —Letter  from  Mr 
ff.  Cadett. 

VOL.   III. 


16  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

you  the  outline.  I  had  most  strongly  recommended  to  our 
Lord  Advocate  *  to  think  of  some  counter-measures  against 
the  Edinburgh  Review,  which,  politically  speaking,  is  doing 
incalculable  damage.  I  do  not  mean  this  in  a  mere  party 
view;  —  the  present  Ministry  are  not  all  that  I  could  wish 
them  —  for  (Canning  excepted)  I  doubt  there  is  among  them 
too  much  self-seeking,  as  it  was  called  in  Cromwell's  time ;  and 
what  is  their  misfortune,  if  not  their  fault,  there  is  not  among 
them  one  in  the  decided  situation  of  paramount  authority,  both 
with  respect  to  the  others  and  to  the  Crown,  which  is,  I  think, 
necessary,  at  least  in  difficult  times,  to  produce  promptitude, 
regularity,  and  efficiency  in  measures  of  importance.  But 
their  political  principles  are  sound  English  principles,  and, 
compared  to  the  greedy  and  inefficient  horde  which  preceded 
them,  they  are  angels  of  light  and  of  purity.  It  is  obvious, 
however,  that  they  want  defenders  both  in  and  out  of  doors. 
Pitt's 

'  Love  and  fear  glued  many  friends  to  him; 

And  now  he's  fallen,  those  tough  commixtures  melt'^L 

Were  this  only  to  affect  a  change  of  hands,  I  should  expect  it 
with  more  indifference ;  but  I  fear  a  change  of  principles  is 
designed.  The  Edinburgh  Review  tells  you  coolly,  «  We  fore- 
Bee  a  speedy  revolution  in  this  country  as  well  as  Mr.  Cob- 
bett ; '  and,  to  say  the  truth,  by  degrading  the  person  of  the 
Sovereign  —  exalting  the  power  of  the  French  armies,  and  the 
wisdom  of  their  counsels  —  holding  forth  that  peace  (which 
they  allow  can  only  be  purchased  by  the  humiliating  prostra 
tion  of  our  honour)  is  indispensable  to  the  very  existence  of 
this  country  —  I  think,  that  for  these  two  years  past,  they  have 
done  their  utmost  to  hasten  the  accomplishment  of  their  own 
prophecy.  Of  this  work  9000  copies  are  printed  quarterly, 
and  no  genteel  family  can  pretend  to  be  without  it,  because, 
independent  of  its  politics,  it  gives  the  only  valuable  literary 

*  The  Right  Hon.  John  Campbell  Cclquhoun,  husband  of  Scott't 
tarly  friend,  Mary  Anne  Erskine. 
t  Slightly  altered  from  3d  K.  Henry  VI.  Act  II.  Scene  6. 


THE    QUARTERLY   REVIEW    PROJECTED.  17 

criticism  which  can  be  met  with.  Consider,  of  the  numbers 
who  read  this  work,  how  many  are  there  likely  to  separate  the 
literature  from  the  politics  —  how  many  youths  are  there,  upon 
whose  minds  the  flashy  and  bold  character  of  the  work  is  likely 
to  make  an  indelible  impression ;  and  think  what  the  conse 
quence  is  likely  to  be. 

"  Now,  I  think  there  is  balm  in  Gilead  for  all  this ;  and  that 
the  cure  lies  in  instituting  such  a  Review  in  London  as  should 
be  conducted  totally  independent  of  bookselling  influence,  on 
a  plan  as  liberal  as  that  of  the  Edinburgh,  its  literature  as  well 
supported,  and  its  principles  English  and  constitutional.  Ac 
cordingly,  I  have  been  given  to  understand  that  Mr.  William 
Gifford  is  willing  to  become  the  conductor  of  such  a  work,  and 
J  have  written  to  him,  at  the  Lord  Advocate's  desire,  a  very 
voluminous  letter  on  the  subject.  Now,  should  this  plan  suc 
ceed,  you  must  hang  your  birding-piece  on  its  hooks,  take 
down  your  old  Anti-jacobin  armour,  and  'remember  your 
swashing  blow.'  It  is  not  that  I  think  this  projected  Review 
ought  to  be  exclusively  or  principally  political — this  would,  in 
my  opinion,  absolutely  counteract  its  purpose,  which  I  think 
should  be  to  offer  to  those  who  love  their  country,  and  to  those 
whom  we  would  wish  to  love  it,  a  periodical  work  of  criticism 
conducted  with  equal  talent,  but  upon  sounder  principle  than 
that  which  has  gained  so  high  a  station  in  the  world  of  letters. 
Is  not  this  very  possible  ?  In  point  of  learning,  you  English 
men  have  ten  times  our  scholarship ;  and  as  for  talent  and 
genius,  '  Are  not  Abana  and  Pharpar,  rivers  of  Damascus, 
better  than  any  of  the  rivers  in  Israel  ?  *  Have  we  not  your 
self  and  your  cousin,  the  Roses,  Malthus,  Matthias,  Gifford, 
Heber,  and  his  brother  ?  Can  I  not  procure  you  a  score  of 
blue-caps  who  would  rather  write  for  us  than  for  the  Edin 
burgh  Review  if  they  got  as  much  pay  by  it  ?  'A  good  plot, 
^ood  friends,  and  full  of  expectation  —  an  excellent  plot,  very 
good  friends  ! '  * 

"  Heber's  fear,  was,  lest  we  should  fail  in  procuring  regulai 

*  Hotspur—  1st  K.  Henry  IV.  Act  II.  Scene  3. 


18  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

steady  contributors ;  but  I  know  so  much  of  the  interior  di» 
cipline  of  reviewing,  as  to  have  no  apprehension  of  that.  Pro 
vided  we  are  once  set  a-going,  by  a  few  dashing  numbers,  there 
would  be  no  fear  of  enlisting  regular  contributors;  but  the 
amateurs  must  bestir  themselves  in  the  first  instance.  From 
Government  we  should  be  entitled  to  expect  confidential  com 
munication  as  to  points  of  fact  (so  far  as  fit  to  be  made  public), 
in  our  political  disquisitions.  With  this  advantage,  our  good 
cause  and  St.  George  to  boot,  we  may  at  least  divide  the  field 
with  our  formidable  competitors,  who,  after  all,  are  much  better 
at  cutting  than  parrying,  and  whom  uninterrupted  triumph  has 
as  much  unfitted  for  resisting  a  serious  attack,  as  it  has  done 
Buonaparte  for  the  Spanish  war.  Jeffrey  is,  to  be  sure,  a  man 
of  the  most  uncommon  versatility  of  talent,  but  what  then  ? 

'  General  Howe  is  a  gallant  commander, 
There  are  others  as  gallant  as  he.' 

Think  of  all  this,  and  let  me  hear  from  you  very  soon  on  the 
subject.  Canning  is,  I  have  good  reason  to  know,  very  anx 
ious  about  the  plan.  I  mentioned  it  to  Robert  Dundas,  who 
was  here  with  his  lady  for  two  days  on  a  pilgrimage  to  Melrose, 
and  he  approved  highly  of  it.  Though  no  literary  man,  he  is 
judicious,  clair-voyant,  and  uncommonly  sound-headed,  like  his 
father,  Lord  Melville.  With  the  exceptions  I  have  mentioned, 
the  thing  continues  a  secret. 

"  I  am  truly  happy  you  think  well  of  the  Spanish  business : 
they  have  begun  in  a  truly  manly  and  rounded  manner,  and 
barring  internal  dissension,  are,  I  think,  very  likely  to  make 
their  part  good.  Buonaparte's  army  has  come  to  assume 
such  a  very  motley  description  as  gives  good  hope  of  its  crum 
bling  down  on  the  frost  of  adversity  setting  in.  The  Germans 
and  Italians  have  deserted  him  in  troops,  and  I  greatly  doubt 
his  being  able  to  assemble  a  very  huge  force  at  the  foot  of 
the  Pyrenees,  unless  he  trusts  that  the  terror  of  his  name 
will  be  sufficient  to  keep  Germany  in  subjugation,  and  Austria 
n  awe.  The  finances  of  your  old  Russian  friends  are  said  tc 


LETTER   TO    GIFFORD OCT.   1808.  19 

be  ruined  out  and  out;  such  is  the  account  we  have  from 
Leith. 
"  Enough  of  this  talk.     Ever  yours, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  readiness  with  which  Mr.  Ellis  entered  into  the 
scheme  thus  introduced  to  his  notice,  encouraged  Scott  to 
write  still  more  fully  ;  indeed,  I  might  fill  half  a  volume 
with  the  correspondence  now  before  me  concerning  the 
gradual  organization,  and  ultimately  successful  establish 
ment  of  the  Quarterly  Review.  But  my  only  object  is 
to  illustrate  the  liberality  and  sagacity  of  Scott's  views 
on  such  a  subject,  and  the  characteristic  mixture  of  strong 
and  playful  language  in  which  he  developed  them ;  and 
I  conceive  that  this  end  will  be  sufficiently  accomplished, 
by  extracting  two  more  letters  of  this  bulky  series.  Al 
ready,  as  we  have  seen,  before  opening  the  matter  e^n 
to  Ellis,  he  had  been  requested  to  communicate  his  senti 
ments  to  the  proposed  editor  of  the  work,  and  he  had 
done  so  in  these  terms  :  — 

"  To  William  Giffbrd,  Esq.,  London. 

"  Edinburgh,  October  25, 1808. 

"  Sir,  —  By  a  letter  from  the  Lord  Advocate  of  Scotland,  in 
consequence  of  a  communication  between  his  Lordship  and  Mr. 
Canning  on  the  subject  of  a  new  Review  to  be  attempted  in 
London,  I  have  the  pleasure  to  understand  that  you  have  con 
sented  to  become  the  editor,  a  point  which,  in  my  opinion,  goea 
no  small  way  to  ensure  success  to  the  undertaking.  In  offer 
ing  a  few  observations  upon  the  details  of  such  a  plan,  I  only 
obey  the  commands  of  our  distinguished  friends,  without  hav 
ing  the  vanity  to  hope  that  I  can  point  out  any  thing  which 
leas  not  likely  to  have  at  once  occurred  to  a  person  of  Mr, 
liifford's  literary  experience  and  eminence.  I  shall,  however, 


20  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

beg  permission  to  offer  you  my  sentiments,  in  the  miscellaneous 
way  in  which  they  occur  to  me.  The  extensive  reputation 
and  circulation  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  is  chiefly  owing  to 
two  circumstances  :  First,  that  it  is  entirely  uninfluenced  by 
the  booksellers,  who  have  contrived  to  make  most  of  the  other 
Reviews  merely  advertising  sheets  to  puff  off  their  own  publi 
cations  ;  and,  secondly,  the  very  handsome  recompense  which 
the  editor  not  only  holds  forth  to  his  regular  assistants,  but 
actually  forces  upon  those  whose  circumstances  and  rank  make 
it  a  matter  of  total  indifference  to  them.  The  editor,  to  my 
knowledge,  makes  a  point  of  every  contributor  receiving  this 
bonus,  saying  that  Czar  Peter,  when  working  in  the  trenches, 
received  pay  as  a  common  soldier.  This  general  rule  removes 
all  scruples  of  delicacy,  and  fixes  in  his  service  a  number  of 
persons  who  might  otherwise  have  felt  shy  in  taking  the  price 
of  their  labours,  and  even  the  more  so  because  it  was  an  object 
of  convenience  to  them.  There  are  many  young  men  of  talent 
and  enterprise  who  are  extremely  glad  of  a  handsome  apology 
to  work  for  fifteen  or  twenty  guineas,  although  they  would  not. 
willingly  be  considered  as  hired  reviewers.  From  this  I  deduce 
two  points  of  doctrine :  first,  that  the  work  must  be  considered 
as  independent  of  all  bookselling  influence ;  secondly,  that  the 
labours  of  the  contributors  must  be  regularly  and  handsomely 
recompensed,  and  that  it  must  be  a  rule  that  each  one  shall 
accept  of  the  price  of  his  labour.  John  Murray  of  Fleet 
Street,  a  young  bookseller  of  capital  and  enterprise,  Jind  with 
more  good  sense  and  propriety  of  sentiment  than  fall  to  the 
share  of  most  of  the  trade,  made  me  a  visit  at  Ashestiel  a  few 
weeks  ago,  and  as  I  found  he  had  had  some  communication 
with  you  upon  the  subject,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  communicate 
uiy  sentiments  to  him  on  these  and  some  other  points  of  the 
plan,  and  I  thought  his  ideas  were  most  liberal  and  satisfac 
tory. 

"  The  office  of  the  editor  is  of  such  importance,  that  had  you 
not  been  pleased  to  undertake  it,  I  fear  the  plan  wr uld  have 
fallen  wholly  to  the  ground.  The  full  power  of  control  must, 
of  course,  be  vested  in  the  editor  for  selecting,  curtailing,  an<? 


LETTER    TO    GIFFORD  —  OCT.    1808.  21 

correcting  the  contributions  to  the  Review.  But  this  is  not- 
all  ;  for,  as  he  is  the  person  immediately  responsible  to  the 
bookseller  that  the  work  (amounting  to  a  certain  number  of 
pages,  more  or  less)  shall  be  before  the  public  at  a  certain 
time,  it  will  be  the  editor's  duty  to  consider  in  due  time  the 
articles  of  which  each  number  ought  to  consist,  and  to  take 
measures  for  procuring  them  from  the  persons  best  qualified  to 
write  upon  such  and  such  subjects.  But  this  is  sometimes  so 
troublesome,  that  I  foresee  with  pleasure  you  will  be  soon 
obliged  to  abandon  your  resolution  of  writing  nothing  yourself. 
At  the  same  time,  if  you  will  accept  of  my  services  as  a  sort  of 
jackal  or  lion's  provider,  I  will  do  all  in  my  power  to  assist  in 
this  troublesome  department  of  editorial  duty.  But  there  is 
still  something  behind,  and  that  of  the  last  consequence.  One 
great  resource  to  which  the  Edinburgh  editor  turns  himself, 
and  by  which  he  gives  popularity  even  to  the  duller  articles  of 
his  Review,  is  accepting  contributions  from  persons  of  inferior 
powers  of  writing,  provided  they  understand  the  books  to 
which  the  criticisms  relate  ;  and  as  such  are  often  of  stupifying 
mediocrity,  he  renders  them  palatable  by  throwing  in  a  handful 
of  spice  —  namely,  any  lively  paragraph  or  entertaining  illus 
tration  that  occurs  to  him  in  reading  them  over.  By  this  sort 
of  veneering,  he  converts,  without  loss  of  time,  or  hindrance  of 
business,  articles  which,  in  their  original  state,  might  hang  in 
the  market,  into  such  goods  as  are  not  likely  to  disgrace  those 
among  which  they  are  placed.  This  seems  to  be  a  point  in 
which  an  editor's  assistance  is  of  the  last  consequence ;  for 
those  who  possess  the  knowledge  necessary  to  review  books  of 
research  or  abstruse  disquisition,  are  very  often  unable  to  put 
the  criticism  into  a  readable,  much  more  a  pleasant  and  capti 
vating  form;  and  as  their  science  cannot  be  attained  '  for  the 
nonce,'  the  only  remedy  is  to  supply  their  deficiencies,  and 
give  their  lucubrations  a  more  popular  turn. 

"  There  is  one  opportunity  possessed  by  you  in  a  particular 
degree  —  that  of  access  to  the  best  sources  of  political  informa 
tion.  It  would  not,  certainly  be  advisable  that  the  work 
should  assume,  especially  at  the  outset,  a  professed  political 


22  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

character.  On  the  contrary,  the  articles  on  science  and  mis 
cellaneous  literature  ought  to  be  of  such  a  quality  as  might 
fairly  challenge  competition  with  the  best  of  our  contempo 
raries.  But  as  the  real  reason  of  instituting  the  publication  ia 
the  disgusting  and  deleterious  doctrine  with  which  the  most 
popular  of  our  Reviews  disgraces  its  pages,  it  is  essential  to 
consider  how  this  warfare  should  be  managed.  On  this 
ground,  I  hope  it  is  not  too  much  to  expect  from  those  who 
have  the  power  of  assisting  us,  that  they  should  on  topics  of 
great  national  interest  furnish  the  reviewers,  through  the 
medium  of  their  editor,  with  accurate  views  of  points  of  fact, 
so  far  as  they  are  fit  to  be  made  public.  This  is  the  most  deli 
cate,  and  yet  most  essential  part  of  our  scheme.  On  the  one 
hand,  it  is  certainly  not  to  be  understood  that  we  are  to  be 
held  down  to  advocate  upon  all  occasions  the  cause  of  adminis 
tration.  Such  a  dereliction  of  independence  would  render  us 
entirely  useless  for  the  purpose  we  mean  to  serve.  On  the 
other  hand,  nothing  will  render  the  work  more  interesting 
than  the  public  learning,  not  from  any  vaunt  of  ours,  but  from 
their  own  observation,  that  we  have  access  to  early  and  accu 
rate  information  in  point  of  fact.  The  Edinburgh  Review  has 
profited  much  by  the  pains  which  the  Opposition  party  have 
taken  to  possess  the  writers  of  all  the  information  they  could 
give  them  on  public  matters.  Let  me  repeat  that  you,  my 
dear  sir,  from  enjoying  the  confidence  of  Mr.  Canning  and 
other  persons  in  power,  may  easily  obtain  the  confidential  in 
formation  necessary  to  give  credit  to  the  work,  and  communi 
cate  it  to  such  as  you  may  think  proper  to  employ  in  laying  it 
oefore  the  public. 

"  Concerning  the  mode  and  tune  of  publication,  I  think  you 
will  be  of  opinion  that  monthly,  in  the  present  dearth  of  good 
subjects  of  Review,  would  be  too  often,  and  that  a  quarterly 
publication  would  both  give  you  less  trouble,  and  be  amplv 
sufficient  for  discussing  all  that  is  likely  to  be  worth  discussion, 
The  name  to  be  assumed  is  of  some  consequence,  though  any 
one  of  little  pretension  will  do.  We  might,  for  example,  re 
vive  the  '  English  Review,'  which  was  the  name  of  Gilbert 


LETTER    TO    GIFFORD  — OCT.    1808.  23 

Stuart's.*  Regular  correspondents  ought  to  be  sought  after ; 
but  I  should  be  little  afraid  of  finding  such,  were  the  reputa 
tion  of  the  Review  once  decidedly  established  by  three  or  four 
numbers  of  the  very  first  order.  As  it  would  be  essential  to 
come  on  the  public  by  surprise,  that  no  unreasonable  expecta 
tion  or  artificial  misrepresentation  might  prejudice  its  success, 
the  authors  employed  in  the  first  number  ought  to  be  few  and 
of  the  first  rate.  The  choosing  of  subjects  would  also  be  a 
matter  of  anxious  consideration :  for  example,  a  good  and  dis 
tinct  essay  on  Spanish  affairs  would  be  sufficient  to  give  a 
character  to  the  work.  The  lucubrations  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  on  that  subject,  have  done  the  work  great  injury  with 
the  public ;  and  I  am  convinced,  that  of  the  many  thousands 
of  copies  now  distributed  of  each  Number,  the  quantity  might 
be  reduced  one-half  at  least,  by  any  work  appearing,  which, 
with  the  same  literary  talent  and  independent  character, 
should  speak  a  political  language  more  familiar  to  the  British 
ear  than  that  of  subjugation  to  France.  At  the  same  time,  as 
I  before  hinted,  it  will  be  necessary  to  maintain  the  respect  of 
the  public  by  impartial  disquisition  ;  and  I  would  not  have  it 
said,  as  may  usually  be  predicated  of  other  Reviews,  that  the 
sentiments  of  the  critic  were  less  determined  by  the  value  of 
the  work  than  by  the  purpose  it  was  written  to  serve.  If  a 
weak  brother  will  unadvisedly  put  forth  his  hand  to  support 
even  the  ark  of  the  constitution,  I  would  expose  his  argu 
ments,  though  I  might  approve  of  his  intention  and  of  his 
conclusions.  I  should  think  an  open  and  express  declaration 
of  political  tenets,  or  of  opposition  to  works  of  a  contrary 
tendency,  ought  for  the  same  reason  to  be  avoided.  I  think, 
from  the  little  observation  I  have  made,  that  the  Whigs  suffer 
most  deeply  from  cool  sarcastic  reasoning  and  occasional  ridi 
cule.  Having  long  had  a  sort  of  command  of  the  press,  from 
the  neglect  of  all  literary  assistance  on  the  part  of  those  who 

*  "  The  English  Review  "  was  started  in  January  1783,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  elder  Mr  John  Murray  of  Fleet  Street.  It  had  Dr.  G. 
Stuart  for  Editor,  and  ranked  among  its  contributors  WhHtaker  th« 
Historian  of  Manchester,  Dr.  William  Thomson,  &c.  &c. 


24  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

thought  their  good  cause  should  fight  its  own  battle,  they  are 
apt  to  feel  with  great  acuteness  any  assault  in  that  quarter ; 
and  having  been  long  accustomed  to  push,  have  in  some  degree 
lost  the  power  to  parry.  It  will  not,  therefore,  be  long  before 
they  make  some  violent  retort,  and  1  should  not  be  surprised 
if  it  were  to  come  through  the  Edinburgh  Review.  We  might 
then  come  into  close  combat  with  a  much  better  grace  than  if 
we  had  thrown  down  a  formal  defiance.  I  am,  therefore,  for 
going  into  a  state  of  hostility  without  any  formal  declara 
tion  of  war.  Let  our  forces  for  a  number  or  two  consist  of 
volunteers  and  amateurs,  and  when  we  have  acquired  some 
reputation,  we  shall  soon  levy  and  discipline  forces  of  the 
line. 

"  After  all,  the  matter  is  become  very  serious,  —  eight  or 
nine  thousand  copies  of  the  Edinburgh  Review  are  regularly 
distributed,  merely  because  there  is  no  other  respectable  and 
independent  publication  of  the  kind.  In  this  city,  where  there 
is  not  one  Whig  out  of  twenty  men  who  read  the  work,  many 
hundreds  are  sold ;  and  how  long  the  generality  of  readers 
will  continue  to  dislike  politics,  so  artfully  mingled  with  infor 
mation  and  amusement,  is  worthy  of  deep  consideration.  But 
it  is  not  yet  too  late  to  stand  in  the  breach  ;  the  first  number 
ought,  if  possible,  to  be  out  in  January,  and  if  it  can  burst 
among  them  like  a  bomb,  without  previous  notice,  the  effect 
will  be  more  striking.  Of  those  who  might  be  intrusted  in  the 
first  instance,  you  are  a  much  better  judge  than  I  am.  I  think 
J  can  command  the  assistance  of  a  friend  or  two  here,  partic 
ularly  William  Erskine,  the  Lord  Advocate's  brother-in-law 
and  my  most  intimate  friend.  In  London  you  have  Malthus, 
George  Ellis,  the  Roses,  cum  pluribus  aliis.  Richard  Heber 
was  with  me  when  Murray  came  to  my  farm,  and  knowing  his 
zeal  for  the  good  cause,  I  let  him  into  our  counsels.  In  Mr. 
Frere  we  have  the  hopes  of  a  potent  ally.  The  Rev.  Reginald 
Heber  would  be  an  excellent  coadjutor,  and  when  I  come  to 
town  I  will  sound  Matthias.  As  strict  secrecy  would  of  course 
be  observed,  the  diffidence  of  many  might  be  overcome; —  for 
scholars  you  can  be  at  no  loss  while  Oxford  stands  where  it 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS NOV.    1808.  25 

did,  —  and  I  think  there  will  be  no  deficiency  in  the  scientific 
articles. 

"  Once  more  I  have  to  apologize  for  intruding  on  you  this 
hasty,  and  therefore  long,  and  probably  confused  letter;  I 
trust  your  goodness  will  excuse  my  expressing  any  apology  for 
submitting  to  your  better  judgment  my  sentiments  on  a  plan 
of  such  consequence.  I  expect  to  be  called  to  London  early 
in  the  winter,  perhaps  next  month.  If  you  see  Murray,  as  I 
suppose  you  will,  I  presume  you  will  communicate  to  him  such 
of  my  sentiments  as  have  the  good  fortune  to  coincide  with 
yours.  Among  the  works  in  the  first  Number,  Fox's  history, 
Grattan's  speeches,  a  notable  subject  for  a  quizzing  article, 
and  any  tract  or  pamphlet  that  will  give  an  opportunity  to 
treat  of  the  Spanish  affairs,  would  be  desirable  subjects  of  crit 
icism.  I  am,  with  great  respect,  Sir,  your  most  obedient  ser 
vant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

On  the  18th  of  November,  Scott  enclosed  to  Mr.  Ellis 
'•'  the  rough  scroll "  (that  now  transcribed)  of  his  letter 
to  Mr.  Gifford ;  —  "  this  being,"  he  says,  "  one  of  the 
very  few  epistles  of  which  I  thought  it  will  be  as  well  to 
retain  a  copy."  He  then  proceeds  as  follows  :  — 

"  Supposing  you  to  have  read  said  scroll,  you  must  know 
further,  that  it  has  been  received  in  a  most  favourable  manner 
by  Mr.  Gifford,  who  approves  of  its  contents  in  all  respects, 
and  that  Mr.  Canning  has  looked  it  over,  and  promised  such 
aid  as  is  therein  required.  I  therefore  wish  you  to  be  apprised 
fully  of  what  could  hardly  be  made  the  subject  of  writing,  un 
less  in  all  the  confidence  of  friendship.  Let  me  touch  a  string 
of  much  delicacy  —  the  political  character  of  the  Review.  It 
appears  to  me  that  this  should  be  of  a  liberal  and  enlarged 
nature,  resting  upon  principles — indulgent  and  conciliatory 
as  far  as  possible  upon  mere  party  questions  —  but  stern  in 
detecting  and  exposing  all  attempts  to  sap  our  constitutional 
fabric.  Religion  is  another  slippery  station  ;  here  also  I  would 
endeavour  to  be  as  impartial  as  the  subject  will  admit  of.  This 


26  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

character  of  impartiality,  as  well  as  the  maintenance  of  a  high 
reputation  in  literature,  is  of  great  consequence  to  such  of  our 
friends  as  are  in  the  Ministry,  as  our  more  direct  efforts  in 
their  favour ;  for  these  will  only  be  successful  in  proportion  to 
the  influence  we  shall  acquire  by  an  extensive  circulation ;  to 
procure  which,  the  former  qualities  will  be  essentially  neces 
sary.  Now,  entre  nous,  will  not  our  editor  be  occasionally  a 
little  warm  and  pepperish  ?  —  essential  qualities  in  themselves, 
but  which  should  not  quite  constitute  the  leading  character  of 
such  a  publication.  This  is  worthy  of  a  memento. 

"  As  our  start  is  of  such  immense  consequence,  don't  you 
think  Mr.  Canning,  though  unquestionably  our  Atlas,  might, 
for  a  day  find  a  Hercules  on  whom  to  devolve  the  burthen  of 
the  globe,  while  he  writes  us  a  review  ?  I  know  what  an  au 
dacious  request  this  is ;  but  suppose  he  should,  as  great  states 
men  sometimes  do,  take  a  political  fit  of  the  gout,  and  absent 
himself  from  a  large  ministerial  dinner,  which  might  give  it 
him  in  good  earnest,  —  dine  at  three  on  a  chicken  and  pint  of 
wine,  —  and  lay  the  foundation  at  least  of  one  good  article  ? 
Let  us  but  once  get  afloat,  and  our  labour  is  not  worth  talking 
of;  but,  till  then,  all  hands  must  work  hard. 

"  Is  it  necessary  to  say  that  I  agree  entirely  with  you  in  the 
mode  of  treating  even  delinquents  ?  The  truth  is,  there  is 
policy,  as  well  as  morality,  in  keeping  our  swords  clear  as  well 
as  sharp,  and  not  forgetting  the  gentlemen  in  the  critics.  The 
public  appetite  is  soon  gorged  with  any  particular  style.  The 
common  Reviews,  before  the  appearance  of  the  Edinburgh, 
had  become  extremely  mawkish ;  and,  unless  when  prompted 
by  the  malice  of  the  bookseller  or  reviewer,  gave  a  dawdling, 
maudlin  sort  of  applause  to  everything  that  reached  even 
mediocrity.  The  Edinburgh  folks  squeezed  into  their  sauce 
plenty  of  acid,  and  were  popular  from  novelty  as  well  as  from 
merit.  The  minor  Reviews  and  other  periodical  publications, 
have  outred  the  matter  still  farther,  and  given  us  all  abuse,  and 
no  talent.  But  by  the  time  the  language  of  vituperative  crit 
icism  becomes  general  —  (which  is  now  pretty  nearly  the  case) 
-it  affects  the  tympanum  of  the  public  ear  no  more  that 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS NOV.    1808.  27 

rogue  or  rascal  from  the  cage  of  a  parrot,  or  blood-and-wounds 
from  a  horse-barrack.  This,  therefore,  we  have  to  trust  to, 
that  decent,  lively,  and  reflecting  criticism,  teaching  men  not 
to  abuse  books  only,  but  to  read  and  to  judge  them,  will  have 
the  effect  of  novelty  upon  a  public  wearied  with  universal 
efforts  at  blackguard  and  indiscriminating  satire.  I  have  a 
long  and  very  sensible  letter  from  John  Murray  the  bookseller, 
in  which  he  touches  upon  this  point  very  neatly.  By  the  by, 
little  Weber  may  be  very  useful  upon  antiquarian  subjects,  in 
the  way  of  collecting  information  and  making  remarks  ;  only, 
you  or  I  must  re-write  his  lucubrations.  I  use  him  often  as  a 
pair  of  eyes  in  consulting  books  and  collating,  and  as  a  pair  of 
hands  in  making  extracts.  Constable,  the  great  Edinburgh 
editor,  has  offended  me  excessively  by  tyrannizing  over  this 
poor  Teutcher,  and  being  rather  rude  when  I  interfered.  It 
is  a  chance  but  I  may  teach  him  that  he  should  not  kick  down 
the  scaffolding  before  his  house  is  quite  built.  Another  bomb 
is  about  to  break  on  him  besides  the  Review.  This  is  an  Ed 
inburgh  Annual  Register,  to  be  conducted  under  the  auspices 
of  James  Ballantyne,  who  is  himself  no  despicable  composer, 
and  has  secured  excellent  assistance.  I  cannot  help  him,  of 
course,  very  far,  but  I  will  certainly  lend  him  a  lift  as  an  ad 
viser.  I  want  all  my  friends  to  befriend  this  work,  and  will 
send  you  a  prospectus  when  it  is  published.  It  will  be  valde 
anti-Foxite.  This  is  a  secret  for  the  present. 

"  For  heaven's  sake  do  not  fail  to  hold  a  meeting  as  soon  as 
you  can.  Gifford  will  be  admirable  at  service,  but  will  re 
quire,  or  I  mistake  him  much,  both  a  spur  and  a  bridle,  —  a 
spur  on  account  of  habits  of  literary  indolence  induced  by 
weak  health,  —  and  a  bridle,  because,  having  renounced  in 
some  degree  general  society,  he  cannot  be  supposed  to  have 
the  habitual  and  instinctive  feeling  enabling  him  to  judge  at 
once  and  decidedly  on  the  mode  of  letting  his  shafts  fly  down 
the  breeze  of  popular  opinion.  But  he  has  worth,  wit,  learn 
ing,  and  extensive  information  ;  is  tne  friend  of  our  friends  in 
power,  and  can  easily  correspond  with  them ;  is  in  no  danger 
of  having  private  quarrels  fixed  on  him  for  public  criticism ; 


28  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

nor  very  likely  to  be  embarrassed  by  being  thrown  into  action 
in  public  life  alongside  of  the  very  people  he  has  reviewed,  and 
probably  offended.  All  this  is  of  the  last  importance  to  the 
discharge  of  his  arduous  duty.  It  would  be  cruel  to  add  a 
word  to  this  merciless  epistle,  excepting  love  to  Mrs.  Ellis  and 
all  friends.  Leyden,  by  the  by,  is  triumphant  at  Calcutta  — 
a  Judge,  of  all  things  !  —  and  making  money  !  He  has  flour 
ished  like  a  green  bay  tree  under  the  auspices  of  Lord  Minto, 
his  countryman.  Ever  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Among  others  whom  Scott  endeavoured  to  enlist  in 
the  service  of  the  new  Review  was  his  brother  Thomas, 
who  on  the  breaking  up  of  his  affairs  in  Edinburgh,  had 
retired  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  and  who  shortly  afterwards 
obtained  the  office  in  which  he  died,  that  of  paymaster  to 
the  70th  regiment.  The  poet  had  a  high  opinion  of  his 
brother's  literary  talents,  and  thought  that  his  knowledge 
of  our  ancient  dramatists,  and  his  vein  of  comic  narra 
tion,  might  render  him  a  very  useful  recruit.  He  thus 
communicates  his  views  to  Thomas  Scott,  on  the  19th 
November,  and,  as  might  be  expected,  the  communica 
tion  is  fuller  and  franker  than  any  other  on  the  sub 
ject  :  — 

"  To  Thomas  Scott,  Esq.,  Douglas,  Isle  of  Man. 

"  Dear  Tom,  —  Owing  to  certain  pressing  business,  I  have 
not  yet  had  time  to  complete  my  collection  of  Shadwell  *  for 
you,  though  it  is  now  nearly  ready.  I  wish  you  to  have  all 
the  originals  to  collate  with  the  edition  in  8vo.  But  I  have  a 
more  pressing  employment  for  your  pen,  and  to  which  I  think 
it  particularly  suited.  You  are  to  be  informed,  but  under  the 

*  Mr.  T.  Scott  had  meditated  an  edition  of  Shadwell' s  plays,— 
which,  by  the  way,  his  brother  considered  as  by  no  means  meriting  th« 
utter  neglect  into  which  they  have  fallen,  chiefly  in  consequence  of 
Dryden's  satire. 


LETTER    TO    THOMAS    SCOTT NOV.    1808.  29 

leal  of  the  strictest  secrecy,  that  a  plot  has  been  long  hatching 
by  the  gentlemen  who  were  active  in  the  Anti-jacobin  paper, 
to  countermine  the  Edinburgh  Review,  by  establishing  one 
which  should  display  similar  talent  and  independence,  with 
a  better  strain  of  politics.  The  management  of  this  work  was 
much  pressed  upon  me ;  *  but  though  great  prospects  of  emol 
ument  were  held  out,  I  declined  so  arduous  a  task,  and  it  haa 
devolved  upon  Mr.  Gifford,  author  of  the  Baviad,  with  whose 
wit  and  learning  you  are  weU  acquainted.  He  made  it  a  stip 
ulation,  however,  that  I  should  give  all  the  assistance  in  my 
power,  especially  at  the  commencement ;  to  which  I  am,  for 
many  reasons,  nothing  loth.  Now,  as  I  know  no  one  who  pos 
sesses  more  power  of  humour  or  perception  of  the  ridiculous 
than  yourself,  I  think  your  leisure  hours  might  be  most  pleas- 
antly  passed  in  this  way.  Novels,  light  poetry,  and  quizzical 
books  of  all  kinds,  might  be  sent  you  by  the  packet ;  you  glide 
back  your  reviews  in  the  same  way,  and  touch,  upon  the  pub 
lication  of  the  number  (quarterly),  ten  guineas  per  printed 
sheet  of  sixteen  pages.  If  you  are  shy  of  communicating  di 
rectly  with  Gifford,  you  may,  for  some  time  at  least,  send  your 
communications  through  me,  and  I  will  revise  them.  We  want 
the  matter  to  be  a  profound  secret  till  the  first  number  is  out. 
If  you  agree  to  try  your  skill  I  will  send  you  a  novel  or  two. 
You  must  understand,  as  Gadshill  tells  the  Chamberlain,  that 
you  are  to  be  leagued  with  '  Trojans  that  thou  dreamest  not 
of,  the  which  for  sport  sake  are  content  to  do  the  profession 
some  grace ; '  f  and  thus  far  I  assure  you,  that  if  by  paying 
attention  to  your  style  and  subject  you  can  distinguish  your 
self  creditably,  it  may  prove  a  means  of  finding  you  powerful 
friends  were  anything  opening  in  your  island.  Constable,  or 
rather  that  Bear  his  partner,  has  behaved  to  me  of  late  not 
very  civilly,  and  I  owe  Jeffrey  a  flap  with  a  fox-tail  on  account 
of  his  review  of  Marmion,  and  thus  doth  '  the  whirligig  of  time 

*  This  circumstance  was  noL  revealed  to  Mr.  Murray.  I  presume, 
therefore,  the  invitation  to  Scott  must  have  proceeded  from  Mr.  Can 
ning. 

f  l»l  K.  Henry  IV.  Act  I.  Scene  1. 


50  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

bring  about  my  revenges.'  *  The  late  articles  on  Spain  have 
given  general  disgust,  and  many  have  given  up  the  Edinburgh 
Review  on  account  of  them. 

"  My  mother  holds  out  very  well,  and  talks  of  writing  by 
this  packet.  Her  cask  of  herrings,  as  well  as  ours,  red  and 
white,  have  arrived  safe,  and  prove  most  excellent.  We  have 
been  both  dining  and  supping  upon  them  with  great  gusto,  and 
are  much  obliged  by  your  kindness  in  remembering  us.  Yours 
affectionately,  W.  S." 

I  suspect,  notwithstanding  the  opinion  to  the  contrary 
expressed  in  the  'following  extract,  that  the  preparations 
for  the  new  journal  did  not  long  escape  the  notice  of 
either  the  editor  or  the  publishers  of  the  Edinburgh  Re 
view.  On  receiving  the  celebrated  Declaration  of  West 
minster  on  the  subject  of  the  Spanish  war,  which  bears 
date  the  15th  December  1808,  Scott  says  to  Ellis  — 

"  I  cannot  help  writing  a  few  lines  to  congratulate  you  on 
the  royal  declaration.  I  suspect  by  this  time  the  author  is  at 
Claremont,t  for,  if  I  mistake  not  egregiously,  this  spirited 
composition,  as  we  say  in  Scotland,  fathers  itself  in  the  man 
liness  of  its  style.  It  has  appeared,  too,  at  a  most  fortunate 
time,  when  neither  friend  nor  foe  can  impute  it  to  temporary 
motives.  Tell  Mr.  Canning  that  the  old  women  of  Scotland 
will  defend  the  country  with  their  distaffs,  rather  than  that 
troops  enough  be  not  sent  to  make  good  so  noble  a  pledge. 
Were  the  thousands  that  have  mouldered  away  in  petty  con 
quests  or  Liliputian  expeditions  united  to  those  we  now  have 
in  that  country,  what  a  band  would  Moore  have  under  him ! 

Jeffrey  has  offered  terms  of  pacification,  engaging 

*  Twelfth  Night,  Act  V.  Scene  1. 

f  Scott's  friend  had  mentioned  that  his  cousin  (now  Lord  Seaford) 
expected  a  visit  from  Mr.  Canning,  at  Claremont,  in  Surrey;  which 
beautiful  seat  continued  in  the  possession  of  the  Ellis  family,  until  it 
was  purchased  by  the  crown,  on  the  marriage  of  the  Princess  Charlottt 
tf  Wales,  in  1816. 


RUPTURE    WITH    CONSTABLE,    ETC.  3£ 

that  no  party  politics  should  again  appear  in  his  Review.  I 
told  him  I  thought  it  was  now  too  late,  and  reminded  him  that 
I  had  often  pointed  out  to  him  the  consequences  of  letting  his 
work  become  a  party  tool.  He  said  '  he  did  not  care  for  the 
consequences  —  there  were  but  four  men  he  feared  as  oppo 
nents, —  'Who  were  these?'  —  'Yourself  for  one.'  — '  Cer 
tainly  you  pay  me  a  great  compliment ;  depend  upon  it  I  wiL 
endeavour  to  deserve  it.'  — '  Why,  you  would  not  join  against 
me  ? '  — '  Yes  I  would,  if  I  saw  a  proper  opportunity :  not 
against  you  personally,  but  against  your  politics.'  — '  You  are 
privileged  to  be  violent.'  — '  I  don't  ask  any  privilege  for  undue 
violence.  But  who  are  your  other  foemen  ? '  — '  George  Ellis 
and  Southey.'  The  fourth  he  did  not  name.  All  this  was  in 
great  good-humour ;  and  next  day  I  had  a  very  affecting  note 
from  him,  in  answer  to  an  invitation  to  dinner.  He  has  no 
suspicion  of  the  Review  whatever ;  but  I  thought  I  could  not 
handsomely  suffer  him  to  infer  that  I  would  be  influenced 
by  those  private  feelings  respecting  him,  which,  on  more  than 
one  occasion,  he  has  laid  aside  when  I  was  personally  con 
cerned." 

As  to  Messrs.  Constable  and  Co.,  it  is  not  to  be  sup 
posed  that  the  rumours  of  the  rival  journal  would  tend 
to  soothe  those  disagreeable  feelings  between  them  and 
Scott,  of  which  I  can  trace  the  existence  several  months 
beyond  the  date  of  Mr.  Murray's  arrival  at  Ashestiel. 
Something  seems  to  have  occurred  before  the  end  of 
1808  which  induced  Scott  to  suspect,  that  among  other 
sources  of  uneasiness  had  been  a  repentant  grudge  in  the 
minds  of  those  booksellers  as  to  their  bargain  about  the 
new  edition  of  Swift ;  and  on  the  2d  of  January  1809,  I 
find  him  requesting,  that  if,  on  reflection,  they  thought 
they  had  hastily  committed  themselves,  the  deed  might 
be  forthwith  cancelled.  On  the  llth  of  the  same  month, 
Messrs.  Constable  reply  as  follows  :  — 

VOL.  III.  3 


32  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq. 

"  Sir,  —  We  are  anxious  to  assure  you  that  we  feel  no  dis 
satisfaction  at  any  part  of  our  bargain  about  Swift.  Viewing 
it  as  a  safe  and  respectable  speculation,  we  should  be  very 
sorry  to  agree  to  your  relinquishing  the  undertaking,  and  in 
deed  rely  with  confidence  on  its  proceeding  as  originally  ar 
ranged.  We  regret  that  you  have  not  been  more  willing  to 
overlook  the  unguarded  expression  of  our  Mr.  Hunter  about 
which  you  complain.  We  are  very  much  concerned  that  any 
circumstance  should  have  occurred  that  should  thus  interrupt 
our  friendly  intercourse  ;  but  as  we  are  not  willing  to  believe 
that  we  have  done  anything  which  should  prevent  our  being 
again  friends,  we  may  at  least  be  permitted  to  express  a  hope 
that  matters  may  hereafter  be  restored  to  their  old  footing 
between  us,  when  the  misrepresentations  of  interested  persons 
may  cease  to  be  remembered.  At  any  rate,  you  will  always 
find  us,  what  we  trust  we  have  ever  been,  Sir,  your  faithful 
servants,  A.  CONSTABLE  &  Co." 

Scott  answers : 

"  To  Messrs.  Constable  §•  Co. 

"  Edinburgh,  12th  January  1809. 

"  Gentlemen,  —  To  resume,  for  the  last  time,  the  disagree 
able  subject  of  our  difference,  I  must  remind  you  of  what  I  told 
Mr.  Constable  personally,  that  no  single  unguarded  expression, 
much  less  the  misrepresentation  of  any  person  whatever,  would 
have  influenced  me  to  quarrel  with  any  of  my  friends.  But  if 
Mr.  Hunter  will  take  the  trouble  to  recollect  the  general  opinion 
he  has  expressed  of  my  undertakings,  and  of  my  ability  to  exe- 
cute  them,  upon  many  occasions  during  the  last  five  months, 
and  his  whole  conduct  in  the  bargain  about  Swift,  I  think  he 
ought  to  be  the  last  to  wish  his  interest  compromised  on  my 
account.  I  am  only  happy  the  breach  has  taken  place  before 
there  was  any  real  loss  to  complain  of,  for  although  I  have  hac 
ruy  share  of  popularity,  I  cannot  expect  it  to  be  more  lasting 


RUPTURE    WITH    CONSTABLE.  33 

than  that  of  those  who  have  lost  it  after  deserving  it  much 
better. 

"  In  the  present  circumstances,  I  have  only  a  parting  favour 
to  request  of  your  house,  which  is,  that  the  portrait  for  which 
I  sat  to  Raeburn  shall  be  considered  as  done  at  my  debit,  and 
for  myself.  It  shall  be  of  course  forthcoming  for  the  fulfilment 
of  any  engagement  you  may  have  made  about  engraving,  if 
guch  exists.  Sadler  will  now  be  soon  out,  when  we  will  have 
a  settlement  of  our  accounts.  I  am,  Gentlemen,  your  obe 
dient  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Constable  declined,  in  very  handsome  terms,  to 
give  up  the  picture.  But  for  the  present  the  breach  was 
complete.  Among  other  negotiations  which  Scott  had 
patronised  twelve  months  before,  was  one  concerning  the 
publication  of  Miss  Seward's  Poems.  On  the  19th  of 
March  1809,  he  writes  as  follows  to  that  lady :  — 

"  Constable,  like  many  other  folks  who  learn  to  undervalue 
the  means  by  which  they  have  risen,  has  behaved,  or  rather 
suffered  his  partner  to  behave,  very  uncivilly  towards  me. 
But  they  may  both  live  to  know  that  they  should  not  have 
kicked  down  the  ladder  till  they  were  sure  of  their  footing. 
The  very  last  time  I  spoke  to  him  on  business  was  about  your 
poems,  which  he  promised  faithfully  to  write  about.  I  under 
stood  him  to  decline  your  terms,  in  which  he  acted  wrong ; 
but  I  had  neither  influence  to  change  his  opinion,  nor  inclina 
tion  to  interfere  with  his  resolution.  He  is  a  very  enterpris 
ing,  and,  I  believe,  a  thoroughly  honest  man,  but  his  vanity  in 
Borne  cases  overpowers  his  discretion." 

One  word  as  to  the  harsh  language  in  which  Con 
stable's  then  partner  is  mentioned  in  several  of  the  pre 
ceding  letters.  This  Mr.  Hunter  was,  I  am  told  by 
friends  of  mine  who  knew  him  well,  a  man  of  consider 
able  intelligence  and  accomplishments,  to  whose  personal 


84  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

connexions  and  weight  in  society  the  house  of  Constable 
and  Co.  owed  a  great  accession  of  business  and  influence. 
He  was,  however,  a  very  keen  politician  ;  regarded  Scott'a 
Toryism  with  a  fixed  bitterness;  and,  moreover,  could 
never  conceal  his  impression  that  Scott  ought  to  have 
embarked  in  no  other  literary  undertakings  whatever, 
until  he  had  completed  his  edition  of  Swift.  It  is  not 
wonderful  that,  not  having  been  bred  regularly  to  the 
bookselh'ng  business,  he  should  have  somewhat  misappre 
hended  the  obligation  which  Scott  had  incurred  when  the 
bargain  for  that  work  was  made ;  and  his  feeling  of  his 
own  station  and  consequence  was  no  doubt  such  as  to 
give  his  style  of  conversation,  on  doubtful  questions  of 
business,  a  tone  for  which  Scott  had  not  been  prepared 
by  his  previous  intercourse  with  Mr.  Constable.  The  de 
fection  of  the  poet  was,  however,  at  once  regretted  and 
resented  by  both  these  partners ;  and  Constable,  I  am 
told,  often  vented  his  wrath  in  figures  as  lofty  as  Scott's 
own.  u  Ay,"  he  would  say,  stamping  on  the  ground  with 
a  savage  smile,  "  Ay,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  rearing  the 
oak  until  it  can  support  itself." 

All  this  leads  us  to  the  second  stage,  one  still  more  un 
wise  and  unfortunate  than  the  first,  in  the  history  of 
Scott's  commercial  connexion  with  the  Ballantynes.  The 
scheme  of  starting  a  new  bookselling  house  in  Edinburgh, 
begun  in  the  shortsighted  heat  of  pique,  had  now  been 
matured  ;  —  I  cannot  add,  either  with  composed  observa 
tion  or  rational  forecast  —  for  it  was  ultimately  settled 
.  that  the  ostensible  and  chief  managing  partner  should  be 

person  without  capital,  and  neither  by  training  nor  by 
temper  in  the  smallest  degree  qualified  for  such  a  situa 
tion  ;  more  especially  where  the  field  was  to  be  takeo 
against  long  experience,  consummate  skill,  and  resources 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS.  35 

Ivliich,  if  not  so  large  as  all  the  world  supposed  them, 
were  still  in  comparison  vast,  and  admirably  organized. 
The  rash  resolution  was,  however,  carried  into  effect,  and 
a  deed,  deposited,  for  secrecy's  sake,  in  the  hands  of  Scott, 
laid  the  foundation  of  the  firm  of  "  John  Ballantyne  and 
Co.,  booksellers,  Edinburgh."  Scott  appears  to  have 
supplied  all  the  capital,  at  any  rate  his  own  one-half 
share,  and  one-fourth,  the  portion  of  James,  who,  not  hav 
ing  any  funds  to  spare,  must  have  become  indebted  to 
some  one  for  it.  It  does  not  appear  from  what  source 
John  acquired  his,  the  remaining  fourth ;  but  Rigdum- 
funnidos  was  thus  installed  in  Hanover  Street  as  the 
avowed  rival  of  "  The  Crafty." 

The  existing  bond  of  copartnership  is  dated  in  July 
1809  ;  but  I  suspect  this  had  been  a  revised  edition.  It 
is  certain  that  the  new  house  were  openly  mustering  their 
forces  some  weeks  before  Scott  desired  to  withdraw  his 
Swift  from  the  hands  of  the  old  one  in  January.  This 
appears  from  several  of  the  letters  that  passed  between 
him  and  Ellis  while  Gifford  was  arranging  the  materials 
for  the  first  number  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  and  also 
between  him  and  his  friend  Southey,  to  whom,  perhaps, 
more  than  any  other  single  writer,  that  journal  owed  its 
ultimate  success. 

To  Ellis,  for  example,  he  says,  on  the  13th  of  Decem 
ber  1808 :  — 

"  Now  let  me  call  your  earnest  attention  to  another  literary 
undertaking,  which  is,  in  fact,  a  subsidiary  branch  of  the  same 
grand  plan.  I  transmit  the  prospectus  of  an  Edinburgh  An 
nual  Register.  I  have  many  reasons  for  favouring  this  work 
as  much  as  I  possibly  can.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  nothing 
even  barely  tolerable  of  this  nature,  though  so  obviously  neces- 
tary  to  future  history.  Secondly,  Constable  was  on  the  point 


86  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  arranging  one  on  the  footing  of  the  Edinburgh  Review,  and 
Bubsidiary  thereunto,  —  a  plan  which  has  been  totally  discon 
certed  by  our  occupying  the  vantage-ground.  Thirdly,  thia 
work  will  be  very  well  managed.  The  two  Mackenzies,* 
William  Erskine  cum  plurimis  aliis,  are  engaged  in  the  literary 
department,  and  that  of  science  is  conducted  by  Professor 
Leslie,  a  great  philosopher,  and  as  abominable  an  animal  as  1 
ever  saw.  He  writes,  however,  with  great  eloquence,  and  is 
an  enthusiast  in  mathematical,  chemical,  and  mineralogical 
pursuits.  I  hope  to  draw  upon  you  in  this  matter,  particularly 
in  the  historical  department,  to  which  your  critical  labours  will 
naturally  turn  your  attention.  You  will  ask  what  I  propose  to 
do  myself.  In  fact,  though  something  will  be  expected,  I  can 
not  propose  to  be  very  active  unless  the  Swift  is  abandoned,  of 
which  I  think  there  is  some  prospect,  as  I  have  reason  to  com 
plain  of  very  indifferent  usage,  —  not  indeed  from  Constable, 
who  is  reduced  to  utter  despair  by  the  circumstance,  but  from 
the  stupid  impertinence  of  his  partner,  a  sort  of  Whig  run  mad. 
I  have  some  reason  to  believe  that  Ballantyne,  whose  stock  is 
now  immensely  increased,  and  who  is  likely  to  enlarge  it  by 
marriage,  will  commence  publisher.  Constable  threatened  him 
with  withdrawing  his  business  from  him  as  a  printer  on  account 
of  his  being  a  Constitutionalist.  He  will  probably  by  this  false 
step  establish  a  formidable  rival  in  his  own  line  of  publishing, 
which  will  be  most  just  retribution.  I  intend  to  fortify  Ballan 
tyne  by  promising  him  my  continued  friendship,  which  I  hope 
may  be  of  material  service  to  him.  He  is  much  liked  by  the 
literary  people  here;  has  a  liberal  spirit,  and  understanding 
business  very  completely,  with  a  good  general  idea  of  litera 
ture,  I  think  he  stands  fair  for  success. 

"  But,  Oh  !  Ellis,  these  cursed,  double  cursed  news,  have 
flunk  my  spirits  so  much,  that  I  am  almost  at  disbelieving  a 
Providence.  God  forgive  me  !  But  I  think  some  evil  demon 
has  been  permitted,  in  the  shape  of  this  tyrannical  monster 
»yhoin  God  has  sent  on  the  nations  visited  in  his  anger.  I  am 

*  The  Man  of  Feeling,  and  Colin  Mackenzie  of  Portmore. 


AFFAIRS    OF    SPAIN.  37 

confident  he  is  proof  against  lead  and  steel,  and  have  only  hopes 
that  he  may  be  shot  with  a  silver  bullet,*  or  drowned  in  the 
torrents  of  blood  which  he  delights  to  shed.  Oh  for  True 
Thomas  and  Lord  Soulis's  cauldron !  f  Adieu,  my  dear  Ellis. 
God  bless  you !  —  I  have  been  these  three  days  writing  this  by 
snatches." 

The  "cursed  news"  here  alluded  to  were  those  of 
Napoleon's  advance  by  Somosierra,  after  the  dispersion 
of  the  armies  of  Blake  and  Castanos.  On  the  23d  of 
the  same  month,  when  the  Treason  of  Morla  and  the  fall 
of  Madrid  were  known  in  Edinburgh,  he  thus  resumes :  — - 
(Probably  while  he  wrote,  some  cause  with  which  he  was 
not  concerned  was  occupying  the  Court  of  Session)  :  — 

"  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  have  nothing  better  to  do  but  to  vent  my 
groans.  I  cannot  but  feel  exceedingly  low.  I  distrust  what 
we  call  thoroughbred  soldiers  terribly,  when  anything  like  the 
formation  of  extensive  plans,  of  the  daring  and  critical  nature 
which  seems  necessary  for  the  emancipation  of  Spain,  is  re 
quired  from  them.  Our  army  is  a  poor  school  for  genius  — 
for  the  qualities  which  naturally  and  deservedly  attract  the 
applause  of  our  generals,  are  necessarily  exercised  upon  a 
small  scale.  I  would  to  God  Wellesley  were  now  at  the  head 
of  the  English  in  Spain.  His  late  examination  shows  his  acute 

*  See  note,  "  Proof  against  shot  given  by  Satan."  —  Old  Mor< 
talitv,  chap.  xvi. 

1  "  On  a  circle  of  stones  they  placed  the  pot, 
On  a  circle  of  stones  but  barely  nine ; 
They  heated  it  red  and  fiery  hot, 

Till  the  burnish'd  brass  did  glimmer  and  shine. 
They  roll'd  him  up  in  a  sheet  of  lead, 

A  sheet  of  lead  for  a  funeral  pall  : 
They  plunged  him  in  the  cauldron  red, 

And  melted  him,  lead,  and  bones  and  all." 
fee  the  Ballad  of  Lord  SouKs,  and  notes,  Border  Minstrdty. 


38  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  decisive  talents  for  command  ;  *  and  although  I  believe  in 
my  conscience,  that  when  he  found  himself  superseded,  he  s^if- 
fered  the  pigs  to  run  through  the  business,  when  he  might  in 
some  measure  have  prevented  them  — 

'  Yet  give  the  haughty  devil  his  due, 
Though  bold  his  quarterings,  they  are  true.* 

Such  a  man,  with  an  army  of  40,000  or  50,000  British,  with 
the  remains  of  the  Gallician  army,  and  the  additional  forces 
which  every  village  would  furnish  in  case  of  success,  might  pos 
sess  himself  of  Burgos,  open  a  communication  with  Arragon, 
and  even  Navarre,  and  place  Buonaparte  in  the  precarious  sit 
uation  of  a  general  with  100,000  enemies  between  him  and  his 
supplies;  —  for  I  presume  neither  Castanos  nor  Palafox  are  so 
broken  as  to  be  altogether  disembodied.  But  a  general  who 
is  always  looking  over  his  shoulder,  and  more  intent  on  saving 
his  own  army  than  on  doing  the  service  on  which  he  is  sent,  will 
hardly,  I  fear,  be  found  capable  of  forming  or  executing  a 
plan  which  its  very  daring  character  might  render  successful. 
What  would  we  think  of  an  admiral  who  should  bring  back 
his  fleet  and  tell  us  old  Keppel's  story  of  a  lee-shore,  and  the 
risk  of  his  Majesty's  vessels  ?  Our  sailors  have  learned  that 
his  Majesty's  ships  were  built  to  be  stranded,  or  burnt,  or  sunk, 
or  at  least  to  encounter  the  risk  of  these  contingencies,  when 
his  service  requires  it ;  and  I  heartily  wish  our  generals  would 
learn  to  play  for  the  gammon,  and  not  to  sit  down  contented 
with  a  mere  saving  game.  What,  however,  can  we  say  of 
Moore,  or  how  judge  of  his  actions,  since  the  Supreme  Junta 
have  shown  themselves  so  miserably  incapable  of  the  arduous 
xertions  expected  from  them  ?  Yet,  like  Pistol,  they  spoke 

*  This  refers  to  Sir  Arthur  Wellesley's  evidence  before  the  Court  of 
Inquiry  into  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the  Convention  (miscalled) 
of  Cintra.  For  the  best  answer  to  the  then  popular  suspicion,  which 
Scott  seems  to  have  partaken,  as  to  the  conduct  of  Sir  Arthur  when 
superseded  in  the  moment  of  victory  at  Vimiero,  I  refer  to  the  contem- 
porary  despatches  lately  published  in  Colonel  Gurwood's  invaluabl* 
compilation. 


LETTER    TO    Mil.    SHAKPE DEC.    1808.  39 

bold  words  at  the  bridge  too,*  and  I  admired  their  firmness  in 
declaring  O'Farrel,  and  the  rest  of  the  Frenchified  Spaniards, 
traitors.  But  they  may  have  Roman  pride,  and  want  Roman 
talent  to  support  it ;  and  in  short,  unless  God  Almighty  should 
raise  among  them  one  of  those  extraordinary  geniuses  who 
seem  to  be  created  for  the  emergencies  of  an  oppressed  people, 
I  confess  I  still  incline  to  despondence.  If  Canning  could  send 
a  portion  of  his  own  spirit  with  the  generals  he  sends  forth, 
my  hope  would  be  high  indeed.  The  proclamation  was  truly 
gallant. 

"  As  to  the  Annual  Register,  I  do  agree  that  the  Prospectus 
is  in  too  stately  a  tone  —  yet  I  question  if  a  purer  piece  of 
composition  would  have  attracted  the  necessary  attention.  We 
must  sound  a  trumpet  before  we  open  a  show.  You  will  say 
we  have  added  a  tambourin ;  but  the  mob  will  the  more  read 
ily  stop  and  gaze ;  nor  would  their  ears  be  so  much  struck  by 
a  sonata  from  Viotti.  Do  you  know  the  Review  begins  to  get 
wind  here  ?  An  Edinburgh  bookseller  asked  me  to  recommend 
him  for  the  sale  here,  and  said  he  heard  it  confidentially  from 
London.  —  Ever  yours,  W.  S." 

I  may  also  introduce  here  a  letter  of  about  the  same 
date,  and  referring  chiefly  to  the  same  subjects,  addressed 
by  Scott  to  his  friend,  Mr.  Charles  Sharpe,f  then  at  Ox 
ford.  The  allusion  at  the  beginning  is  to  a  drawing  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  as  seen  "  dancing  high  and  disposedly,'* 
in  her  private  chamber,  by  the  Scotch  ambassador,  Sir 
James  Melville,  whose  description  of  the  exhibition  is 
one  of  the  most  amusing  things  in  his  Memoirs.  This 
production  of  Mr.  Sharpe's  pencil,  and  the  delight  with 
which  Scott  used  to  expatiate  on  its  merits,  must  be  well 
remembered  by  every  one  that  ever  visited  the  poet  at 

*  K.  Henry  V.  Act  IV.  Scene  4. 

t  Scott's  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Sharpe  began  when  the  latter  wat 
very  young.  He  supplied  Scott,  when  compiling  the  Minstrelsy,  -with 
foe  ballad  of  the  "  Tower  of  Repentance,"  &c. 


40  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

Abbotsford.  —  Some  of  the  names  mentioned  in  this  let 
ter  as  counted  on  by  the  projectors  of  the  Quarterly  Re 
view  will,  no  doubt,  amuse  the  reader. 

"  To  Charles  Kirkpatrick  Sharpe,  Esq.,  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 
"  Edinburgh,  30th  December  1808. 

"  My  Dear  Sharpe,  —  The  inimitable  virago  came  safe,  and 
was  welcomed  by  the  inextinguishable  laughter  of  all  whc 
looked  upon  her  caprioles.  I  was  unfortunately  out  of  town 
for  a  few  days,  which  prevented  me  from  acknowledging  in 
stantly  what  gave  me  so  much  pleasure,  both  on  account  of  its 
intrinsic  value,  and  as  a  mark  of  your  kind  remembrance. 
You  have,  I  assure  you,  been  upmost  in  my  thoughts  for  some 
time  past,  as  I  have  a  serious  design  on  your  literary  talents, 
which  I  am  very  anxious  to  engage  in  one  or  both  of  the  two 
following  schemes.  Imprimis,  it  has  been  long  the  decided 
resolution  of  Mr.  Canning  and  some  of  his  literary  friends, 
particularly  Geo.  Ellis,  Malthus,  Frere,  W.  Rose,  &c.,  that 
something  of  an  independent  Review  ought  to  be  started  in 
London.  This  plan  is  now  on  the  point  of  being  executed, 
after  much  consultation.  I  have  strongly  advised  that  politics 
be  avoided,  unless  in  cases  of  great  national  import,  and  that 
their  tone  be  then  moderate  and  manly ;  but  the  general  tone 
of  the  publication  is  to  be  literary.  William  GifFord  is  editor, 
and  I  have  promised  to  endeavour  to  recruit  for  him  a  few 
spirited  young  men  able  and  willing  to  assist  in  such  an  under 
taking.  I  confess  you  were  chiefly  in  my  thoughts  when  I 
made  this  promise ;  but  it  is  a  subject  which  for  a  thousand 
reasons  I  would  rather  have  talked  over  than  written  about  — 
among  others  more  prominent  I  may  reckon  my  great  abhor 
rence  of  pen  and  ink,  for  writing  has  been  so  long  a  matter  of 
duty  with  me,  that  it  is  become  as  utterly  abominable  to  me  as 
matters  of  duty  usually  are.  Let  me  entreat  you,  therefore, 
to  lay  hold  of  Macneill,*  or  any  other  new  book  you  like,  and 

*  "  The  Pastoral,  or  Lyric  Muse  of  Scotland;  in  three  Cantos,"  4to 
by  Hector  Macneill,  appeared  in  Dec.  1808. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    SHARPE  —  DEC.    1808.  41 

give  us  a  good  hacking  review  of  it.  I  retain  so  much  the  old 
habit  of  a  barrister,  that  I  cannot  help  adding,  the  fee  is  ten 
guineas  a-sheet,  which  may  serve  to  buy  an  odd  book  now  and 
then  —  as  good  play  for  nothing,  you  know,  as  work  for  noth 
ing  ;  but  besides  this,  your  exertions  in  this  cause,  if  you  shall 
choose  to  make  any,  will  make  you  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  a  very  pleasant  literary  coterie  than  introductions  of  a 
more  formal  kind ;  and  if  you  happen  to  know  George  Ellis 
already,  you  must,  I  am  sure,  be  pleased  to  take  any  trouble 
likely  to  produce  an  intimacy  between  you.  The  Hebers  are 
also  engaged,  item  Rogers,  Southey,  Moore  (Anacreon),  and 
others  whose  reputations  Jeffrey  has  murdered,  and  who  are 
rising  to  cry  wo  upon  him,  like  the  ghosts  in  King  Richard ; 
for  your  acute  and  perspicacious  judgment  must  ere  this  have 
led  you  to  suspect  that  this  same  new  Review,  which  by  the 
way  is  to  be  called  '  the  Quarterly,'  is  intended  as  a  rival  to 
the  Edinburgh ;  and  if  it  contains  criticism  not  very  inferior 
in  point  of  talent,  with  the  same  independence  on  booksellers' 
influence  (which  has  ruined  all  the  English  Reviews),  I  do  not 
see  why  it  should  not  divide  with  it  the  public  favour.  Ob 
serve  carefully,  this  plan  is  altogether  distinct  from  one  which 
has  been  proposed  by  the  veteran  Cumberland,  to  which  is  an 
nexed  the  extraordinary  proposal  that  each  contributor  shall 
place  his  name  before  his  article,  a  stipulation  which  must 
prove  fatal  to  the  undertaking.  If  I  did  not  think  this  likely 
to  be  a  very  well  managed  business,  I  would  not  recommend  it 
to  your  consideration ;  but  you  see  I  am  engaged  with  no  '  foot 
land-rakers,  no  long-staff  sixpenny  strikers,  but  with  nobil 
ity  and  tranquillity,  burgomasters,  and  great  oneyers,'  and  so 
forth.* 

"  The  other  plan  refers  to  the  enclosed  prospectus,  and  has 
long  been  a  favourite  scheme  of  mine,  of  William  Erskine's, 
and  some  of  my  other  cronies  here.  Mr.  Ballantyne,  the 
editor,  only  undertakes  for  the  inferior  departments  of  the 
work,  and  for  keeping  the  whole  matter  in  train.  We  are 

*  Gadshill  —  1st  K.  Henry  IV.  Act  II.  Scene  1. 


42  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

most  anxious  to  have  respectable  contributors,  and  the  smallest 
donation  in  any  department,  poetry,  antiquities,  &c.  &c.,  will 
be  most  thankfully  accepted  and  registered.  But  the  histori 
cal  department  is  that  in  which  I  would  chiefly  wish  to  see  you 
engaged.  A  lively  luminous  picture  of  the  events  of  the  last 
momentous  year,  is  a  task  for  the  pen  of  a  man  of  genius  ;  as 
for  materials,  I  could  procure  you  access  to  many  of  a  valuable 
kind.  The  appointments  of  our  historian  are  £300  a-year  — 
no  deaf  nuts.  Another  person  *  has  been  proposed,  and  writ 
ten  to,  but  I  cannot  any  longer  delay  submitting  the  thing  to 
your  consideration.  Of  course,  you  are  to  rely  on  every  assist 
ance  that  can  be  afforded  by  your  humble  comdumble,  as  Swift 
says.  I  hope  the  great  man  will  give  us  his  answer  shortly  — 
and  if  his  be  negative,  pray  let  yours  be  positive.  Our  politics 
we  would  wish  to  be  constitutional,  but  not  party.  You  see, 
my  good  friend,  what  it  is  to  show  your  good  parts  before  un 
questionable  judges. 

"  I  am  forced  to  conclude  abruptly.     Thine  entirely, 

"W.  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Morritt  was  by  this  time  beginning  to  correspond 
with  the  poet  pretty  frequently.  The  first  of  their  let 
ters,  however,  that  serves  to  throw  light  on  Scott's  per 
sonal  proceedings,  is  the  following :  — 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  Rokeby  Park,  Yorkshire. 

"  Edinburgh,  14th  January  1809. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  For  a  long  while  I  thought  my  summons 
to  London  would  have  been  immediate,  and  that  I  should  have 
had  the  pleasure  to  wait  upon  you  at  Rokeby  Park  in  my  way 
to  town.  But,  after  due  consideration,  the  commissioners  OP 
our  Scottish  reform  of  judicial  proceedings  resolved  to  begin 
their  sittings  at  Edinburgh,  and  have  been  in  full  activity  ever 
Bince  last  St.  Andrew's  day.  You  are  not  ignorant  that  in 
business  of  this  nature,  very  much  of  the  detail,  and  of  prepar 

*  Mr.  Southey  —  who  finally  undertook  the  task  proposed  to  him. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    MOBRITT JAN.    1809.  43 

/fag  the  materials  for  the  various  meetings,  necessarily  devolves 
upon  the  clerk,  and  I  cannot  say  but  that  my  time  has  been 
fully  occupied. 

"  Meanwhile,  however,  I  have  been  concocting,  at  the  in 
stigation  of  various  loyal  and  well-disposed  persons,  a  grand 
scheme  of  opposition  to  the  proud  critics  of  Edinburgh.  It  is 
now  matured  in  all  its  branches,  and  consists  of  the  following 
divisions.  A  new  review  in  London,  to  be  called  the  Quar 
terly,  William  Gifford  to  be  the  editor ;  George  Ellis,  Rose, 
Mr.  Canning  if  possible,  Frere,  and  all  the  ancient  Anti-Jaco 
bins,  to  be  concerned.  The  first  number  is  now  in  hand,  and 
the  allies,  I  hope  and  trust,  securely  united  to  each  other.  I 
have  promised  to  get  them  such  assistance  as  I  can,  and  most 
happy  should  I  be  to  prevail  upon  you  to  put  your  hand  to  the 
ark.  You  can  so  easily  run  off  an  article  either  of  learning  or 
of  fun,  that  it  would  be  inexcusable  not  to  afford  us  your  as 
sistance.  Then,  sir,  to  turn  the  flank  of  Messrs.  Constable  and 
Co.,  and  to  avenge  myself  of  certain  impertinences  which,  in 
the  vehemence  of  their  Whiggery,  they  have  dared  to  indulge 
in  towards  me,  I  have  prepared  to  start  against  them  at  Whit- 
sunda^  first  the  celebrated  printer,  Ballantyne  (who  had  the 
honour  of  meeting  you  at  Ashestiel),  in  the  shape  of  an  Edin 
burgh  publisher,  with  a  long  purse*  and  a  sound  political 
creed,  not  to  mention  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  with 
young  John  Murray  of  Fleet  Street,  the  most  enlightened  and 
active  of  the  London  trade.  By  this  means  I  hope  to  counter 
balance  the  predominating  influence  of  Constable  and  Co., 
who  at  present  have  it  in  their  power  and  inclination  to  for 
ward  or  suppress  any  book  as  they  approve  or  dislike  its  politi 
cal  tendency.  Lastly,  I  have  caused  the  said  Ballantyne  to 
venture  upon  an  Edinburgh  Annual  Register,  of  which  I  send 
you  a  prospectus.  I  intend  to  help  him  myself  as  far  as  time 
will  admit,  and  hope  to  procure  him  many  respectable  coad 
jutors. 

*  The  purse  was,  alas !  Scott's  own.  Between  May  1805  and  the  end 
J  1810,  he  invested  cash  to  the  extent  of  ai  least  .£9000  in  the  Ballau- 
tyne  companies ! 


44  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  My  own  motions  southwards  remain  undetermined,  but  ] 
conceive  I  may  get  to  town  about  the  beginning  of  March, 
when  I  expect  to  find  you  en  famille  in  Portland  Place.  Our 
Heber  will  then  most  likely  be  in  town,  and  altogether  I  am 
much  better  pleased  that  the  journey  is  put  off  till  the  lively 
season  of  gaiety. 

"  I  am  busy  with  my  edition  of  Swift,  and  treasure  your  kind 
hints  for  my  direction  as  I  advance.  In  summer  I  think  of 
going  to  Ireland  to  pick  up  anything  that  may  be  yet  re 
coverable  of  the  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's.  Mrs.  Scott  joins  me 
in  kindest  and  best  respects  to  Mrs.  Morritt.  I  am,  with  great 
regard,  Dear  Sir,  your  faithful  humble  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT  " 

The  two  following  letters  seem  to  have  been  written  at 
the  clerk's  table,  the  first  shortly  before,  and  the  second 
very  soon  after,  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Corunna 
reached  Scotland :  — 


"  To  Robert  Southey,  Esq.,  Keswick. 

"  Edinburgh,  14th  January  1809. 

"  Dear  Southey,  —  I  have  been  some  time  from  home  in  the 
course  of  the  holidays,  but  immediately  on  my  return  set  about 
procuring  the  books  you  wished  to  see.  There  are  only  three 
of  them  in  our  library,  namely  — 

Dobrizzhoffer  de  Abiponibus,  3  vols. 

A  French  translation  of  Gomella's  History  of  Oronoquo. 

Ramuzio  Navigazioni,  &c.  &c. 

Of  these  I  can  only  lay  my  hands  immediately  on  Dobrizzhof 
fer,  which  I  have  sent  off  by  the  Carlisle  coach,  addressed  to 
the  care  of  Jollie  the  bookseller  for  you.  I  do  this  at  my  own 
risk,  because  we  never  grant  license  to  send  the  books  out  of 
Scotland,  and  should  I  be  found  to  have  done  so  I  may  be 
censured,  and  perhaps  my  use  of  the  library  suspendei.  At 
Ihe  same  time,  I  think  it  hard  you  should  take  a  journey  ir 


LETTER    TO    MR.    SOUTHEY JAN.    1809.  45 

this  deadly  cold  weather,  and  trust  you  will  make  early  in 
quiry  after  the  book  Keep  it  out  of  sight  while  you  use  it, 
and  return  it  as  soon  as  you  have  finished.  I  suppose  these 
game  Abipones  were  a  nation  to  my  own  heart's  content,  being, 
as  the  title-page  informs  me,  bellicosi  et  equestres,  like  our  old 
Border  lads.  Should  you  think  of  coming  hither,  which  per 
haps  might  be  the  means  of  procuring  you  more  information 
than  I  can  make  you  aware  of,  I  bespeak  you  for  my  guest. 
I  can  give  you  a  little  chamber  in  the  wall,  and  you  shall  go 
out  and  in  as  quietly  and  freely  as  your  heart  can  desire,  with 
out  a  human  creature  saying  '  why  doest  thou  so  ? '  Thalaba 
is  in  parturition  too,  and  you  should  in  decent  curiosity  give  an 
eye  after  him.  Yet  I  will  endeavour  to  recover  the  other 
books  (now  lent  out),  and  send  them  to  you  in  the  same  way 
as  Dob.  travels,  unless  you  recommend  another  conveyance. 
But  I  expect  this  generosity  on  my  part  will  rather  stir  your 
gallantry  to  make  us  a  visit  when  this  abominable  storm  has 
passed  away.  My  present  occupation  is  highly  unpoetical  — 
clouting,  in  short,  and  cobbling  our  old  Scottish  system  of  juris 
prudence,  with  a  view  to  reform.  I  am  clerk  tp  a  commission 
under  the  authority  of  Parliament  for  this  purpose,  which 
keeps  me  more  than  busy  enough. 

"  I  have  had  a  high  quarrel  with  Constable  and  Co.  The 
Edinburgh  Review  has  driven  them  quite  crazy,  and  its  suc 
cess  led  them  to  undervalue  those  who  have  been  of  most  use 
to  them  —  but  they  shall  dearly  abye  it.  The  worst  is,  that 
being  out  of  a  publishing  house,  I  have  not  interest  to  be  of 
any  service  to  Coleridge's  intended  paper.*  Ballantyne,  the 
printer,  intends  to  open  shop  here  on  the  part  of  his  brother, 
and  I  am  sure  will  do  all  he  can  to  favour  the  work.  Does  it 
positively  go  on  ? 

"  I  have  read  Wordsworth's  lucubrations  in  the  Courier  f 
and  nrich  agree  with  him.  Alas !  we  want  everything  but 

*  Mr.  Coleridge's  "  Friend "  was  originally  published  in  weekly 
papers. 

t  Mr.  Wordsworth's  Remarks  on  the  Convention  of  Cintra  were 
afterwards  collected  in  a  pamphlet. 


46  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

courage  and  virtue  in  this  desperate  contest.  Skill,  knowl 
edge  of  mankind,  ineffable  unhesitating  villany,  combination 
of  movement  and  combination  of  means,  are  with  our  adver 
sary.  We  can  only  fight  like  mastiffs,  boldly,  blindly,  and 
faithfully.  I  am  almost  driven  to  the  pass  of  the  Covenanters, 
when  they  told  the  Almighty  in  their  prayers,  he  should  nc 
longer  be  their  God ;  and  I  really  believe,  a  few  Gazettes  more 
will  make  me  turn  Turk  or  Infidel.  Believe  me,  in  great  grief 
of  spirit,  Dear  Southey,  ever  yours, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  Mrs.  Scott  begs  kind  remembrance  to  Mrs.  Southey.     The 
bed  in  the  said  chamber  in  the  wall  is  a  double  one." 


"  To  the  Same. 

"  Edinburgh,  31st  January  1809. 

"  My  Dear  Southey,  —  Yesterday  I  received  your  letter, 
and  to-day  I  despatched  Gomella  and  the  third  volume  of  Ra- 
muzio.  The  other  two  volumes  can  also  be  sent,  if  you  should 
find  it  necessary  to  consult  them.  The  parcel  is  addressed  to 
the  paternal  charge  of  your  Keswick  carrier.  There  is  no 
hurry  in  returning  these  volumes,  so  don't  derange  your  oper 
ations  by  hurrying  your  extracts,  only  keep  them  from  any 
profane  eye.  I  dipped  into  Gomella  while  I  was  waiting  for 
intelligence  from  you,  and  was  much  edified  by  the  bonhommie 
with  which  the  miracles  of  the  Jesuits  are  introduced. 

"  The  news  from  Spain  gave  me  such  a  mingled  feeling,  that 
I  never  suffered  so  much  in  my  whole  life  from  the  disorder 
of  spirits  occasioned  by  affecting  intelligence.  My  mind  hao 
naturally  a  strong  military  bent,  though  my  path  in  life  has 
been  so  very  different.  I  love  a  drum  and  a  soldier  as  heartily 
as  ever  Uncle  Toby  did,  and  between  the  pride  arising  from 
our  gallant  bearing,  and  the  deep  regret  that  so  much  bravery 
should  run  to  waste,  I  spent  a  most  disordered  and  agitated 
aight,  never  closing  my  eyes  but  what  I  was  harassed  with 
visions  of  broken  ranks,  bleeding  soldiers,  dying  horses  — '  anci 


LETTER   TO    MR.    SOUTHEY — JAN.    1809.  47 

all  the  currents  of  a  heady  fight.'  *  I  agree  with  you  that  we 
want  energy  in  our  cabinet  —  or  rather  their  opinions  are  so 
different,  that  they  come  to  wretched  compositions  between 
them,  which  are  worse  than  the  worst  course  decidedly  fol 
lowed  out.  Canning  is  most  anxious  to  support  the  Spaniards, 
and  would  have  had  a  second  army  at  Corunna,  but  for  the 
positive  demand  of  poor  General  Moore  that  empty  transport 
should  be  sent  thither.  So  the  reinforcements  were  disem 
barked.  I  fear  it  will  be  found  that  Moore  was  rather  an 
excellent  officer,  than  a  general  of  those  comprehensive  and 
daring  views  necessary  in  his  dangerous  situation.  Had  Wel- 
Icsley  been  there,  the  battle  of  Corunna  would  have  been 
fought  and  won  at  Somosierra,  and  the  ranks  of  the  victors 
would  have  been  reinforced  by  the  population  of  Madrid. 
Would  to  God  we  had  yet  100,000  men  in  Spain.  I  fear  not 
Buonaparte's  tactics.  The  art  of  fence  may  do  a  great  deal, 
but  '  a  la  stoccata,'  as  Mercutio  says,  cannot  carry  it  away  from 
national  valour  and  personal  strength.  The  Opposition  have 
sold  or  bartered  every  feeling  of  patriotism  for  the  most  greedy 
and  selfish  egoisme. 

"  Ballantyne's  brother  is  setting  up  here  as  a  bookseller, 
chiefly  for  publishing.  I  will  recommend  Coleridge's  paper  to 
him  as  strongly  as  I  can.  I  hope  by  the  time  it  is  commenced 
he  will  be  enabled  to  send  him  a  handsome  order.  From  my 
great  regard  for  his  brother,  I  shall  give  this  young  publisher 
what  assistance  I  can.  He  is  understood  to  start  against  Con 
stable  and  the  Reviewers,  and  publishes  the  Quarterly.  In 
deed  he  is  in  strict  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  John 
Murray  of  Fleet  Street.  I  have  also  been  labouring  a  little 
for  the  said  Quarterly,  which  I  believe  you  will  detect.  I  hear 
very  high  things  from  GifFord  of  your  article.  About  your 
visit  to  Edinburgh,  I  hope  it  will  be  a  month  later  than  you 
now  propose,  because  my  present  prospects  lead  me  to  think  I 
qiust  be  in  London  the  whole  month  of  April.  Early  in  May 
f  must  return,  and  will  willingly  take  the  lakes  in  my  way  in 

*  1st  K.  Henry  IV.  Act  II.  Scene  2. 

VOL.  III.  4 


48  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

hopes  you  will  accompany  me  to  Edinburgh,  whir-h  you  posi 
tively  must  not  think  of  visiting  in  my  absence. 

"  Lord  Advocate,  who  is  sitting  behind  me,  says  the  Minis 
ters  have  resolved  not  to  abandon  the  Spaniards  route  qui 
coute.  It  is  a  spirited  determination  —  but  they  must  find  a 
general  who  has,  as  the  Turks  say,  le  Didble  au  corps,  and  who, 
instead  of  standing  staring  to  see  what  they  mean  to  do,  will 
teach  them  to  dread  those  surprises  and  desperate  enterprises 
by  which  they  have  been  so  often  successful.  Believe  me> 
Dear  Southey,  yours  affectionately, 

"WALTER   SCOTT."       . 

"  Mrs.  Scott  joins  me  in  best  compliments  to  Mrs.  Southey. 
I  hope  she  will  have  a  happy  hour.  Pray,  write  me  word 
when  the  books  come  safe.  What  is  Wordsworth  doing,  and 
where  the  devil  is  his  Doe  ?  *  I  am  not  sure  if  he  will  thank 
me  for  proving  that  all  the  Nortons  escaped  to  Flanders,  one 
excepted.  I  never  knew  a  popular  tradition  so  totally  ground 
less  as  that  respecting  their  execution  at  York." 

*  "  The  White  Doe  of  Rylestone  "  was  published  by  Longman  and 
Co.  in  1319. 


ANDREW    STEWART  —  1809.  id 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Case  of  a  Poetical  Tailor  condemned  to  Death  at  Edinburgh  — 
His  Letters  to  Scott  —  Death  of  Camp  —  Scott  in  London  — 
Mr.  Morritfs  Description  of  him  as  "  a  Lion  "  in  Town  — 
Dinner  at  Mr.  Sotheby's  —  Coleridge's  Fire,  Famine,  and 
Slaughter — The  Quarterly  Review  started — First  Visit  to 
Rokeby  —  The  Lady  of  the  Lake  begun  —  Excursion  to  the 
Trossachs  and  Loch  Lomond  —  Letter  on  Byron's  English 
Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers  —  Death  of  Daniel  Scott  — 
Correspondence  about  Mr.  Canning's  Duel  with  Lord  Castle- 
reagh  —  Miss  Baillie's  Family  Legend  acted  at  Edinburgh  — 
Theatrical  Anecdotes  —  Kemble  —  Siddons  —  Terry  —  Let 
ter  on  the  Death  of  Miss  Seward. 

1809-1810. 

IN  the  end  of  1808,  a  young  man,  by  name  Andrew 
Stewart,  who  had  figured  for  some  years  before  as  a 
poetical  contributor  to  the  Scots  Magazine,  and  inserted 
there,  among  other  things,  a  set  of  stanzas  in  honour  of 
The  Last  Minstrel,*  was  tried,  and  capitally  convicted, 
on  a  charge  of  burglary.  He  addressed,  some  weeks 

*  One  verse  of  this  production  will  suffice :  — 

"  Sweetest  Minstrel  that  e'er  sung 
Of  valorous  deeds  by  Scotia  done, 
Whose  wild  notes  warbled  in  the  win', 

Delightful  strain ! 
O'er  hills  and  dales,  and  vales  amang, 

T\  e've  heard  again,"  &o. 


50  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

after  his  sentence  had  been  pronounced,  the  following  let 
ters :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Castle  Street. 

"  Edinburgh  Tolbooth,  20th  January  1809. 

"  Sir,  —  Although  I  am  a  stranger  to  you,  yet  I  am  not  to 
your  works,  which  I  have  read  and  admired,  and  which  will 
continue  to  be  read  and  admired  as  long  as  there  remains  a 
taste  for  true  excellence.  Previous  to  committing  the  crime 
for  which  I  am  now  convicted,  I  composed  several  poems  in 
the  Scottish  dialect,  which  I  herewith  send  for  your  perusal, 
and  humbly  hope  you  will  listen  to  my  tale  of  misery.  I  have 
been  a  truly  unfortunate  follower  of  the  Muses.  I  was  born 
in  Edinburgh,  of  poor,  but  honest  parents.  My  father  is  by 
trade  a  bookbinder,  and  my  mother  dying  in  1798,  he  was  left 
a  widower,  with  five  small  children,  who  have  all  been  brought 
up  by  his  own  industry.  As  soon  as  I  was  fit  for  a  trade,  he 
bound  me  apprentice  to  a  tailor  in  Edinburgh,  but  owing  to 
his  using  me  badly,  I  went  to  law.  The  consequence  was,  I 
got  up  my  indentures  after  being  only  two  years  in  his  service. 
To  my  father's  trade  I  have  to  ascribe  my  first  attachment  to 
the  Muses.  I  perused  with  delight  the  books  that  came  in  the 
way ;  and  the  effusions  of  the  poets  of  my  country  I  read  with 
rapture.  I  now  formed  the  resolution  of  not  binding  myself 
to  a  trade  again,  as  by  that  means  I  might  get  my  propensity 
for  reading  followed.  I  acted  as  clerk  to  different  people,  and 
my  character  was  irreproachable.  I  determined  to  settle  in 
life,  and  for  that  purpose  I  married  a  young  woman  I  formed 
a  strong  attachment  to.  Being  out  of  employment  these  last 
nine  months,  I  suffered  all  the  hardships  of  want,  and  saw 

'  Poverty,  with  empty  hand 
And  eager  look,  half-naked  stand.'  —  Ferguson. 

Reduced  to  this  miserable  situation,  with  my  wife  almost  starv 
ing,  and  having  no  friends  to  render  me  the  smallest  assistance, 
I  resided  in  a  furnished  room  till  I  was  unable  to  pay  the 
rent,  and  then  I  was  literally  turned  out  of  doors,  like  poor 


ANDREW    STEWART 1809.  51 

Dermody,  in  poverty  and  rags.  Having  no  kind  hand  stretched 
out  to  help  me,  I  associated  with  company  of  very  loose  man 
ners,  till  then  strangers  to  me,  and  by  them  I  was  led  to  com 
mit  the  crime  I  am  condemned  to  suffer  for.  But  my  mind  is 
so  agitated,  I  can  scarce  narrate  my  tale  of  misery.  My  age 
is  only  twenty-three,  and  to  all  appearance  will  be  cut  off  in 
the  prime.  I  was  tried  along  with  my  brother,  Robert  Stew- 
ail,  and  John  M'Intyre,  for  breaking  into  the  workshop  of 
Peter  More,  calico-glazer,  Edinburgh,  and  received  the  dread 
ful  sentence  to  be  executed  on  the  22d  of  February  next.  We 
have  no  friends  to  apply  to  for  Royal  Mercy.  If  I  had  any 
kind  friend  to  mention  my  case  to  my  Lord  Justice-Clerk,  per 
haps  I  might  get  my  sentence  mitigated.  You  will  see  my 
poems  are  of  the  humorous  cast.  Alas  !  it  is  now  the  con 
trary.  I  remain  your  unfortunate  humble  servant, 

"  ANDREW  STEWART." 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  Tolbooth,  Sunday. 

"  Sir,  I  received  your  kind  letter  la»i/  night,  enclosing  one 
pound  sterling,  for  which  I  have  only  to  request  you  will  ac 
cept  the  return  of  a  grateful  heart.  My  prayers,  while  on 
earth,  will  be  always  for  your  welfare.  Your  letter  came  like 
a  ministering  angel  to  me.  The  idea  of  my  approaching  end 
darts  across  my  brain  ;  and,  as  our  immortal  bard,  Shakspeare, 
says,  '  harrows  up  my  soul.'  Some  time  since,  when  chance 
threw  in  my  way  Sir  William  Forbes's  Life  of  Beattie,  the  ac 
count  of  the  closing  scene  of  Principal  Campbell,  as  thereir 
mentioned,  made  a  deep  impression  on  my  mind.  *  At  a  time, 
eays  he,  '  when  Campbell  was  just  expiring,  and  had  told  hig 
wife  and  niece  so,  a  cordial  happened  unexpectedly  to  give 
some  relief.  As  soon  as  he  was  able  to  speak,  he  said  he  won 
dered  to  see  their  faces  so  melancholy  and  covered  with  tears 
at  the  apprehension  of  bis  departure.  *  At  that  instant'  said 
he,  « J  felt  my  mind  in  such  a  state  in  the  thoughts  of  my  imme 
diate  dissolution,  that  I  can  express  my  feelings  in  no  other  way 


52  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

than  by  saying  I  was  in  a  rapture*     There  is  something  aw 
fully  satisfactory  in  the  above. 

"  I  have  to  mention,  as  a  dying  man,  that  it  was  not  the 
greed  of  money  that  made  me  commit  the  crime,  but  the  ex 
treme  pressure  of  poverty  and  want. 

"  How  silent  seems  all  — not  a  whisper  is  heard, 

Save  the  guardians  of  night  when  they  bawl; 
How  dreary  and  wild  appears  all  around; 
No  pitying  voice  near  my  call. 

"  0  life,  what  are  all  thy  gay  pleasures  and  cares, 

When  deprived  of  sweet  liberty's  smile  ? 
Not  hope,  in  all  thy  gay  charms  arrayed, 
Can  one  heavy  hour  now  beguile. 

"  How  sad  is  the  poor  convict's  sorrowful  lot, 

Condemned  in  these  walls  to  remain, 
When  torn  from  those  that  are  nearest  his  heart, 
Perhaps  ne'er  to  view  them  again. 

"  The  beauties  of  morning  now  burst  on  my  view, 

Remembrance  of  scenes  that  are  past, 
When  contentment  sat  smiling,  and  happy  my  lot  — 
Scenes,  alas !  formed  not  for  to  last. 

"  Now  fled  are  the  hours  I  delighted  to  roam 
Scotia's  hills,  dales,  and  valleys  among, 
And  with  rapture  would  list  to  the  songs  of  her  bards, 
And  love's  tale  as  it  flowed  from  the  tongue. 

"  Nought  but  death  now  awaits  me;  how  dread,  but  how  true! 

How  ghastly  its  form  does  appear ! 
Soon  silent  the  muse  that  delighted  to  view 
And  sing  of  the  sweets  of  the  year. 

"  You  are  the  first  gentleman  I  ever  sent  my  poems  to,  and 
I  never  corrected  any  of  them,  my  mind  has  been  in  such  a 
state.  I  remain,  Sir,  your  grateful  unfortunate  servant, 

"ANDREW  STEWART." 

It  appears  that  Scott,  and  his  good-natured  old  friend, 


LONDON  —  MARCH   1809.  53 

Mr.  Manners,  the  bookseller,  who  happened  at  this  time 
to  be  one  of  the  bailies  of  Edinburgh,  exerted  their  joint 
influence  in  this  tailor-poet's  behalf,  and  with  such  suc 
cess,  that  his  sentence  was  commuted  for  one  of  trans 
portation  for  life.  A  thin  octavo  pamphlet,  entitled, 
"  POEMS,  chiefly  in  the  Scottish  dialect,  by  Andrew 
Stewart ;  printed  for  the  benefit  of  the  Author's  Father, 
and  sold  by  Manners  and  Miller,  and  A.  Constable  and 
Co.,  1809,"  appeared  soon  after  the  convict's  departure  for 
Botany  Bay.  But  as  to  his  fortunes  in  that  new  world  I 
possess  no  information.  There  seemed  to  me  something 
so  striking  in  the  working  of  his  feelings  as  expressed  in 
his  letters  to  Scott,  that  I  thought  the  reader  would  for 
give  this  little  episode. 

In  the  course  of  February,  Mr.  John  Ballantyne  had 
proceeded  to  London,  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  him 
self  to  the  chief  publishers  there  in  his  new  capacity,  and 
especially  of  taking  Mr.  Murray's  instructions  respecting 
the  Scotch  management  of  the  Quarterly  Review.  As 
soon  as  the  spring  vacation  began,  Scott  followed  him  by 
sea.  He  might  naturally  have  wished  to  be  at  hand 
while  his  new  partner  was  forming  arrangements  on 
which  so  much  must  depend ;  but  some  circumstances  in 
the  procedure  of  the  Scotch  Law  Commission  had  made 
the  Lord  Advocate  request  his  presence  at  this  time  in 
town.  There  he  and  Mrs.  Scott  took  up  their  quarters, 
as  usual,  under  the  roof  of  their  kind  old  friends  the 
Dumergues ;  while  their  eldest  girl  enjoyed  the  advan 
tage  of  being  domesticated  with  the  Miss  Baillies  at 
Hampstead.  They  staid  more  than  two  months,  and  this 
being  his  first  visit  to  town  since  his  fame  had  been 
Browned  by  Marmion,  he  was  of  course  more  than  ever 
the  object  of  general  ririosity  and  attention.  Mr.  Mor- 


54  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ritt  saw  much  of  him,  both  at  his  own  house  in  Portland 
Place  and  elsewhere,  and  I  transcribe  a  few  sentences 
from  his  memoranda  of  the  period. 

"  Scott,"  his  friend  says,  "  more  correctly  than  any 
other  man  I  ever  knew,  appreciated  the  value  of  that 
apparently  enthusiastic  engouement  which  the  world  of 
London  shows  to  the  fashionable  wonder  of  the  year. 
During  this  sojourn  of  1809,  the  homage  paid  him  would 
have  turned  the  head  of  any  less-gifted  man  of  eminence. 
It  neither  altered  his  opinions,  nor  produced  the  affectar 
tion  of  despising  it ;  on  the  contrary,  he  received  it,  culti 
vated  it,  and  repaid  it  in  its  own  coin.  '  All  this  is  very 
flattering,'  he  would  say,  '  and  very  civil ;  and  if  people 
are  amused  with  hearing  me  tell  a  parcel  of  old  stories, 
or  recite  a  pack  of  ballads  to  lovely  young  girls  and  gap 
ing  matrons,  they  are  easily  pleased,  and  a  man  would  be 
very  ill-natured  who  would  not  give  pleasure  so  cheaply 
conferred.'  If  he  dined  with  us  and  found  any  new  faces, 
'  Well,  do  you  want  me  to  play  lion  to-day  ? '  was  his 
usual  question  — '  I  will  roar  if  you  like  it  to  your  heart's 
content.'  He  would,  indeed,  in  such  cases  put  forth  all 
his  inimitable  powers  of  entertainment  —  and  day  after 
day  surprised  me  by  their  unexpected  extent  and  variety. 
Then,  as  the  party  dwindled,  and  we  were  left  alone,  he 
laughed  at  himself,  quoted  —  '  Yet  know  that  I  one  Snug 
the  joiner  am  —  no  lion  fierce,'  &c.  —  and  was  at  once 
himself  again. 

"  He  often  lamented  the  injurious  effects  for  literature 
and  genius  resulting  from  the  influence  of  London  celeb 
rity  on  weaker  minds,  especially  in  the  excitement  of 
ambition  for  this  subordinate  and  ephemeral  reputatior 
iu  salon.  i  It  may  be  a  pleasant  gale  to  sail  with,'  he 
said,  l  but  it  never  yet  led  to  a  port  that  I  should  like  t« 


MR.    MORRITT LONDON,    MARCH    1809.  55 

michor  in ; '  nor  did  he  willingly  endure,  either  in  London 
or  in  Edinburgh,  the  little  exclusive  circles  of  literary  so 
ciety,  much  less  their  occasional  fastidiousness  and  petty 
partialities. 

"  One  story  which  I  heard  of  him  from  Dr.  Howley, 
now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (for  I  was  not  present), 
was  very  characteristic.  The  Doctor  was  one  of  a  grand 
congregation  of  lions,  where  Scott  and  Coleridge,  cum 
multis  aliis,  attended  at  Sotheby's.  Poets  and  poetry 
were  the  topics  of  the  table,  and  there  was  plentiful  reci 
tation  of  effusions  as  yet  unpublished,  which  of  course 
obtained  abundant  applause.  Coleridge  repeated  more 
than  one,  which  as  Dr.  H.  thought,  were  eulogized  by 
some  of  the  company  with  something  like  affectation,  and 
a  desire  to  humble  Scott  by  raising  a  poet  of  inferior  rep 
utation  on  his  shoulders.  Scott,  however,  joined  in  the 
compliments  as  cordially  as  anybody,  until,  in  his  turn,  he 
was  invited  to  display  some  of  his  occasional  poetry,  much 
of  which  he  must,  no  doubt,  have  written.  Scott  said  he 
had  published  so  much,  he  had  nothing  of  his  own  left 
that  he  could  think  worth  their  hearing,  but  he  would 
repeat  a  little  copy  of  verses  which  he  had  shortly  before 
seen  in  a  provincial  newspaper,  and  which  seemed  to  him 
almost  as  good  as  anything  they  had  been  listening  to 
with  so  much  pleasure.  He  repeated  the  stanzas  now  so 
well  known  of  '  Fire,  Famine,  and  Slaughter.'  The  ap 
plauses  that  ensued  were  faint  —  then  came  slight  criti 
cisms,  from  which  Scott  defended  the  unknown  author. 
At  last  a  more  bitter  antagonist  opened,  and  fastening 
Apon  one  line,  cried,  *  This  at  least  is  absolute  nonsense.' 
Scott  denied  the  charge  —  the  Zoilus  persisted  —  until 
Coleridge,  out  of  all  patience,  exclaimed,  i  For  God's 
lake  let  Mr.  Scott  alone  —  I  wrote  the  poem.'  This  ex- 


56  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

position  of  the  real  worth  of  dinner  criticism  can  hardly 
be  excelled.* 

"  He  often  complained  of  the  real  dulness  of  parties 
where  each  guest  arrived  under  the  implied  and  tacit 
obligation  of  exhibiting  some  extraordinary  powers  of 
talk  or  wit.  'If,'  he  said,  'I  encounter  men  of  the  world, 
men  of  business,  odd  or  striking  characters  of  professional 
excellence  in  any  department,  I  am  in  my  element,  for 
they  cannot  lionize  me  without  my  returning  the  compli 
ment  and  learning  something  from  them.'  He  was  much 
with  George  Ellis,  Canning,  and  Croker,  and  delighted 
in  them,  —  as  indeed  who  did  not  ?  —  but  he  loved  to 
study  eminence  of  every  class  and  sort,  and  his  rising 
fame  gave  him  easy  access  to  gratify  all  his  curiosity." 

The  meetings  with  Canning,  Croker,  and  Ellis,  to 
which  Mr.  Morritt  alludes,  were,  as  may  be  supposed, 
chiefly  occupied  with  the  affairs  of  the  Quarterly  Review. 
The  first  number  of  that  Journal  appeared  while  Scott 
was  in  London :  it  contained  three  articles  from  his  pen 
—  namely,  one  on  the  Reliques  of  Burns ;  another  on 
the  Chronicle  of  the  Cid ;  and  a  third  on  Sir  John  Carr's 

*  It  may  amuse  the  reader  to  turn  to  Mr.  Coleridge's  own  stately 
account  of  this  lion-show  in  Grosvenor  Street,  in  the  Preface  to  his 
celebrated  Eclogue.  There  was  one  person  present,  it  seems,  who  had 
been  in  the  secret  of  its  authorship — Sir  Humphrey  Davy;  and  no 
one  could  have  enjoyed  the  scene  more  than  he  must  have  done.  "  At 
the  house,"  Coleridge  says,  "  of  a  gentleman  who,  by  the  principles  and 
corresponding  virtues  of  a  sincere  Christian,  consecrates  a  cultivated 
genius  and  the  favourable  accidents  of  birth,  opulence,  and  splendid 
connexions,  it  was  my  good  fortune  to  meet,  in  a  dinner  party,  with 
more  men  of  celebrity  in  science  or  polite  literature  than  are  commonh 
found  collected  around  the  same  table.  In  the  course  of  conversation 
one  of  the  party  reminded  an  illustrious  poet,"  &c.  &c.  —  Coleridye' 
Poetical  Works,  Edition  1830,  vol.  i.  p.  274. 


DEATH    OF    CAMP.  57 

Tour  through  Scotland.  His  conferences  with  the  editor 
and  publisher  were  frequent ;  and  the  latter  certainly 
contemplated,  at  this  time,  a  most  close  and  intimate  con 
nexion  with  him,  not  only  as  a  reviewer,  but  an  author ; 
and,  consequently,  with  both  the  concerns  of  the  Messrs. 
Ballantyne.  Scott  continued  for  some  time  to  be  a  very 
active  contributor  to  the  Quarterly  Review  ;  nor,  indeed, 
was  his  connexion  with  it  ever  entirely  suspended.  But 
John  Ballantyne  transacted  business  in  a  fashion  which 
soon  cooled,  and  in  no  very  long  time  dissolved,  the 
general  "  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  "  with  Murray, 
which  Scott  had  announced  before  leaving  Edinburgh  to 
both  Southey  and  Ellis. 

On  his  return  northwards  he  spent  a  fortnight  in  York 
shire  with  Mr.  Morritt ;  but  his  correspondence,  from 
which  I  resume  my  extracts,  will  show,  among  other 
things,  the  lively  impression  made  on  him  by  his  first 
view  of  Rokeby. 

The  next  of  these  letters  reminds  me,  however,  that  I 
should  have  mentioned  sooner  the  death  of  Camp,  he 
first  of  not  a  few  dogs  whose  names  will  be  "  freshly  i*, 
membered  "  as  long  as  their  master's  works  are  popular. 
This  favourite  began  to  droop  early  in  1808,  and  became 
incapable  of  accompanying  Scott  in  his  rides ;  but  he 
preserved  his  affection  and  sagacity  to  the  last.  At 
Ashestiel,  as  the  servant  was  laying  the  cloth  for  dinner, 
he  would  address  the  dog  lying  on  his  mat  by  the  fire, 
and  say,  "  Camp,  my  good  fellow,  the  Sheriff's  coming 
home  by  the  ford  —  or  by  the  hill ; "  and  the  sick  ani 
mal  would  immediately  bestir  himself  to  welcome  his 
master,  going  out  at  the  back  door  or  the  front  door,  ac 
cording  to  the  direction  given,  and  advancing  as  far  as  he 
was  able,  either  towards  the  ford  of  the  Tweed,  or  the 


58  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

bridge  over  the  Glenkinnon  burn  beyond  Laird  Nippy's 
gate.  He  died  about  January  1809,  and  was  buried  in  a 
fine  moonlight  night,  in  the  little  garden  behind  the  house 
in  Castle  Street,  immediately  opposite  to  the  window  at 
which  Scott  usually  sat  writing.  My  wife  tells  me  she 
remembers  the  whole  family  standing  in  tears  about  the 
grave,  as  her  father  himself  smoothed  down  the  tarf 
above  Camp  with  the  saddest  expression  of  face  she  had 
ever  seen  in  him.  He  had  been  engaged  to  dine  abroad 
that  day,  but  apologized  on  account  of  "  the  death  of  a. 
dear  old  friend  ; "  and  Mr.  Macdonald  Buchanan  was  not 
at  all  surprised  that  he  should  have  done  so,  when  it 
came  out  next  morning  that  Camp  was  no  more. 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  Edinburgh,  July  8, 1809. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  We  reached  home  about  a  fortnight  ago, 
having  lingered  a  little  while  at  Kokeby  Park,  the  seat  of  our 
friend  Morritt,  and  one  of  the  most  enviable  places  I  have  ever 
seen,  as  it  unites  the  richness  and  luxuriance  of  English  vege 
tation  with  the  romantic  variety  of  glen,  torrent,  and  copse, 
which  dignifies  our  northern  scenery.  The  Greta  and  Tees, 
two  most  beautiful  and  rapid  rivers,  join  their  currents  in  the 
demesne.  The  banks  of  the  Tees  resemble,  from  the  height 
of  the  rocks,  the  glen  of  Roslin,  so  much  and  justly  admired. 
The  Greta  is  the  scene  of  a  comic  romance,*  of  which  I  think 
I  remember  giving  you  the  outline.  It  concerns  the  history  of 
a  4  Felon  Sowe,'  — 

*  Which  won'd  in  Eokeby  wood, 
Ean  endlong  Greta  side,' 

bestowed  by  Ralph  of  Kokeby  on  the  freres  of  Richmond  — 
and  the  misadventures  of  the  holy  fathers  in  their  awkward 
attempts  to  catch  this  intractable  animal.  We  had  the  pleas. 

*  Scott  printed  this  Ballad  in  the  Notes  to  his  poem  of  Rokeby. 


ROKEBY CANNING.  59 

urc  to  find  all  our  little  folks  well,  and  are  now  on  the  point 
of  shifting  quarters  to  Ashestiel.  I  have  supplied  the  vacancy 
occasioned  by  the  death  of  poor  old  Camp  with  a  terrier  puppy 
of  the  old  shaggy  Celtic  breed.  He  is  of  high  pedigree,  and 
was  procured  with  great  difficulty  by  the  kindness  of  Miss 
Dunlop  of  Dunlop ;  so  I  have  christened  him  Wallace,  as  the 
donor  is  a  descendant  of  the  Guardian  of  Scotland.  Having 
given  you  all  this  curious  and  valuable  information  about  my 
own  affairs,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  enclosed,  which 
was  in  fact  the  principal  cause  of  my  immediately  troubling 
you."  *  *  * 

The  enclosure,  and  the  rest  of  the  letter,  refer  to  the 
private  affairs  of  Mr.  Southey,  in  whose  favour  Scott  had 
for  some  time  back  been  strenuously  using  his  interest 
with  his  friends  in  the  Government.  How  well  he  had, 
while  in  London,  read  the  feelings  of  some  of  those  min 
isters  towards  each  other,  appears  from  various  letters 
written  upon  his  return  to  Scotland.  It  may  be  sufficient 
to  quote  part  of  one  addressed  to  the  distinguished  author 
whose  fortunes  he  was  exerting  himself  to  promote.  To 
him  Scott  says  (14th  June),  —  "  Mr.  Canning's  opportu 
nities  to  serve  you  will  soon  be  numerous,  or  they  will 
.soon  be  gone  altogether ;  for  he  is  of  a  different  mould 
from  some  of  his  colleagues,  and  a  decided  foe  to  those 
half  measures  which  I  know  you  detest  as  much  as  I  do. 
It  is  not  his  fault  that  the  cause  of  Spain  is  not  at  this 
moment  triumphant.  This  I  know,  and  the  time  will 
come  when  the  world  will  know  it  too." 

Before  fixing  himself  at  Ashestiel  for  the  autumn,  he 
had  undertaken  to  have  a  third  poem  ready  for  publica 
tion  by  the  end  of  the  year,  and  probably  made  some 
progress  in  the  composition  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake. 
On  the  rising  of  the  Court  in  Julj,  he  went,  accompanied 


60  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

by  Mrs.  Scott  and  his  eldest  daughter,  to  revisit  the  local 
ities,  so  dear  to  him  in  the  days  of  his  juvenile  rambling/ 
which  he  had  chosen  for  the  scene  of  his  fable.  He  gave 
a  week  to  his  old  friends  at  Cambusmore,  and  ascer 
tained,  in  his  own  person,  that  a  good  horseman,  well 
mounted,  might  gallop  from  the  shore  of  Loch  Vennachar 
to  the  rock  of  Stirling  within  the  space  allotted  for  that 
purpose  to  FitzJames.  From  Cambusmore  the  party 
proceeded  to  Ross  Priory,  and,  under  the  guidance  of 
Mr.  Macdonald  Buchanan,  explored  the  islands  of  Loch 
Lomond,  Arrochar,  Loch  Sloy,  and  all  the  scenery  of  a 
hundred  desperate  conflicts  between  the  Macfarlanes,  the 
Colquhouns,  and  the  Clan  Alpine.  At  Buchanan  House, 
which  is  very  near  Ross  Priory,  Scott's  friends,  Lady 
Douglas  and  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  were  then  visiting  the 
Duke  of  Montrose ;  he  joined  them  there,  and  read  to 
them  the  Stag  Chase,  which  he  had  just  completed  under 
the  full  influence  of  the  genius  loci. 

It  was  on  this  occasion,  at  Buchanan  House,  that  he 
first  saw  Lord  Byron's  "  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Re 
viewers."  On  this  subject  he  says,  in  his  Introduction  to 
Marmion  of  1830  —  "When  Byron  wrote  his  famous 
satire,  I  had  my  share  of  flagellation  among  my  betters. 
My  crime  was  having  written  a  poem  for  a  thousand 
pounds,  which  was  no  otherwise  true  than  that  I  sold  the 
copyright  for  that  sum.  Now,  not  to  mention  that  an 
author  can  hardly  be  censured  for  accepting  such  a  sum 
as  the  booksellers  are  willing  to  give  him,  especially  as 
the  gentlemen  of  the  trade  made  no  complaints  of  their 
bargain;  I  thought  the  interference  with  my  private 
ftffairs  was  rather  beyond  the  limits  of  literary  satire.  I 
was,  moreover,  so  far  from  having  had  anything  to  do 
mth  the  offensive  criticism  in  the  Edinburgh,  that  I  had 


LORD  BYRON'S  SATIRE.  61 

remonstrated  with  the  editor,  because  I  thought  the 
Hours  of  Idleness '  treated  with  undue  severity.  They 
were  written,  like  all  juvenile  poetry,  rather  from  the 
recollection  of  what  had  pleased  the  author  in  others, 
than  what  had  been  suggested  by  his  own  imagination ; 
but  nevertheless  I  thought  they  contained  passages  of 
noble  promise." 

I  need  hardly  transcribe  the  well-known  lines  — 


down  to 


Next  view  in  state,  proud  prancing  on  his  roan, 
The  golden-crested  haughty  Marmion,  —  " 


For  this  we  spurn  Apollo's  venal  son, 

And  bid  a  long  '  good-night  to  Marmion,  — ' " 


with  his  Lordship's  note  on  the  last  line  —  "  Good-night  to 
Marmion,  the  pathetic  and  also  prophetic  exclamation  of 
Henry  Blount,  Esquire,  on  the  death  of  honest  Marmion." 
• —  But  it  may  entertain  my  readers  to  compare  the  style  in 
which  Scott  alludes  to  Byron's  assault  in  the  preface  of 
1830,  with  that  of  one  of  his  contemporary  letters  on  the 
subject.  Addressing  (August  7,  1809)  the  gentleman  in 
whose  behalf  he  had  been  interceding  with  Mr.  Canning, 
he  says  —  "  By  the  way,  is  the  ancient  *  *  *  *,  whose 
decease  is  to  open  our  quest,  thinking  of  a  better  world  ? 
I  only  ask  because  about  three  years  ago  I  accepted  the 
office  I  hold  in  the  Court  of  Session,  the  revenue  to  ac 
crue  to  me  only  on  the  death  of  the  old  incumbent.  But 
my  friend  has  since  taken  out  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  un 
less  I  get  some  Border  lad  to  cut  his  throat,  may,  for  aught 
I  know,  live  as  long  as  I  shall;  —  such  odious  deceivers 
are  these  invalids.  Mine  reminds  me  of  Sinbad's  Old 
Man  of  the  Sea,  and  will  certainly  throttle  me  if  I  can't 
somehow  dismount  him.  If  I  were  once  in  possession  of 


02  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

my  reversionary  income,  I  would,  like  you,  bid  farewell 
to  the  drudgery  of  literature,  and  do  nothing  but  what  I 
pleased,  which  might  be  another  phrase  for  doing  very 
little.  I  was  always  an  admirer  of  the  modest  wish  of  a 
retainer  in  one  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's  plays  — 

'  I  would  not  be  a  serving  man 

To  carry  the  cloak-bag  still, 
Nor  would  I  be  a  falconer, 

The  greedy  hawks  to  fill ; 
But  I  would  be  in  a  good  house, 

And  have  a  good  master  too, 
But  I  would  eat  and  drink  of  the  best, 

And  no  work  would  I  do.'  * 

In  the  mean  time,  it  is  funny  enough  to  see  a  whelp  of  a 
young  Lord  Byron  abusing  me,  of  whose  circumstances 
he  knows  nothing,  for  endeavouring  to  scratch  out  a  liv 
ing  with  my  pen.  God  help  the  bear,  if,  having  little  else, 
to  eat,  he  must  not  even  suck  his  own  paws.  I  can  as 
sure  the  noble  imp  of  fame  it  is  not  my  fault  that  I  was 
not  born  to  a  pank  and  £5000  a-year,  as  it  is  not  his  lord 
ship's  merit,  although  it  may  be  his  great  good  fortune, 
that  he  was  not  born  to  live  by  his  literary  talents  or  suc 
cess.  Adieu,  my  dear  friend.  I  shall  be  impatient  to 
hear  how  your  matters  fadge." 

This  gentleman's  affairs  are  again  alluded  to  in  a  lettti 
to  Ellis,  dated  Ashestiel,  September  14:  — 

"  I  do  not  write  to  whet  a  purpose  that  is  not  blunted,  but 
to  express  my  anxious  wishes  that  your  kind  endeavours  may 
succeed  while  it  is  called  to-day,  for,  by  all  tokens,  it  will  sooc 
be  yesterday  with  this  Ministry.  And  they  weU  deserve  it,  for 
crossing,  jostling,  and  hampering  the  measures  of  the  only  man 
among  them  fit  to  be  intrusted  with  the  salvation  of  the  coun 

*  Old  Merrythought  —  The  Knight  of  the  Burning  Pestle,  Act  IV 
Scene  5. 


ASHESTIEL — SEPTEMBER   1809.  63 

try.  The  spring-tide  may,  for  aught  I  know,  break  in  this 
next  session  of  Parliament.  There  is  an  evil  fate  upon  us  in 
all  we  do  at  home  and  abroad,  else  why  should  the  conqueror 
of  Talavera  be  retreating  from  the  field  of  his  glory  at  a  mo 
ment  when,  by  all  reasonable  calculation,  he  should  have  been 
the  soul  and  mover  of  a  combined  army  of  150,000  English^ 
Spaniards,  and  Portuguese  ?  And  why  should  Gilford  employ 
himself  at  home  in  the  thriftless  exercise  of  correction,  as  if 
Mercury,  instead  of  stretching  to  a  race  himself,  were  to  amuse 
himself  with  starting  a  bedrid  cripple,  and  making  a  pair  of 
crutches  for  him  with  his  own  hand  ?  Much  might  have  been 
done,  and  may  yet  be  done ;  but  we  are  not  yet  in  the  right 
way.  Is  there  no  one  among  you  who  can  throw  a  Congreve 
rocket  among  the  gerunds  and  supines  of  that  model  of  ped 
ants,  Dr.  Philopatris  Parr  ?  I  understand  your  foreign  lingos 
too  little  to  attempt  it,  but  pretty  things  might  be  said  upon 
the  memorable  tureen  which  he  begged  of  Lord  Somebody, 
whom  he  afterwards  wished  to  prove  to  be  mad.  For  ex 
ample,  I  would  adopt  some  of  the  leading  phrases  of  indepen 
dent,  Jiigh-souled,  contentus  parvo,  and  so  forth,  with  which  he  is 
bespattered  in  the  Edinburgh,*  and  declare  it  our  opinion, 
that,  if  indulged  with  the  three  wishes  of  Prior's  tale,  he  would 
answer,  like  the  heroine  Corisca  — 

*  A  ladle  to  iny  silver  dish 
Is  all  I  want,  is  all  I  wish.' 

I  did  not  review  Miss  Edgeworth,  nor  do  I  think  it  all  well 
done ;  at  least,  it  falls  below  my  opinion  of  that  lady's  merits. 
Indeed  I  have  contributed  nothing  to  the  last  Review,  and  am, 
therefore,  according  to  all  rules,  the  more  entitled  to  criticise 
it  freely.  The  conclusion  of  the  article  on  Sir  John  Moore  is 
transcendently  written ;  and  I  think  I  can  venture  to  say, 4  aut 
Erasmus,  aut  Diabolus.'  Your  sugar-cake  is  very  far  from 
being  a  heavy  bon-bon  ;  but  there  I  think  we  stop.  The  Mis- 

*  See  Article  on  Dr.  Parr's  Spittai  Sermon,  in  the  Edinburgh  Re 
new,  No.  I.  October  1802. 

VOL.  in.  5 


64  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

Bionaries,  though  very  good,  is  on  a  subject  rather  stale,  and 
much  of  the  rest  is  absolute  wading.* 

"  As  an  excuse  for  my  own  indolence,  I  have  been  in  the 
Highlands  for  some  time  past ;  and  who  should  I  meet  there, 
of  all  fowls  in  the  air,  but  your  friend  Mr.  Blackburn,  to  whom 
I  was  so  much  obliged  for  the  care  he  took  of  my  late  unfor 
tunate  relative,  at  your  friendly  request.  The  recognition  was 
unfortunately  made  just  when  I  was  leaving  the  country,  and 
as  he  was  in  a  gig,  and  I  on  the  driving-seat  of  a  carriage,  the 
place  of  meeting  a  narrow  Highland  road,  which  looked  as  if 
forty  patent  ploughs  had  furrowed  it,  we  had  not  time  or  space- 
for  so  long  a  greeting  as  we  could  have  wished.  He  has  a 
capital  good  house  on  the  banks  of  the  Leven,  about  three 
miles  below  its  discharge  from  the  lake,  and  very  near  the 
classical  spot  where  Matthew  Bramble  and  his  whole  family 
were  conducted  by  Smollett,  and  where  Smollett  himself  was 
born.  There  is  a  new  inducement  for  you  to  come  to  Caledon. 
Your  health,  thank  God,  is  now  no  impediment ;  and  I  am  told 
sugar  and  rum  excel  even  whisky,  so  your  purse  must  be  pro 
portionally  distended." 

The  unfortunate  brother,  the  blot  of  the  family,  to 
whom  Scott  alludes  in  this  letter,  had  disappointed  all 
the  hopes  under  which  his  friends  sent  him  to  Jamaica. 
It  may  be  remarked,  as  characteristic  of  Scott  at  this 
time,  that  in  the  various  letters  to  Ellis  concerning 
Daniel,  he  speaks  of  him  as  his  relation,  never  as  his 
brother ;  and  it  must  also  be  mentioned  as  a  circumstance 
suggesting  that  Daniel  had  retained,  after  all,  some  sense 
of  pride,  that  his  West-Indian  patron  was  allowed  by 
himself  to  remain,  to  the  end  of  their  connexion,  in  igno 
rance  of  what  his  distinguished  brother  had  thus  thought 
fit  to  suppress.  Mr.  Blackburn,  in  fact,  never  knew  that 
Daniel  was  Walter  Scott's  brother,  until  he  was  applied 

»  Quarterly  Review,  No.  III.  August  1809. 


DEATH    OF    DANIEL    SCCTT.  65 

to  for  some  information  respecting  him  on  my  own  behalf, 
after  this  narrative  was  begun.  The  story  is  shortly, 
that  the  adventurer's  habits  of  dissipation  proved  incur 
able  ;  but  he  finally  left  Jamaica  under  a  stigma  which 
Walter  Scott  regarded  with  utter  severity.  Being  em 
ployed  in  s:>me  service  against  a  refractory  or  insurgent 
body  of  negroes,  he  had  exhibited  a  lamentable  deficiency 
of  spirit  and  conduct.  He  returned  to  Scotland  a  dis 
honoured  man  ;  and  though  he  found  shelter  and  com 
passion  from  his  mother,  his  brother  would  never  see  him 
again.  Nay,  when  soon  after,  his  health,  shattered  by 
dissolute  indulgence,  and  probably  the  intolerable  load  of 
shame,  gave  way  altogether,  and  he  died  as  yet  a  young 
man,  the  poet  refused  either  to  attend  his  funeral  or  to 
wear  mourning  for  him  like  the  rest  of  the  family.  Thus 
sternly,  when  in  the  height  and  pride  of  his  blood,  could 
Scott,  whose  heart  was  never  hardened  against  the  dis 
tress  of  an  enemy,  recoil  from  the  disgrace  of  a  brother. 
It  is  a  more  pleasing  part  of  my  duty  to  add,  that  he 
spoke  to  me,  twenty  years  afterwards,  in  terms  of  great 
and  painful  contrition  for  the  austerity  with  which  he  had 
conducted  himself  on  this  occasion.  I  must  add,  more 
over,  that  he  took  a  warm  interest  in  a  natural  child 
whom  Daniel  had  bequeathed  to  his  mother's  care ;  and 
carter  the  old  lady's  death,  religiously  supplied  her  place 
as  the  boy's  protector. 

About  this  time  the  edition  of  Sir  Ralph  Sadler's  State 
Papers,  &c.  (3  vols.  royal  4to)  was  at  length  completed 
by  Scott,  and  published  by  Constable ;  but  the  letters 
which  passed  between  the  Editor  and  the  bookseller  show 
that  their  personal  estrangement  had  as  yet  undergone 
slender  alteration.  The  collection  of  the  Sadler  papers 
was  chiefly  the  work  of  Mr.  Arthur  Clifford  —  but  Scott 


66  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

drew  up  the  Memoir  and  Notes,  and  superintended  the 
printing.  His  account  of  the  Life  of  Sadler  *  extends  to 
thirty  pages ;  and  both  it  and  his  notes  are  written  with 
all  that  lively  solicitude  about  points  of  antiquarian  detail, 
which  accompanied  him  through  so  many  tasks  less  at 
tractive  than  the  personal  career  of  a  distinguished  states 
man  intimately  connected  with  the  fortunes  of  Mary 
Queen  of  Scots.  Some  volumes  of  the  edition  of  Som- 
ers's  Tracts  (which  he  had  undertaken  for  Mr.  Miller 
and  other  booksellers  of  London  two  or  three  years  be 
fore)  were  also  published  about  the  same  period ;  but 
that  compilation  was  not  finished  (13  vols.  royal  4to) 
until  1812.  His  part  in  it  (for  which  the  booksellers 
paid  him  1300  guineas),  was  diligently  performed,  and 
shows  abundant  traces  of  his  sagacious  understanding  and 
graceful  expression.  His  editorial  labours  on  Dryden, 
Swift,  and  these  other  collections,  were  gradually  storing 
his  mind  with  that  minute  and  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
leading  persons  and  events  both  of  Scotch  and  English 
history,  which  made  his  conversation  on  such  subjects 
that  of  one  who  had  rather  lived  with  than  read  about 
the  departed ;  while,  unlike  other  antiquaries,  he  always 
preserved  the  keenest  interest  in  the  transactions  of  his 
own  time. 

The  reader  has  seen,  that  during  his  stay  in  London  in 
the  spring  of  this  year,  Scott  became  strongly  impressed 
with  a  suspicion  that  the  Duke  of  Portland's  Cabinet 
could  not  much  longer  hold  together;  and  the  letters 
which  have  been  quoted,  when  considered  along  with  the 
actual  course  of  subsequent  events,  can  leave  little  doubt 
that  he  had  gathered  this  impression  from  the  tone  of 
Mr.  Canning's  private  conversation  as  to  the  recent  man- 
*  Republished  in  the  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  vol.  rv. 


CANNING    AND    CASTLEREAGH — 1809.  6? 

agement  of  the  War  Department.  On  the  20th  of  Sep 
tember,  Lord  Castlereagh  tendered  his  resignation,  and 
wrote  the  same  day  to  Mr.  Canning  in  these  terms : 
"  Having,"  he  said,  "  pronounced  it  unfit  that  I  should 
remain  charged  with  the  conduct  of  the  war,  and  made 
my  situation  as  a  Minister  of  the  Crown  dependent  on  your 
will  and  pleasure,  you  continued  to  sit  in  the  same  Cabi 
net  with  me,  and  leave  me  not  only  in  the  persuasion 
that  I  possessed  your  confidence  and  support  as  a  col 
league,  but  allowed  me,  in  breach  of  every  principle  of 
good  faith,  both  public  and  private,  to  originate  and  pro 
ceed  in  the  execution  of  a  new  enterprise  of  the  most 
arduous  and  important  nature  (the  Walcheren  expedi 
tion)  with  your  apparent  concurrence  and  ostensible  ap 
probation.  You  were  fully  aware  that,  if  my  situation 
in  the  Government  had  been  disclosed  to  me,  I  could  not 
have  submitted  to  remain  one  moment  in  office,  without 
the  entire  abandonment  of  my  private  honour  and  public 
duty.  You  knew  I  was  deceived,  and  you  continued  to 
deceive  me."  * 

The  result  was  a  duel  on  the  morning  of  the  21st,  in 
which  Mr.  Canning  was  attended  by  Mr.  Charles  Ellis 
(now  Lord  Seaford)  as  his  second.  Mr.  Canning,  at  the 
second  fire,  was  wounded  in  the  thigh.  Both  combatants 
retired  from  office  ;  the  Duke  of  Portland,  whose  health 
was  entirely  broken,  resigned  the  premiership  ;  and  after 
fruitless  negotiations  with  Lords  Grey  and  Greenville, 
Mr.  Percival  became  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  as  well 
as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  while  the  Marquis  Wei- 

*  In  the  Preface  to  Mr.  Therry's  Compilation  of  Mr.  Canning's 
Speeches,  the  reader  will  find  the  contemporary  documents,  on  which 
alone  a  fair  judgment  can  be  formed  as  to  the  origin  and  nature  of 
WT.  Canning's  differences  with  Lord  Castlereagh. 


68  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

lesley  took  the  Seals  of  the  Foreign  Department,  and 
Lord  Liverpool  removed  from  the  Home  Office  to  that 
which  Lord  Castlereagh  had  occupied.  There  were 
some  other  changes,  but  Scott's -friend,  Mr.  R.  Dimdas 
(now  Lord  Melville),  remained  in  his  place  at  the  head 
of  the  Board  of  Control. 

While  the  public  mind  was  occupied  with  the  duel  and 
its  yet  uncertain  results,  Scott  wrote  as  follows  to  the 
nearest  relation  and  most  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Can 
ning's  second :  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq. 

"Ashestiel,  Sept.  26, 1809. 

"My  Dear  Ellis,  —  Your  letter  gave  me  great  pleasure, 
especially  the  outside,  for  Canning's  frank  assured  me  that  his 
wound  was  at  least  not  materially  serious.  So,  for  once,  the 
envelope  of  your  letter  was  even  more  welcome  than  the  con 
tents.  That  hairbrained  Irishman's  letter  carries  absurdity 
upon  the  face  of  it,  for  surely  he  would  have  had  much  more 
reason  for  personal  animosity  had  Canning  made  the  matter 
public,  against  the  wishes  of  his  uncle,  and  every  other  person 
concerned,  than  for  his  consenting,  at  their  request,  that  it 
should  remain  a  secret,  and  leaving  it  to  them  to  make  such 
communication  to  Lord  C.  as  they  should  think  proper,  and 
when  they  should  think  proper.  I  am  ill  situated  here  for  the 
explanations  I  would  wish  to  give,  but  I  have  forwarded  copies 
of  the  letters  to  Lord  Dalkeith,  a  high-spirited  and  indepen 
dent  young  nobleman,  in  whose  opinion  Mr.  Canning  would,  I 
think,  wish  to  stand  well.  I  have  also  taken  some  measures  to 
prevent  the  good  folks  of  Edinburgh  from  running  after  any 
straw  that  may  be  thrown  into  the  wind.  I  wrote  a  very  hur 
tied  note  to  Mr.  C.  Ellis  the  instant  I  saw  the  accident  in  the 
papers,  not  knowing  exactly  where  you  might  be,  and  trusting 
no  would  excuse  my  extreme  anxiety  and  solicitude  upon  the 
occasion. 


POLITICS  —  1809.  69 

"  I  see,  among  other  reports,  that  my  friend,  Robert  Dun- 
das,  is  mentioned  as  Secretary  at  War.  I  confess  I  shall  be 
both  vexed  and  disappointed  if  he,  of  whose  talents  and  opin 
ions  I  think  very  highly,  should  be  prevailed  on  to  embark  in 
so  patched  and  crazy  a  vessel  as  can  now  be  lashed  together, 
and  that  upon  a  sea  which  promises  to  be  sufficiently  boister 
ous.  My  own  hopes  of  every  kind  are  as  low  as  the  heels  of 
my  boots,  and  methinks  I  would  say  to  any  friend  of  mine  as 
Tybalt  says  to  Benvolio  — '  What !  art  thou  drawn  among 
these  heartless  hinds  ?  '  I  suppose  the  Doctor  will  be  move  the 
first,  and  then  the  Whigs  will  come  in  like  a  land-flood,  and 
lay  the  country  at  the  feet  of  Buonaparte  for  peace.  This,  if 
his  devil  does  not  fail,  he  will  readily  patch  up,  and  send  a  few 
hundred  thousands  among  our  coach-driving  Noblesse,  and 
perhaps  among  our  Princes  of  the  Blood.  With  the  influence 
acquired  by  such  gages  d'amitie,  and  by  ostentatious  hospital 
ity  at  his  court  to  all  those  idiots  who  will  forget  the  rat-trap 
of  the  detenus,  and  crowd  there  for  novelty,  there  wih1  be,  in 
the  course  of  five  or  six  years,  what  we  have  never  yet  seen,  a 
real  French  party  in  this  country.  To  this  you  are  to  add  all 
the  Burdettites,  men  who,  rather  than  want  combustibles,  will 
fetch  brimstone  from  hell.  It  is  not  these  whom  I  fear,  how 
ever  —  it  is  the  vile  and  degrading  spirit  of  egoisme  so  preva 
lent  among  the  higher  ranks,  especially  among  the  highest. 
God  forgive  me  if  I  do  them  injustice,  but  I  think  champagne 
duty  free  would  go  a  great  way  to  seduce  some  of  them ;  and 
is  it  not  a  strong  symptom  when  people,  knowing  and  feeling 
their  own  weakness,  will,  from  mere  selfishness  and  pride,  suf 
fer  the  vessel  to  drive  on  the  shelves,  rather  than  she  should  be 
saved  by  the  only  pilot  Capable  of  the  task  ?  I  will  be  much 
obliged  to  you  to  let  me  know  what  is  likely  to  be  done  — 
whether  any  fight  can  yet  be  made,  or  if  all  is  over.  Lord 
Melville  had  been  furious  for  some  time  against  this  Adminis 
tration  —  I  think  he  will  hardly  lend  a  hand  to  clear  the  wreck. 
I  should  think,  if  Marquis  Wellesley  returns,  he  might  form  a 
steady  Administration  ;  but  God  wot,  he  must  condemn  most  of 
the  present  rotten  planks  before  he  can  lay  down  the  new  vessel 


70  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Above  all,  let  me  know  how  Canning's  recovery  goes  on.  We 
must  think  what  is  to  be  done  about  the  Review.  Ever  yours 
truly,  W.  S." 

Scott's  views  as  to  the  transactions  of  this  period,  and 
the  principal  parties  concerned  in  them,  were  consider 
ably  altered  by  the  observation  of  subsequent  years  ;  but 
I  have  been  much  interested  with  watching  the  course 
of  his  sentiments  and  opinions  on  such  subjects ;  and,  in 
the  belief  that  others  may  feel  in  the  same  way  with  my 
self,  I  shall  insert,  without  comment,  some  further  ex 
tracts  from  this  correspondence  :  — 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  Ashestiel,  Nov.  3,  1809. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  had  your  letter  some  time  ago,  which 
gave  me  less  comfort  in  the  present  public  emergency  than 
your  letters  usually  do.  Frankly,  I  see  great  doubts,  not  to 
say  an  impossibility,  of  Canning's  attaining  that  rank  among  the 
Opposition  which  will  enable  him  to  command  the  use  of  their 
shoulders  to  place  him  where  —  you  cannot  be  more  convinced 
than  I  am  —  he  is  entitled  to  stand.  The  condottieri  of  the 
Grenvilles,  —  for  they  have  no  political  principles,  and  there 
fore  no  political  party,  detached  from  their  immense  influence 
over  individuals  —  will  hardly  be  seduced  from  their  standard 
to  that  of  Canning,  by  an  eloquence  which  has  been  exerted 
upon  them  in  vain,  even  when  they  might  have  hoped  to  be 
gainers  by  listening  to  it.  The  soi-disant  Whigs  stick  together 
like  burs.  The  ragged  regiment  of  Burdett  and  Folkstone  is 
ander  yet  stricter  discipline,  for  you  may  have  observed  that  nc 
lover  was  ever  so  jealous  of  his  mistress  as  Sir  Francis  is  of 
his  mob  popularity  —  witness  the  fate  of  Paull,  Tierney,  even 
Wardle ;  in  short,  of  whomsoever  presumed  to  rival  the  brazen 
'mage  whom  the  mob  of  Westminster  has  set  up.*  That 

*  Sir  Francis  Burdett  has  lived  to  show  how  unjustly  the  Tories  o/ 
1809  read  his  political  character. 


POLITICS  —  NOV.   1809.  71 

either,  or  both  of  these  parties,  will  be  delighted  with  the  ac 
cession  of  our  friend's  wisdom  and  eloquence,  cannot  for  a  mo 
ment  be  disputed.  That  the  Grenvilles,  in  particular,  did  he 
only  propose  to  himself  a  slice  of  the  great  pudding,  would 
allow  him  to  help  himself  where  the  plums  lie  thickest,  cannot 
be  doubted.  But  I  think  it  is  very  doubtful  whether  they, 
closely  banded  and  confident  of  triumph  as  they  at  present 
are,  will  accept  of  a  colleague  upon  terms  which  would  make 
him  a  master ;  and  unless  Canning  has  these,  it  appears  to  me 
that  we  (the  Republic)  should  be  no  better  than  if  he  had  re 
tained  his  office  in  the  present,  or  rather  late,  Administration. 
But  how  far,  in  throwing  himself  altogether  into  the  arms  of 
Opposition  at  this  crisis,  Canning  will  injure  himself  with  the 
large  and  sound  party  who  profess  Pittism,  is,  I  really  think, 
worthy  of  consideration.  The  influence  of  his  name  is  at 
present  as  great  as  you  or  I  could  wish  it ;  but  those  who  wish 
to  undermine  it  want  but,  according  to  our  Scottish  proverb, 
'  a  hair  to  make  a  tether  of.'  I  admit  his  hand  is  very  difficult 
to  play,  and  much  as  I  love  and  admire  him,  I  am  most  inter 
ested  because  it  is  the  decided  interest  of  his  country,  that  he 
should  pique,  repique,  and  capot  his  antagonists.  But  you 
know  much  of  the  delicacy  of  the  game  lies  in  discarding  — 
so  I  hope  he  will  be  in  no  hurry  on  throwing  out  his  cards. 

"  I  am  the  more  anxious  on  this  score,  because  I  feel  an  in 
ternal  conviction  that  neither  Marquis  Wellesley  nor  Lord 
Melville  will  lend  their  names  to  bolster  out  this  rump  of  an 
Administration.  Symptoms  of  this  are  said  to  have  transpired 
in  Scotland,  but  in  this  retirement  I  cannot  learn  upon  what 
authority.  Should  -this  prove  so,  I  confess  my  best  wishes 
would  be  realized,  because  I  cannot  see  how  Percival  could 
avoid  surrendering  at  discretion,  and  taking,  perhaps,  a  peer 
age.  We  should  then  have  an  Administration  a  la  Pitt,  which 
is  a  much  better  thing  than  an  Opposition,  howsoever  con 
ducted  or  headed,  which,  like  a  wave  of  the  sea,  forms  indeed 
but  a  single  body  when  it  is  rolling  towards  the  shore,  bui 
flashes  into  foam  and  dispersion  the  instant  it  reaches  its  ob 
ject.  Should  Canning  and  the  above-named  noble  peers  come 


72  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER   SCOTT. 

to  understand  each  other,  joined  to  all  among  the  present 
Ministry  whom  their  native  good  sense,  and  an  attachment  to 
good  warm  places,  will  lead  to  hear  reason,  it  does  seem  to  me 
that  we  might  form  a  deeper  front  to  the  enemy  than  we  have 
presented  since  the  death  of  Pitt,  or  rather  since  the  dissolu 
tion  of  his  first  Administration.  But  if  this  be  a  dream,  as  it 
may  very  probably  be,  I  still  hope  Canning  will  take  his  own 
ground  in  Parliament,  and  hoist  his  own  standard.  Sooner 
or  later  it  must  be  successful.  So  much  for  politics  —  about 
which,  after  all,  my  neighbours  the  blackcocks  know  about  aa 
much  as  I  do. 

"  I  have  a  great  deal  to  write  you  about  a  new  poem  which 
I  have  on  the  anvil  —  also,  upon  the  melancholy  death  of  a 
favourite  greyhound  bitch  —  rest  her  body,  since  I  dare  not 
say  soul !  She  was  of  high  blood  and  excellent  promise. 
Should  any  of  your  sporting  friends  have  a  whelp  to  spare,  of 
a  good  kind,  and  of  the  female  sex,  I  would  be  grateful  beyond 
measure,  especially  if  she  has  had  the  distemper.  As  I  have 
quite  laid  aside  the  gun,  coursing  is  my  only  and  constant 
amusement,  and  my  valued  pair  of  four-legged  champions, 
Douglas  and  Percy,  wax  old  and  unfeary.  Ever  yours  truly 

"W.  S." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq. 

"  Gloucester  Lodge,  .Nov.  13, 1809. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  very  sensibly  gratified  by  your  kind 
expressions,  whether  of  condolence  or  congratulation,  and  I 
acknowledge,  if  not  (with  your  Highland -writer)  the  synony- 
mousness  of  the  two  terms,  at  least  the  union  of  the  two  senti 
ments,  as  applied  to  my  present  circumstances.  I  am  not  so 
heroically  fond  of  being  out  (qudtenus  out),  as  not  to  consider 
ttat  a  matter  of  condolence.  But  I  am  at  the  same  time  suf 
ficiently  convinced  of  the  desirableness  of  not  being  in,  whec 
one  should  be  in  to  no  purpose,  either  of  public  advantage  01 
personal  credit,  to  be  satisfied  that  on  that  ground  I  am  en 
titled  to  your  congratulations. 


LETTER    FROM    CANNING  —  1809.  73 

"  I  should  be  very  happy  indeed  to  look  forward,  with  the 
prospect  of  being  able  to  realize  it,  to  the  trip  to  Scotland 
which  you  suggest  to  me ;  and  still  more  to  the  visit  included 
therein,  which,  as  you  hold  it  out,  would  not  be  the  least  part 
of  my  temptation.  Of  this,  however,  I  hope  we  shall  have  op 
portunities  of  talking  before  the  season  arrives ;  for  I  reckon 
upon  your  spring  visit  to  London,  and  think  of  it,  I  assure  you, 
with  great  pleasure,  as  likely  to  happen  at  a  period  when  I 
shall  have  it  more  in  my  power  than  I  have  had  on  any  former 
occasion  to  enjoy  the  advantage  of  it.  You  will  find  me  not  in 
quite  so  romantic  a  scene  of  seclusion  and  tranquillity  here  as 
that  which  you  describe  —  but  very  tranquil  and  secluded 
nevertheless,  at  a  mile  and  a  half's  distance  from  Hyde  Park 
Corner  —  a  distance  considerable  enough,  as  I  now  am,  to  save 
me  from  any  very  overwhelming  '  unda  salutantium.' 

"  Here,  or  anywhere  else,  I  beg  you  to  believe  in  the  very 
sincere  satisfaction  which  I  shall  derive  from  your  society,  and 
which  I  do  derive  from  the  assurance  of  your  regard  and  good 
opinion.  Ever,  my  Dear  Sir,  very  truly  and  faithfully  yours, 

"  GEO.  CANNING. 

"  P.  S.  —  I  expect,  in  the  course  of  this  week,  to  send  you  a 
copy  of  a  more  ample  statement  of  the  circumstances  of  my 
retirement,  which  the  misrepresentations  of  some  who,  I  think^ 
must  have  known  they  were  misrepresenting  (though  that  I 
must  not  say),  have  rendered  necessary." 

I  could  not  quote  more  largely  from  these  political 
letters  wUhout  trespassing  against  the  feelings  of  dis 
tinguished  individuals  still  alive.  I  believe  the  extracts 
which  I  have  given  are  sufficient  to  illustrate  the  sagacity 
with  which  Scott  had  at  that  early  period  apprehended 
the  dangers  to  which  the  political  career  of  Mr.  Canning 
was  exposed,  by  the  jealousy  of  the  old  Tory  aristocracy 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  insidious  flatteries  of  Whig  in 
triguers  on  the  other.  I  willingly  turn  from  his  politics 


74  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

to  some  other  matters,  which  about  this  time  occupied  a 
large  share  of  his  thoughts. 

He  had  from  his  boyish  days  a  great  love  for  theatrical 
representation ;  and  so  soon  as  circumstances  enabled  him 
to  practise  extended  hospitality,  the  chief  actors  of  his 
time,  whenever  they  happened  to  be  in  Scotland,  were 
among  the  most  acceptable  of  his  guests.  Mr.  Charles 
Young  was,  I  believe,  the  first  of  them  of  whom  he  saw 
much  :  As  early  as  1803  I  find  him  writing  of  that  gentle 
man  to  the  Marchioness  of  Abercorn  as  a  valuable  addi- . 
tion  to  the  society  of  Edinburgh ;  and  down  to  the  end  of 
Scott's  life,  Mr.  Young  was  never  in  the  north  without 
visiting  him. 

Another  graceful  and  intelligent  performer  in  whom  he 
took  a  special  interest,  and  of  whom  he  saw  a  great  deal 
in  his  private  circle,  was  Miss  Smith,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Bartley.  But  at  the  period  of  which  I  am  now  treating, 
his  principal  theatrical  intimacy  was  with  John  Philip 
Kemble,  and  his  sister  Mrs.  Siddons,  both  of  whom  he 
appears  to  have  often  met  at  Lord  Abercorn's  villa  near 
Stanmore,  during  his  spring  visits  to  London  after  the 
first  establishment  of  his  poetical  celebrity.  Of  John 
Kemble's  personal  character  and  manners,  he  has  re 
corded  his  impressions  in  a  pleasing  reviewal  of  Mr. 
Boaden's  Memoir.*  The  great  tragedian's  love  of  black- 
letter  learning,  especially  of  dramatic  antiquities,  afforded 
a  strong  bond  of  fellowship  ;  and  I  have  heard  Scott  say 
that  the  only  man  who  ever  seduced  him  into  very  deep 
potations  in  his  middle  life  was  Kemble.  He  was  fre 
quently  at  Ashestiel,  and  the  "  fat  Scotch  butler,"  whonc 
Mr,  Skene  has  described  to  us,  by  name  John  Macbeth- 
made  sore  complaints  of  the  bad  hours  kept  on  such  oc 

*  Miscellaneoui  Prose  Works,  vol.  xx.  1834;  vol.  i.  part  viii.  1841. 


THEATRICAL    AFFAIRS.  75 

casions  in  one  of  the  most  regular  of  households  ;  but  the 
watchings  of  the  night  were  not  more  grievous  to  "  Cousin 
Macbeth,"  as  Kemble  called  the  honest  beaujfetier,  than 
were  the  hazards  and  fatigues  of  the  morning  to  the  rep 
resentative  of  "  the  Scotch  usurper."  Kemble's  miseries 
during  a  rough  gallop  were  quite  as  grotesque  as  those  of 
his  namesake,  and  it  must  be  owned  that  species  of  dis 
tress  was  one  from  the  contemplation  of  which  his  host 
could  never  derive  anything  but  amusement. 

I  have  heard  Scott  chuckle  with  particular  glee  over 
the  recollection  of  an  excursion  to  the  vale  of  the  Ettrick, 
near  which  river  the  party  were  pursued  by  a  bull. 
"  Come,  King  John,"  said  he,  "  we  must  even  take  the 
water,"  and  accordingly  he  and  his  daughter  plunged  into 
the  stream.  But  King  John,  halting  on  the  bank  and 
surveying  the  river,  which  happened  to  be  full  and  tur 
bid,  exclaimed,  in  his  usual  solemn  manner, 

"  The  flood  is  angry,  Sheriff; 

Methinks  I'll  get  me  up  into  a  tree."  * 

It  was  well  that  the  dogs  had  succeeded  in  diverting  the 
bull,  because  there  was  no  tree  at  hand  which  could  have 
sustained  King  John,  nor,  had  that  been  otherwise,  could 
so  stately  a  personage  have  dismounted  and  ascended 
with  such  alacrity  as  circumstances  would  have  required. 
He  at  length  followed  his  friends  through  the  river  with 
the  rueful  dignity  of  Don  Quixote. 

*  John  Kemble's  most  familiar  table-talk  often  flowed  into  blank 
verse;  and  so  indeed  did  his  sister's.  Scott  (who  was  a  capital  mimic) 
cften  repeated  her  tragic  exclamation  to  a  footboy  during  a  dinner  at 
Ashestiel  — 

"You've  brought  me  water,  boy,  —  I  asked  for  beer." 

Another  time,  dining  with  a  Provost  of  Edinburgh,  she  ejaculated, 
tti  answer  to  her  host's  apology  for  his  piece  de  resistance  — 
"  Beef  cannot  be  too  salt  for  me,  my  Lord !  " 


f6  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

It  was  this  intercourse  which  led  Scott  to  exert  him 
self  very  strenuously,  when  some  change  in  the  adminis 
tration  of  the  Edinburgh  theatre  became  necessary  —  (I 
believe  in  1808),  —  to  prevail  on  Mr.  Henry  Siddons, 
the  nephew  of  Kernble,  to  undertake  the  lease  and  man 
agement.  Such  an  arrangement  would,  he  expected,  in 
duce  both  Kemble  and  his  sister  to  be  more  in  Scotland 
than  hitherto ;  and  what  he  had  seen  of  young  Siddons 
himself  led  him  to  prognosticate  a  great  improvement  in 
the  whole  conduct  of  the  northern  stage.  His  wishes 
were  at  length  accomplished  in  the  summer  of  1809. 
On  this  occasion  he  purchased  a  share,  and  became  one 
of  the  acting  trustees  for  the  general  body  of  proprie 
tors  ;  and  thenceforth,  during  a  long  series  of  years,  he 
continued  to  take  a  very  lively  concern  in  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  Edinburgh  company.  In  this  he  was  plenti 
fully  encouraged  by  his  domestic  camarilla  ;  for  his  wife 
had  all  a  Frenchwoman's  passion  for  the  spectacle  ;  and 
the  elder  of  the  two  Ballantynes  (both  equally  devoted 
to  the  company  of  players)  was  a  regular  newspaper 
critic  of  theatrical  affairs,  and  in  that  capacity  had  al 
ready  attained  a  measure  of  authority  supremely  gratify 
ing  to  himself. 

The  first  new  play  produced  by  Henry  Siddons  was 
the  Family  Legend  of  Joanna  BaiLie.  This  was,  I  be 
lieve,  the  first  of  her  dramas  that  ever  underwent  the 
test  of  representation  in  her  native  kingdom ;  and  Scott 
appears  to  have  exerted  himself  most  indefatigably  in  it 
behalf.  He  was  consulted  about  all  the  minutiae  of  cos 
tume,  attended  every  rehearsal,  and  supplied  the  prol- 
cgue.  The  play  was  better  received  than  any  other 
which  the  gifted  authoress  has  since  subjected  to  the 
experiment ;  and  how  ardently  Scott  enjoyed  its 


JOANNA  BAILLIE'S  FAMILY  LEGEND.  77 

success  will  appear  from  a  few  specimens  of  the  many 
letters  which  he  addressed  to  his  friend  on  the  occasion. 

The  first  of  these  letters  is  dated  Edinburgh,  October 
27,  1809.  He  had  gone  into  town  for  the  purpose  of 
entering  his  eldest  boy  at  the  High  School:  — 

"  On  receiving  your  long  kind  letter  yesterday,  I  sought  out 
Siddons,  who  was  equally  surprised  and  delighted  at  your  lib 
eral  arrangement  about  the  Lady  of  the  Rock.  I  will  put  all 
the  names  to  rights,  and  retain  enough  of  locality  and  person 
ality  to  please  the  antiquary,  without  the  least  risk  of  bringing 
the  clan  Gillian  about  our  ears.  I  went  through  the  theati3. 
which  is  the  most  complete  little  thing  of  the  kind  I  ever  saw, 
elegantly  fitted  up,  and  large  enough  for  every  purpose.  I 
trust,  with  you,  that  in  this  as  in  other  cases,  our  Scotch  pov 
erty  may  be  a  counterbalance  to  our  Scotch  pride,  and  that 
we  shall  not  need  in  my  time  a  larger  or  more  expensive  build- 
inf.  Siddons  himself  observes,  that  even  for  the  purposes  of 
show  (so  paramount  now-a-days)  a  moderate  stage  is  better 
fitted  than  a  large  one,  because  the  machinery  is  pliable  and 
manageable  in  proportion  to  its  size.  With  regard  to  the 
equipment  of  the  Family  Legend,  I  have  been  much  diverted 
with  a  discovery  which  I  have  made.  I  had  occasion  to  visit 
our  Lord  Provost  (by  profession  a  stocking-weaver),  and  wag 
surprised  to  find  the  worthy  magistrate  filled  with  a  new-born 
zeal  for  the  drama.  He  spoke  of  Mr.  Siddons'  merits  with 
enthusiasm,  and  of  Miss  Baillie's  powers  almost  with  tears  of 
rapture.  Being  a  curious  investigator  of  cause  and  effect,  1 
never  rested  until  I  found  out  that  this  theatric  rage  which 
had  seized  his  lordship  of  a  sudden,  was  owing  to  a  large  or 
der  for  hose,  pantaloons,  and  plaids  for  equipping  the  rival 
clans  of  Campbell  and  Maclean,  and  which  Siddons  was  sensible 
enough  to  send  to  the  warehouse  of  our  excellent  provost.* 

*  This  magistrate  was  Mr  William  Coulter  (the  salt-beef  Amphit- 
•yon),  who  died  in  office  in  April  1810,  and  is  said  to  have  been  greatly 
wmsoled  on  his  deathbed  by  the  prospect  of  so  grand  a  funeral  as  must 


78  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

...  The  Laird  *  is  just  gone  to  the  High  School,  and  it  is 
with  inexpressible  feeling  that  I  hear  him  trying  to  babble  the 
first  words  of  Latin,  the  signal  of  commencing  serious  study 
for  his  acquirements  hitherto  have  been  under  the  mild  domin 
ion  of  a  governess.  I  felt  very  like  Leontes  — 

"  Looking  on  the  lines 
Of  my  boy's  face,  raethought  I  did  recoil 
Thirty  good  years."  —  f 

And  O  !  my  dear  Miss  Baillie,  what  a  tale  thirty  years  can 
tell  even  in  an  uniform  and  unhazardous  course  of  life !  How 
much  I  have  reaped  that  I  have  never  sown,  and  sown  that  I 
have  never  reaped  !  Always,  I  shall  think  it  one  of  the  proud 
est  and  happiest  circumstances  of  my  life  that  enables  me  to 
subscribe  myself  your  faithful  and  affectionate  friend, 

"W.  S." 

Three  months  later,  he  thus  communicates  the  result 
of  the  experiment :  — 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

"  Jan.  30th,  1810. 

"My  Dear  Miss  Baillie,  —  You  have  only  to  imagine  all 
that  you  could  wish  to  give  success  to  a  play,  and  your  con 
ceptions  will  still  fall  short  of  the  complete  and  decided  tri 
umph  of  the  Family  Legend.  The  house  was  crowded  to  a 
most  extraordinary  degree ;  many  people  had  come  from  your 
native  capital  of  the  west ;  everything  that  pretended  to  dis 
tinction,  whether  from  rank  or  literature,  was  in  the  boxes,  and 

needs  occur  in  the  case  of  an  actual  Lord  Provost  of  Auld  Reekie. 
Scott  used  to  take  him  off  as  saying  at  some  public  meeting,  "  Gentle 
men,  though  doomed  to  the  trade  of  a  stocking-weaver,  I  was  born 
with  the  soul  of  a  Sheepio  !  "  —  (Scipio.) 

*  Young  Walter  Scott  was  called  Gilnockie,  the  Laird  of  Gilnockie. 
Ci  simply  the  Laird,  in  consequence  of  his  childish  admiration  fo? 
Johnnie  Armstrong,  whose  ruined  tower  is  still  extant  at  Gilnockie  or 
the  Esk,  nearly  opposite  Netherby. 

4    Winter's  Tale,  Act  I.  Scene  2. 


THE    FAMILY    LEGEND  1810.  79 

in  the  pit  such  an  aggregate  mass  of  humanity  as  I  have  sel 
dom  if  ever  witnessed  in  the  same  space.  It  was  quite  obvious 
from  the  beginning,  that  the  cause  was  to  be  very  fairly  tried 
before  the  public,  and  that  if  anything  went  wrong,  no  effort, 
even  of  your  numerous  and  zealous  friends,  could  have  had 
much  influence  in  guiding  or  restraining  the  general  feeling. 
Some  good-natured  persons  had  been  kind  enough  to  propa 
gate  reports  of  a  strong  opposition,  which,  though  I  considered 
them  as  totally  groundless,  did  not  by  any  means  lessen  the 
extreme  anxiety  with  which  I  waited  the  rise  of  the  curtain. 
But  in  a  short  time  I  saw  there  was  no  ground  whatever  for 
apprehension,  and  yet  I  sat  the  whole  time  shaking  for  fear  a 
scene-shifter,  or  a  carpenter,  or  some  of  the  subaltern  actors, 
should  make  some  blunder,  and  interrupt  the  feeling  of  deep 
and  general  interest  which  soon  seized  on  the  whole  pit,  box, 
and  gallery,  as  Mr.  Bayes  has  it.*  The  scene  on  the  rock 
struck  the  utmost  possible  effect  into  the  audience,  and  you 
beard  nothing  but  sobs  on  all  sides.  The  banquet-scene  was 
equally  impressive,  and  so  was  the  combat.  Of  the  greater 
scenes,  that  between  Lorn  and  Helen  in  the  castle  of  Maclean, 
that  between  Helen  and  her  lover,  and  the  examination  of 
Maclean  himself  in  Argyle's  castle,  were  applauded  to  the  very 
echo.  Siddons  announced  the  play  '•for  the  rest  of  the  week,' 
which  was  received  not  only  with  a  thunder  of  applause,  but 
with  cheering  and  throwing  up  of  hats  and  handkerchiefs. 
Mrs.  Siddons  supported  her  part  incomparably,  although  just 
recovered  from  the  indisposition  mentioned  in  my  last.  Sid- 
dons  himself  played  Lorn  very  well  indeed,  and  moved  and 
looked  with  great  spirit.  A  Mr.  Terry,  who  promises  to  be  a 
fine  performer,  went  through  the  part  of  the  Old  Earl  with 
great  taste  and  effect.  For  the  rest  I  cannot  say  much,  ex 
cepting  that  from  highest  to  lowest  they  were  most  accurately 
perfect  in  their  parts,  and  did  their  very  best.  Malcolm  de 
Gray  was  tolerable  but  stickish  —  Maclean  came  off  decently 
-  but  the  conspirators  were  sad  hounds.  You  are,  my  dear 

*  See  the  Rehearsal. 

VOL.    III.  § 


BO  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Miss  Baillie,  too  much  of  a  democrat  in  your  writings ;  you 
allow  life,  soul,  and  spirit  to  these  inferior  creatures  of  the 
drama,  and  expect  they  will  be  the  better  of  it.  Now  it  was 
obvious  to  me,  that  the  poor  monsters,  whose  mouths  are  only 
of  use  to  spout  the  vapid  blank  verse  which  your  modern  play 
wright  puts  into  the  part  of  the  confidant  and  subaltern  villain 
of  his  piece,  did  not  know  what  to  make  of  the  energetic  and 
poetical  diction  which  even  these  subordinate  department* 
abound  with  in  the  Legend.  As  the  play  greatly  exceeded 
the  usual  length  (lasting  till  half-past  ten),  we  intend,  when  it 
is  repeated  to-night,  to  omit  some  of  the  passages  where  the' 
weight  necessarily  fell  on  the  weakest  of  our  host,  although  we 
may  hereby  injure  the  detail  of  the  plot.  The  scenery  was 
very  good,  and  the  rock,  without  appearance  of  pantomime, 
was  so  contrived  as  to  place  Mrs.  Siddons  in  a  very  precarious 
situation  to  all  appearance.  The  dresses  were  more  tawdry 
than  I  should  have  judged  proper,  but  expensive  and  showy. 
I  got  my  brother  John's  Highland  recruiting  party  to  reinforce 
the  garrison  of  Inverary,  and  as  they  mustered  beneath  the 
porch  of  the  castle,  and  seemed  to  fill  the  court-yard  behind, 
the  combat  scene  had  really  the  appearance  of  reality.  Sid- 
dons  has  been  most  attentive,  anxious,  assiduous,  and  docile, 
and  had  drilled  his  troops  so  well  that  the  prompter's  aid  was 
unnecessary,  and  I  do  not  believe  he  gave  a  single  hint  the 
whole  night ;  nor  were  there  any  false  or  ridiculous  accents  or 
gestures  even  among  the  underlings,  though  God  knows  they 
fell  often  far  short  of  the  true  spirit.  Mrs.  Siddons  spoke  the 
epilogue  *  extremely  well :  the  prologue,  f  which  I  will  send 
/ou  in  its  revised  state,  was  also  very  well  received.  Mrs. 
Scott  sends  her  kindest  compliments  of  congratulation :  she 
had  a  party  of  thirty  friends  in  one  small  box,  which  she  was 
obliged  to  watch  like  a  clucking  hen  till  she  had  gathered  her 
flock,  for  the  crowd  was  insufferable.  I  am  going  to  see 
Legend  to-night,  when  I  shall  enjoy  it  quietly,  for  las* 

*  Written  by  Henry  Mackenzie. 

t  See  Scott's  Poetical  Works,  p.  635  (1841,  English  Ed.) 


MR.    TERRY  1810.  81 

night  1  was  so  much  interested  in  its  reception  that  I  cannot 
say  I  was  at  leisure  to  attend  to  the  feelings  arising  from  the 
reuresentation  itself.  People  are  dying  to  read  it.  If  you 
think  of  suffering  a  single  edition  to  be  printed  to  gratify  their 
curiosity,  I  will  take  care  of  it.  But  I  do  not  advise  this,  be 
cause  until  printed  no  other  theatres  can  have  it  before  you 
give  leave.  My  kind  respects  attend  Miss  Agnes  Baillie,  and 
believe  me  ever  your  obliged  and  faithful  servant, 

"WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  P.  S.  —  A  friend  of  mine  writes  dramatic  criticism  now 
and  then,  I  have  begged  him  to  send  me  a  copy  of  the  Edin 
burgh  paper  in  which  he  inserts  his  lucubrations,  and  I  will 
transmit  it  to  you :  he  is  a  play-going  man,  and  more  in  the 
habit  of  expressing  himself  on  such  subjects  than  most  people. 
—  In  case  you  have  not  got  a  playbill,  I  enclose  one,  because 
I  think  in  my  own  case  I  should  like  to  see  it." 

The  Family  Legend  had  a  continuous  run  of  fourteen 
nights,  and  was  soon  afterwards  printed  and  published  by 
the  Ballantynes. 

The  theatrical  critic  alluded  to  in  the  last  of  these 
letters  was  the  elder  of  those  brothers  ;  the  newspaper  in 
which  his  lucubrations  then  appeared  was  the  Edinburgh 
Evening  Courant ;  and  so  it  continued  until  1817,  when 
the  Edinburgh  Weekly  Journal  was  purchased  by  the  two 
partners  of  the  Canongate ;  ever  after  which  period  it  was 
edited  by  the  prominent  member  of  that  firm,  and  from 
time  to  time  was  the  vehicle  of  many  fugitive  pieces  by 
Scott. 

In  one  of  these  letters  there  occurs,  for  the  first  time, 
the  name  of  a  person  who  soon  obtained  a  large  share  of 
Scott's  regard  and  confidence  —  the  late  ingenious  come 
dian,  Mr.  Daniel  Terry.  He  had  received  a  good  edu 
cation,  and  been  regularly  trained  as  an  architect;  but 


82  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

abandoned  that  profession,  at  an  early  period  of  life,  foi 
the  stage,  and  was  now  beginning  to  attract  attention  as  a 
valuable  and  efficient  actor  in  Henry  Siddons's  new  com 
pany  at  Edinburgh.  Already  he  and  the  Ballantynea 
were  constant  companions,  and  through  his  familiarity 
with  them,  Scott  had  abundant  opportunities  of  appreciat 
ing  his  many  excellent  and  agreeable  qualities.  He  had 
the  manners  and  feelings  of  a  gentleman.  Like  John 
Kemble,  he  was  deeply  skilled  in  the  old  literature  of  the 
drama,  and  he  rivalled  Scott's  own  enthusiasm  for  the 
antiquities  of  vertu.  Their  epistolary  correspondence  in 
after  days  was  frequent,  and  will  supply  me  with  many 
illustrations  of  Scott's  minor  tastes  and  habits.  As  their 
letters  lie  before  me,  they  appear  as  if  they  had  all  been 
penned  by  the  same  hand.  Terry's  idolatry  of  his  new 
friend  induced  him  to  imitate  his  writing  so  zealously, 
that  Scott  used  to  say,  if  he  were  called  on  to  swear 
to  any  document,  the  utmost  he  could  venture  to  attest 
would  be,  that  it  was  either  in  his  own  hand  or  in  Terry's. 
The  actor,  perhaps  unconsciously,  mimicked  him  in  other 
matters  with  hardly  inferior  pertinacity.  His  small  lively 
features  had  acquired,  before  I  knew  him,  a  truly  ludi 
crous  cast  of  Scott's  graver  expression ;  he  had  taught 
bis  tiny  eyebrow  the  very  trick  of  the  poet's  meditative 
frown ;  and  to  crown  all,  he  so  habitually  affected  hia 
tone  and  accent,  that,  though  a  native  of  Bath,  a  stranger 
eould  hardly  have  doubted  he  must  be  a  Scotchman. 
These  things  afforded  Scott  and  all  their  mutual  ac 
quaintances  much  diversion ;  but  perhaps  no  Stoic  could 
have  helped  being  secretly  gratified  by  seeing  a  clever 
and  sensible  man  convert  himself  into  a  living  type  and 
symbol  of  admiration. 

Charles  Mathews  and  Terry  were  once  thrown  out  of 


TERRY MATHEWS.  83 

a  gig  together,  and  the  former  received  an  injury  which 
made  him  halt  ever  afterwards,  while  the  latter  escaped 
unhurt.  "  Dooms,  Dauniel"  said  Mathews  when  they 
next  met,  "  what  a  pity  that  it  wasna  your  luck  to  get 
the  game  leg,  mon  !  Your  Shirra  wad  hae  been  the  very 
thing,  ye  ken,  an'  ye  wad  hae  been  croose  till  ye  war 
coffined ! "  Terry,  though  he  did  not  always  relish  banter 
ing  on  this  subject,  replied  readily  and  good-humouredly 
by  a  quotation  from  Peter  Pindar's  Bozzy  and  Piozzi :  — 

"  When  Foote  his  leg  by  some  misfortune  broke, 
Says  I  to  Johnson,  all  by  way  of  joke, 
Sam,  sir,  in  Paragraph  will  soon  be  clever, 
He'll  take  off  Peter  better  now  than  ever." 

Mathews's  mirthful  caricature  of  Terry's  sober  mimicry 
of  Scott  was  one  of  the  richest  extravaganzas  of  his  so 
cial  hours;  but  indeed  I  have  often  seen  this  Proteus 
dramatize  the  whole  Ballantyne  group  with  equal  suc 
cess  —  while  Kigdumfunnidos  screamed  with  delight,  and 
Aldiborontiphoscophornio  faintly  chuckled,  and  the  Sher 
iff,  gently  smiling,  pushed  round  his  decanters.* 

Miss  Seward  died  in  March  1809.  She  bequeathed 
her  poetry  to  Scott,  with  an  injunction  to  publish  it 
speedily,  and  prefix  a  sketch  of  her  life  ;  while  she  made 
aer  letters  (of  which  she  had  kept  copies)  the  property  of 
Mr.  Constable,  in  the  assurance  that  due  regard  for  his 
own  interests  would  forthwith  place  the  whole  collection 
before  the  admiring  world.  Scott  superintended  accord- 

*  By  the  way,  perhaps  tha  very  richest  article  in  Mathws's  social 
budget,  was  the  scene  alleged  to  have  occurred  when  he  himself  com 
municated  to  the  two  Ballantynes  the  new  titles  Avhich  the  Sheriff  had 
conferred  on  them.  Rigdum's  satisfaction  with  his  own  cap  and  bells, 
and  the  other's  indignant  incredulity,  passing  by  degrees  into  tragical 
lorror,  made  a  delicious  contrast.  [1839.] 


84  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ingly  the  edition  of  the  lady's  verses,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  three  volumes,  in  August  1810,  by  John  Ballan- 
tyne  and  Co. ;  and  Constable  lost  no  time  in  announcing 
her  correspondence,  which  appeared  a  year  later,  in  six 
volumes.  The  following  letter  alludes  to  these  produc 
tions,  as  well  as  a  comedy  by  Mr.  Henry  Siddons,  which 
he  had  recently  brought  out  on  the  Edinburgh  stage ; 
and  lastly,  to  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  the  printing  of  which 
had  by  this  time  made  great  progress. 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 

"  Edinburgh,  March  18, 1810. 

"Nothing,  my  dear  Miss  Baillie,  can  loiter  in  my  hands, 
when  you  are  commanding  officer.  I  have  put  the  play  in 
progress  through  the  press,  and  find  my  publishers,  the  Ballan- 
tynes,  had  previously  determined  to  make  Mr.  Longman,  the 
proprietor  of  your  other  works,  the  offer  of  this.  All  that  can 
be  made  of  it  in  such  a  cause  certainly  shall,  and  the  book 
sellers  shall  be  content  with  as  little  profit  as  can  in  reason  be 
expected.  I  understand  the  trade  well,  and  will  take  care  of 
this.  Indeed,  I  believe  the  honour  weighs  more  with  the  book 
sellers  here  than  the  profit  of  a  single  play.  So  much  for  busi 
ness.  You  are  quite  right  in  the  risk  I  run  of  failure  in  a  third 
poem  ;  yet  I  think  I  understand  the  British  public  well  enough 
to  set  every  sail  towards  the  popular  breeze.  One  set  of  folks 
pique  themselves  upon  sailing  in  the  wind's  eye  —  another 
class  drive  right  before  it;  now  I  would  neither  do  one  or 
t'other,  but  endeavour  to  go,  as  the  sailors  express  it,  upon  a 
wind,  and  make  use  of  it  to  carry  me  my  own  way,  instead  ol 
going  precisely  in  its  direction ;  or,  to  speak  in  a  dialect  witL 
which  I  am  more  familiar,  I  would  endeavour  to  make  my 
horse  carry  me,  instead  of  attempting  to  carry  my  horse.  I 
have  a  vain-glorious  presentiment  of  success  upon  this  occa 
sion,  which  may  very  well  deceive  me,  but  which  I  would 
hardly  confess  to  anybody  but  you,  nor  perhaps  to  you  neither 


MISS  SEWARD'S  LETTERS,  ETC.  85 

anless  1  knew  you  would  find  it  out  whether  I  told  it  you 
or  no, — 

4  You  are  a  sharp  observer,  and  you  look 
Quite  through  the  eyes  of  men.'  — 

44 1  plead  guilty  to  the  charge  of  ill-breeding  to  Miss  *  *  *  *. 
The  despair  which  I  used  to  feel  on  receiving  poor  Miss 
Seward's  letters,  whom  I  really  liked,  gave  me  a  most  unsenti 
mental  horror  for  sentimental  letters.  The  Grossest  thing  I 
ever  did  in  my  life  was  to  poor  dear  Miss  Seward ;  she  wrote 
me  in  an  evil  hour  (I  had  never  seen  her,  mark  that !)  a  long 
and  most  passionate  epistle  upon  the  death  of  a  dear  friend, 
whom  I  had  never  seen  neither,  concluding  with  a  charge  not 
to  attempt  answering  the  said  letter,  for  she  was  dead  to  the 
world,  &c.  &c.  &c.  Never  were  commands  more  literally 
obeyed.  I  remained  as  silent  as  the  grave,  till  the  lady  made 
so  many  inquiries  after  me,  that  I  was  afraid  of  my  death 
being  prematurely  announced  by  a  sonnet  or  an  elegy.  When 
I  did  see  her,  however,  she  interested  me  very  much,  and  I  am 
now  doing  penance  for  my  ill-breeding,  by  submitting  to  edit 
her  posthumous  poetry,  most  of  which  is  absolutely  execrable. 
This,  however,  is  the  least  of  my  evils,  for  when  she  proposed 
this  bequest  to  me,  which  I  could  not  in  decency  refuse,  she 
combined  it  with  a  request  that  I  would  publish  her  whole 
literary  correspondence.  This  I  declined  on  principle,  having 
a  particular  aversion  at  perpetuating  that  sort  of  gossip ;  but 
what  availed  it  ?  Lo  !  to  ensure  the  publication,  she  left  it  to 
an  Edinburgh  bookseller ;  and  I  anticipate  the  horror  of  see 
ing  myself  advertised  for  a  live  poet  like  a  wild  beast  on  a 
painted  streamer,  for  I  understand  all  her  friends  are  depicted 
therein  in  body,  mind,  and  manners.  So  much  for  the  risks 
pf  sentimental  correspondence. 

44  Siddons'  play  was  truly  flat,  but  not  unprofitable  ;  he  con 
trived  to  get  it  well  propped  in  the  acting,  and  —  though  it  was 
such  a  thing  as  if  you  or  I  had  written  it  (supposing,  that  is, 
tfhat  in  your  case,  and  I  think  even  in  my  own,  is  impossible) 
"rould  have  been  damned  seventy-fold,  —  yet  it  went  through 


^6  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

with  applause.  Such  is  the  humour  of  the  multitude ;  and 
they  will  quarrel  with  venison  for  being  dressed  a  day  sooner 
than  fashion  requires,  and  batten  on  a  neck  of  mutton,  because, 
on  the  whole,  it  is  rather  better  than  they  expected ;  however, 
Siddons  is  a  good  lad,  and  deserves  success,  through  whatever 
channel  it  comes.  His  mother  is  here  just  now.  I  was  quite 
shocked  to  see  her,  for  the  two  last  years  have  made  a  dreadful 
inroad  both  on  voice  and  person ;  she  has,  however,  a  very  bad 
cold.  I  hope  she  will  be  able  to  act  Jane  de  Montfort,  which 
we  have  long  planned.  Very  truly  yours,  W.  S.** 


THOMA8   SCOTT'S   EXTBACTORSHIP.  87 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Affair  of  Thomas  Scoffs  Extractorship  discussed  in  the  Howe 
of  Lords  —  Speeches  of  Lord  Lauderdale,  Lord  Melville,  frc. 
— Lord  Holland  at  the  Friday  Club  —  Publication  of  The 
Lady  of  the  Lake  —  Correspondence  concerning  Versification 
with  Ellis  and  Canning  —  The  Poem  criticised  by  Jeffrey  and 
Mackintosh  —  Letters  to  Southey  and  Morritt — Anecdotes 
from  James  Ballantyne's  Memoranda. 

1810. 

THERE  occurred,  while  the  latter  cantos  of  the  Lady 
of  the  Lake  were  advancing  through  the  press,  an  affair 
which  gave  Scott  so  much  uneasiness,  that  I  must  not 
pass  it  in  silence.  Each  Clerk  of  Session  had  in  those 
days  the  charge  of  a  particular  office  or  department  in 
the  Great  Register  House  of  Scotland,  and  the  appoint 
ment  of  the  subalterns,  who  therein  recorded  and  ex 
tracted  the  decrees  of  the  Supreme  Court,  was  in  his 
hands.  Some  of  these  situations,  remunerated,  according 
to  a  fixed  rate  of  fees,  by  the  parties  concerned  in  the 
suits  before  the  Court,  were  valuable,  and  considered 
not  at  all  below  the  pretensions  of  gentlemen  who  had 
been  regularly  trained  for  the  higher  branches  of  the  law. 
About  the  time  when  Thomas  Scott's  affairs  as  a  Writer 
to  the  Signet  fell  into  derangement,  but  before  they  were 
yet  hopeless,  a  post  became  vacant  in  his  brother's  office, 


88  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

which  yielded  an  average  income  of  £400,  and  which  he 
would  very  willingly  have  accepted.  The  poet,  however, 
considered  a  respectable  man,  who  had  grown  grey  at  an 
inferior  desk  in  the  same  department,  as  entitled  to  pro 
motion,  and  exerted  the  right  of  patronage  in  his  favour 
accordingly,  bestowing  on  his  brother  the  place  which 
this  person  left.  It  was  worth  about  £250  a-year,  and 
its  duties  being  entirely  mechanical,  might  be  in  great 
part,  and  often  had  been  in  former  times  entirely,  dis 
charged  by  deputy.  Mr.  Thomas  Scott's  appointment  to 
this  Extractor  ship  took  place  at  an  early  stage  of  the  pro 
ceedings  of  that  Commission  for  inquiring  into  the  Scotch 
System  of  Judicature,  which  had  the  poet  for  its  secre 
tary.  Thomas,  very  soon  afterwards,  was  compelled  to 
withdraw  from  Edinburgh,  and  retired,  as  has  been  men 
tioned,  to  the  Isle  of  Man,  leaving  his  official  duties  to 
the  care  of  a  substitute,  who  was  to  allow  him  a  certain 
share  of  the  fees,  until  circumstances  should  permit  his 
return.  It  was  not,  however,  found  so  easy,  as  he  and 
his  friends  had  anticipated,  to  wind  up  his  accounts,  and 
settle  with  his  creditors.  Time  passed  on,  and  being  an 
active  man,  in  the  prime  vigour  of  life,  he  accepted  a 
commission  in  the  Manx  Fencibles,  a  new  corps  raised 
by  the  Lord  of  that  island,  the  Duke  of  Athol,  who  will 
ingly  availed  himself  of  the  military  experience  which 
Mr.  Scott  had  acquired  in  the  course  of  his  long  con 
nexion  with  the  Edinburgh  Volunteers.  These  Manx 
Fencibles,  however,  were  soon  dissolved,  and  Thomas 
Scott,  now  engaged  in  the  peaceful  occupation  of  collect 
ing  materials  for  a  History  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  to  which 
his  brother  had  strongly  directed  his  views,  was  anxiously 
expecting  a  final  arrangement,  which  might  allow  him  to 
re-establish  himself  in  Edinburgh,  and  resume  his  seat  in 


THOMAS    SCOTT'S    EXTRACTORSHIP.  89 

the  Register  House,  when  he  received  the  intelligence 
that  the  Commission  of  Judicature  had  resolved  to  abolish 
that,  among  many  other  similar  posts.  This  was  a  severe 
blow ;  but  it  was  announced,  at  the  same  time,  that  the 
Commission  meant  to  recommend  to  Parliament  a  scheme 
of  compensation  for  the  functionaries  who  were  to  be  dis 
charged  at  their  suggestion,  -and  that  his  retired  allow 
ance  would  probably  amount  to  £130  per  annum. 

In  the  spring  of  1810,  the  Commission  gave  in  its  re 
port,  and  was  dissolved ;  and  a  bill,  embodying  the  details 
of  an  extensive  reform,  founded  on  its  suggestions,  was 
laid  before  the  House  of  Commons,  who  adopted  most  of 
its  provisions,  and  among  others  passed,  without  hesita 
tion,  the  clauses  respecting  compensation  for  the  holders 
of  abolished  offices.  But  when  the  bill  reached  the 
House  of  Lords,  several  of  these  clauses  were  severely 
reprobated  by  some  Peers  of  the  Whig  party,  and  the 
case  of  Thomas  Scott,  in  particular,  was  represented  as  a 
gross  and  flagrant  job.  The  following  extract  from  Han 
sard's  Debates  will  save  me  the  trouble  of  further  de 
tails  :  — 

"THOMAS  SCOTT. 

"  THE  EARL  OF  LAUDERDALE  moved  an  amendment, 
*  That  those  only  be  remunerated  who  were  mentioned  in  the 
schedule.'  The  application  of  this  amendment  was  towards  the 
compensation  intended  for  Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  the  brother  of 
Walter  Scott.  It  appeared  the  former  was  appointed  to  the 
office  of  an  Extractor  at  a  time  when  it  must  have  been  fore 
seen  that  those  offices  would  be  abolished.  Mr.  Thomas  Scott 
had  not  been  connected  previously  with  that  sort  of  situation, 
but  was  recruiting  for  the  Manx  Fencibles  in  the  Isle  of  Man 
%t  the  time,  and  had  not  served  the  office,  but  performed  its 
duties  through  the  means  of  a  deputy.  He  considered  this 
transaction  a  perfect  job.  By  the  present  bill  Mr.  T.  Scott 


90  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

would  have,  £130  for  life  as  an  indemnity  for  an  office,  the 
duties  of  which  he  never  had  performed,  while  those  clerks 
who  had  laboured  for  twenty  years  had  no  adequate  remunera 
tion. 

"  VISCOUNT  MELVILLE  supported  the  general  provisions  of 
the  bill.  With  respect  to  Mr.  T.  Scott,  he  certainly  had  been 
in  business,  had  met  with  misfortunes,  and  on  account  of  his 
circumstances  went  to  the  Isle  of  Man ;  but  with  respect  to  his 
appointment,  this  was  the  fact :  a  situation  in  the  same  office 
[of  the  Register  House]  with  that  of  his  brother,  of  £400,  be 
came  vacant,  and  he  [Walter  Scott]  thought  it  his  duty  to  pro 
mote  a  person  who  had  meritoriously  filled  the  situation  which 
was  afterwards  granted  to  Mr.  T.  Scott.  His  brother  was 
therefore  so  disinterested  as  to  have  appointed  him  to  the  in 
ferior  instead  of  the  superior  situation.  The  noble  viscount 
saw  no  injustice  in  the  case,  and  there  was  no  partiality  but 
what  was  excusable. 

"  LORD  HOLLAND  thought  no  man  who  knew  him  would 
suspect  that  he  was  unfavourable  to  men  of  literature ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  felt  a  great  esteem  for  the  literary  character  of 
Walter  Scott.  He  and  his  colleagues  ever  thought  it  their 
duty  to  reward  literary  merit  without  regard  to  political  opin 
ions  ;  and  he  wished  he  could  pay  the  same  compliment  to  the 
noble  and  learned  viscount,  for  he  must  ever  recollect  that  the 
poet  Burns,  of  immortal  memory,  had  been  shamefully  neg 
lected.  But  with  respect  to  Mr.  Thomas  Scott,  the  question 
was  quite  different,  for  he  was  placed  in  a  situation  which  he 
and  his  brother  knew  at  the  time  would  be  abolished ;  and 
from  Parliament  he  claimed  an  indemnity  for  what  could  not 
be  pronounced  any  loss.  It  was  unjust  as  regarded  others, 
and  improper  as  it  respected  Parliament. 

"  The  amendment  was  then  proposed  and  negatived.  The 
bill  was  accordingly  read  the  third  time  and  passed."  —  HAN- 
BARD,  June  1810. 

I  shall  now  extract  various  passages  from  Scott's  let- 
ners  to  his  brother  and  other  friends,  which  will  show 


THOMAS    SCOTT  —  1810.  91 

what  his  feelings  were  while  this  affair  continued  under 
agitation. 

"  To  Thomas  Scott,  Esq.,  Douglas,  Isle  of  Man. 

"  Edinburgh,  25th  May  1810. 

"My  Dear  Tom,  —  I  write  under  some  anxiety  for  your 
interest,  though  I  sincerely  hope  it  is  groundless.  The  devil 
or  James  Gibson  *  has  put  it  into  Lord  Lauderdale's  head  t;j 
challenge  your  annuity  in  the  House  of  Lords  on  account  of 
your  non-residence,  and  your  holding  a  commission  in  the 
militia.  His  lordship  kept  his  intention  as  secret  as  possible, 
but  fortunately  it  reached  the  kind  and  friendly  ear  of  Colin 
Mackenzie.  Lord  Melville  takes  the  matter  up  stoutly,  and  I 
have  little  doubt  will  carry  his  point,  unless  the  whole  bill  is 
given  up  for  the  season,  which  some  concurring  opposition  from 
different  quarters  renders  not  impossible.  In  that  case,  you 
must,  at  the  expense  of  a  little  cash  and  time,  show  face  in 
Edinburgh  for  a  week  or  two,  and  attend  your  office.  But  I 
devoutly  hope  all  will  be  settled  by  the  bill  being  passed  as  it 
now  stands.  This  is  truly  a  most  unworthy  exertion  of  pri 
vate  spite  and  malice,  but  I  trust  it  will  be  in  vain." 

"  Edinburgh,  June  12th. 

"  Dear  Tom,  —  I  have  the  pleasure  to  acquaint  you  that  I 
have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the  bill  will  pass  this  week. 
It  has  been  committed;  upon  which  occasion  Lord  Lauder- 
dale  stated  various  objections,  all  of  which  were  repelled.  He 
then  adverted  to  your  case  with  some  sufficiently  bitter  obser 
vations.  Lord  Melville  advised  him  to  reserve  his  epithets  till 
he  was  pleased  to  state  his  cause,  as  he  would  pledge  himself 
to  show  that  they  were  totally  inapplicable  to  the  transaction. 

*  James  Gibson,  Esq.  W.  S.  (now  Sir  James  Gibson-Craig  of  Ric- 
tarton,  Bart.)  had  always  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  able  and 
tctive  of  the  Scotch  "Whigs — whose  acknowledged  chief  in  those  lays 
IF  as  the  Earl  of  Lauderdale. 


92  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  Duke  of  Montrose  also  intimated  his  intention  to  defend 
it,  which  I  take  very  kind  of  his  Grace,  as  he  went  down  on 
purpose,  and  declared  his  resolution  to  attend  whenever  the 
business  should  be  stirred.  So  much  for 

'  The  Lord  of  Graham,  by  every  chief  adored, 
Who  boarts  his  native  philabeg  restored.'  "  * 


"  Edinburgh,  21st  Juno  1810. 

"  My  Dear  Tom,  —  The  bill  was  read  a  third  time  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  on  which  occasion  Lord  Lauderdale  made  his 
attack,  which  Lord  Melville  answered.  There  was  not  much 
said  on  either  side :  Lord  Holland  supported  Lord  Lauder 
dale,  and  the  bill  passed  without  a  division.  So  you  have 
fairly  doubled  Cape  Lauderdale.  I  believe  his  principal  view 
was  to  insult  my  feelings,  in  which  he  has  been  very  unsuc 
cessful,  for  I  thank  God  I  feel  nothing  but  the  most  hearty 
contempt  both  for  the  attack  and  the  sort  of  paltry  malice  by 
which  alone  it  could  be  dictated." 

The  next  letter  is  addressed  to  an  old  friend  of  Scott's, 
who,  though  a  stout  Whig,  had  taken  a  lively  interest  in 
the  success  of  his  brother's  parliamentary  business :  — 

"  To  John  Richardson,  Esq.,  Fludyer  Street,  Westminster. 

"Edinburgh,  3d  July  1810. 

"  My  Dear  Richardson,  —  I  ought  before  now  to  have  writ 
ten  you  my  particular  thanks  for  your  kind  attention  to  the 
interest  which  I  came  so  strangely  and  unexpectedly  to  have 
in  the  passing  of  the  Judicature  Bill.  The  only  purpose  which 
I  suppose  Lord  Lauderdale  had  in  view  was  to  state  chargea 
which  could  neither  be  understood  nor  refuted,  and  to  give  me 
a  little  pain  by  dragging  my  brother's  misfortunes  into  public 

*  These  lines  are  slightly  altered  from  the  Rolliad,  p.  308.  Th« 
Duke  had  obtained  the  repeal  of  an  act  of  Parliament  forbidding  the 
*se  of  tbe  Highland  garb. 


THOMAS    SCOTT LORD    HOLLAND.  93 

notice.  If  the  last  was  his  aim,  I  am  happy  to  say  it  has  most 
absolutely  miscarried,  for  I  have  too  much  contempt  for  the 
motive  which  dictated  his  Lordship's  eloquence,  to  feel  much  for 
its  thunders.  My  brother  loses  by  the  bill  from  £150  to  £200, 
which  no  power  short  of  an  act  of  Parliament  could  have 
taken  from  him;  and  far  from  having  a  view  to  the  compensa 
tion,  he  is  a  considerable  loser  by  its  being  substituted  for  the 
actual  receipts  of  his  office.  I  assure  you  I  am  very  sensible 
of  your  kind  and  friendly  activity  and  zeal  in  my  brother's 
behalf. 

"I  received  the  Guerras*  safe;  it  is  a  fine  copy,  and  I 
think  very  cheap,  considering  how  difficult  it  is  now  to  procure 
foreign  books.  I  shall  be  delighted  to  have  the  Tiaite  des 
Tournois.  I  propose,  on  the  12th,  setting  forth  for  the  West 
Highlands,  with  the  desperate  purpose  of  investigating  the 
caves  of  Staffa,  Egg,  and  Skye.  There  was  a  time  when  this 
was  a  heroic  undertaking,  and  when  the  return  of  Samuel 
Johnson  from  achieving  it  was  hailed  by  the  Edinburgh  literati 
with  '  per  varies  casus,'  and  other  scraps  of  classical  gratula- 
tion  equally  new  and  elegant.  But  the  harvest  of  glory  has 
been  entirely  reaped  by  the  early  discoverers ;  and  in  an  age 
when  every  London  citizen  makes  Lochlomond  his  washpot, 
and  throws  his  shoe  over  Ben-Nevis,  a  man  may  endure  every 
hardship,  and  expose  himself  to  every  danger  of  the  Highland 
Beas,  from  sea-sickness  to  the  jaws  of  the  great  sea-snake, 
without  gaining  a  single  leaf  of  laurel  for  his  pains. 

"•  The  best  apology  for  bestowing  all  this  tediousness  upon 
you  is,  that  John  Burnet  is  dinning  into  the  ears  of  the  Court 
a  botheration  about  the  politics  of  the  magnificent  city  of 
Culross.  But  I  will  release  you  sooner  than  I  fear  I  shall 
escape  myself,  with  the  assurance  that  I  am  ever  yours  most 
truly,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

I  conclude  the  affair  of  Thomas  Scott  with  a  brief  ex- 
Jrac:  from  a  letter  which  his  brother  addressed  to  him  a 

*  A  copy  of  the  Guerras  Civiles  de  Granada. 


94  LIFE    OP    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

few  weeks  later :  — "  Lord  Holland  has  been  in  Edin 
burgh,  and  we  met  accidentally  at  a  public  party.  He 
made  up  to  me,  but  I  remembered  his  part  in  your  affair, 
and  cut  him  Avith  as  little  remorse  as  an  old  pen."  The 
meeting  here  alluded  to  occurred  at  a  dinner  of  the  Fri 
day  Club,  at  Fortune's  Tavern,  to  which  Lord  Holland 
was  introduced  by  Mr.  Thomas  Thomson.  Two  gentle 
men  who  were  present,  inform  me  that  they  distinctly 
remember  a  very  painful  scene,  for  which,  knowing  Scott's 
habitual  good-nature  and  urbanity,  they  had  been  wholly 
unprepared.  One  of  them  (Lord  Jeffrey)  adds,  that  this 
was  the  only  example  of  rudeness  he  ever  witnessed  in  him 
in  the  course  of  a  lifelong  familiarity.  I  have  thought  it 
due  to  truth  and  justice  not  to  omit  this  disagreeable  pas 
sage  in  Scott's  life,  which  shows  how  even  his  mind  could 
at  times  be  unhinged  and  perverted  by  the  malign  influ 
ence  of  political  spleen.  It  is  consolatory  to  add,  that  he 
enjoyed  much  agreeable  intercourse  in  after  days  with 
Lord  Holland,  and  retained  no  feelings  of  resentment 
towards  any  other  of  the  Whig  gentlemen  named  in  the 
preceding  correspondence.* 

*  I  subjoin  a  list  of  the  Members  of  The  Friday  Club,  which  was  in 
stituted  in  June  1803  (on  the  model,  I  believe,  of  Johnson's  at  the 
Turk's  Head),  down  to  the  period  of  Scott's  death.  The  others 
marked,  like  his  name,  by  an  asterisk,  are  also  dead. 

1803.  *  Sir  James  Hall,  1803.     George    Cranstoun    (Lord 

*  Professor  Dugald  Stewart,  Corehouse) 

*  Professor  John  Playfair,  *  Walter  Scott, 

*  Rev.  Arch.  Alison,  Thomas  Thomson, 
Rev.  Sydney  Smith,                            Dr.  John  Thomson, 

*  Rev.  Peter  Elmslie,  John  A.  Murray  (Lord  Mut 
*Alex.  Irving  (Lord  New-  ray) 

ton)  Henry    Brougham    (Loro 

•Wm.  Erskine  (Lord  Kin-  Brougham) 

nedder)  *  Henry  Mackenzie, 


LETTER   TO    MR.    MORRTTT.  95 

While  these  affairs  were  still  in  progress,  the  poem  of 
the  Lady  of  the  Lake  was  completed.  Scott  was  at  the 
same  time  arranging  the  materials,  and  superintending 
the  printing,  of  the  collection  entitled  "  English  Min 
strelsy,"  in  which  several  of  his  own  minor  poems  first 
appeared,  and  which  John  Ballantyne  and  Co.  also  pub 
lished  in  the  summer  of  1810.  The  Swift,  too  (to  say 
nothing  of  reviews  and  the  like),  was  going  on ;  and  so 
was  the  Somers.  A  new  edition  of  the  Minstrelsy  of  the 
Scottish  Border  was  moreover  at  press,  and  in  it  the 
editor  included  a  few  features  of  novelty,  particularly  Mr. 
Morritt's  spirited  ballad  of  the  Curse  of  Moy.  He  gives 
a  lively  description  of  his  occupations,  in  the  following 
letter  addressed  to  that  gentleman :  — 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  24  Portland  Place,  London. 

"  Edinburgh,  2d  March  1810. 

"  My  Dear  Morritt,  —  You  are  very  good  to  remember  such 
a  false  knave  as  I  am,  who  have  omitted  so  long  to  thank  you 

1803.  H.  Mackenzie  (Lord  Mac-    1811.    T.  F.  Kennedy, 

kenzie),  J.  Fullerton  (Lord  Fuller- 

*  Malcolm  Laing,  ton), 
Henry     Cockburn     (Lord                 John  Allen, 

Cockburn),  *  Francis  Homer. 

John  Richardson,  Thomas  Campbell, 

Francis  Jeffrey  (Lord  Jef-  1812.  *  George  Wilson, 

frey).  1814.  *  Dr.  John  Gordon, 

William  Clerk,  1816.    Andrew  Rutherford, 

1804,  *  Alex.  Hamilton,  1817.  *  James  Keay, 

*  Dr.  Coventry,  1825.    Leonard  Horner, 

*  Professor  John  Robison  Professor  Pillans, 
George  Strickland.  1826.     Count  M.  de  Flahault, 

*  Professor  Dalzell,  *D.    Cathcart    (Lord   Allo- 

*  Lord  Webb  Seymour,  way), 

*  Earl  of  Selkirk,  1827.    Earl  of  Minto, 

*  Lord  Glenbervie,  William  Murray, 

1807.  *  Rev.  John  Thomson  1830.     Hon.  Mountstuart  Elpbin- 

1810.    John  Jeffrey,  stone. 

VOL.  nr.  7 


96  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

for  a  letter,  bringing  me  the  assurances  of  your  health  and  re 
membrance,  which  I  do  not  value  the  less  deeply  and  sincerely 
for  my  seeming  neglect.  Truth  is,  I  do  not  eat  the  bread  of 
idleness.  But  I  was  born  a  Scotchman,  and  a  bare  one,  and 
was  therefore  born  to  fight  my  way  with  my  left  hand  where 
my  right  failed  me,  and  with  my  teeth,  if  they  were  both  cut 
off.  This  is  but  a  bad  apology  for  not  answering  your  kind 
ness,  yet  not  so  bad  when  you  consider  that  it  was  only  ad 
mitted  as  a  cause  of  procrastination,  and  that  I  have  been  —  let 
me  see  —  I  have  been  Secretary  to  the  Judicature  Commis 
sion,  which  sat  daily  during  all  the  Christmas  vacation.  I  have 
been  editing  Swift,  and  correcting  the  press,  at  the  rate  of  six 
sheets  a- week.  I  have  been  editing  Somers  at  the  rate  of  four 
ditto  ditto.  I  have  written  reviews  —  I  have  written  songs  — = 
I  have  made  selections — I  have  superintended  rehearsals  — 
and  all  this  independent  of  visiting,  and  of  my  official  duty 
which  occupies  me  four  hours  every  working  day  except  Mon 
days  —  and  independent  of  a  new  poem  with  which  I  am 
threatening  the  world.  This  last  employment  is  not  the  most 
prudent,  but  I  really  cannot  well  help  myself.  My  office, 
though  a  very  good  one  for  Scotland,  is  only  held  in  reversion ; 
nor  do  I  at  present  derive  a  shilling  from  it.  I  must  expect 
that  a  fresh  favourite  of  the  public  will  supersede  me,  and  my 
philosophy  being  very  great  on  the  point  of  poetical  fame,  I 
would  fain,  at  the  risk  of  hastening  my  own  downfall,  avail 
myself  of  the  favourable  moment  to  make  some  further  provi 
sion  for  my  little  people.  Moreover,  I  cannot  otherwise  hon 
estly  indulge  myself  in  some  of  the  luxuries  which,  when  long 
gratified,  become  a  sort  of  pseudo  necessaries.  As  for  the 
terrible  parodies  *  which  have  come  forth,  I  can  only  say  with 
Benedict,  '  A  college  of  such  witmongers  cannot  flout  me  out 
of  my  humour.'  Had  I  been  conscious  of  one  place  about  my 
temper,  were  it  even,  metaphorically  speaking,  the  tip  of  my 
heel,  vulnerable  to  this  sort  of  aggression,  I  have  that  respect 
for  mine  own  ease,  that  I  would  have  shunned  being  a  candi« 

*  I  suppose  this  is  an  allusion  to  "  The  Lay  of  the  Scotch  Fiddle," 
*The  Goblin  Gnom,"  and  some  other  productions,  like  them,  long 
since  forgotten. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    MORRITT.  97 

date  for  public  applause,  as  I  would  avoid  snatching  a  honey 
comb  from  among  a  hive  of  live  bees.  My  present  attempt  is 
a  poem,  partly  Highland — the  scene  Loch  Katrine,  tempore 
Jacobi  quinti.  If  I  fail,  as  Lady  Macbeth  gallantly  says,  T  fail, 
and  there  is  only  a  story  murdered  to  no  purpose ;  and  if  1 
succeed,  why  then,  as  the  song  says  — 

'  Up  with  the  bonnie  blue  bonnet, 
The  dirk  and  the  feather  and  a'.' 

"  I  hope  to  show  this  ditty  to  you  soon  in  Portland  Place,  for 
It  seems  determined  I  must  go  to  London,  though  the  time  is 
not  fixed.  The  pleasure  of  meeting  you  and  half  a  dozen 
other  friends,  reconciles  me  to  this  change  of  plan,  for  had  I 
answered  your  letter  the  day  I  received  it,  I  would  have  said 
nothing  was  less  likely  than  my  going  to  town  in  spring.  I 
hope  it  will  be  so  late  as  to  afford  me  an  opportunity  of  visit 
ing  Rokeby  and  Greta  Side  on  my  return.  The  felon  sow  her 
self  could  not  think  of  them  with  more  affection  than  I  do ; 
and  though  I  love  Portland  Place  dearly,  yet  I  would  fain 
enjoy  both.  But  this  must  be  as  the  Fates  and  Destinies  and 
Sisters  three  determine.  Charlotte  hopes  to  accompany  me, 
and  is  particularly  gratified  by  the  expectation  of  meeting  Mrs. 
Morritt.  We  think  of  our  sunny  days  at  Kokeby  with  equal 
delight. 

"  Miss  Baillie's  play  went  off  capitally  here,  notwithstanding 
her  fond  and  over-credulous  belief  in  a  Creator  of  the  world. 
The  fact  is  so  generally  believed  that  it  is  man  who  makes  the 
deity,  that  I  am  surprised  it  has  never  been  maintained  as  a 
corollary,  that  the  knife  and  fork  make  the  fingers.  We  wept 
till  our  hearts  were  sore,  and  applauded  till  our  hands  were 
blistered  —  what  could  we  more —  and  this  in  crowded  theatres. 

"  I  send  a  copy  of  the  poetical  collection,  not  for  you,  my 
good  friend,  because  you  would  not  pay  your  literary  subscrip 
tion,*  but  for  Mrs.  Morritt.  I  thought  of  leaving  it  as  I  came 

*  Scott  alludes  to  some  translations  of  Italian  poetry  which  he  had 
wished  for  Mr.  Morritt's  permission  to  publish  in  the  "  English  Min 
strelsy." 


98  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

through  Yorkshire,  but  as  I  can  get  as  yet  an  office  frank,  it 
will  be  safer  in  your  charge.  By  a  parity  of  reasoning,  you 
will  receive  a  copy  of  the  new  edition  of  the  Minstrelsy  just 
finished,  and  about  to  be  shipped,  enriched  with  your  Curse  of 
Moy,  which  is  very  much  admired  by  all  to  whom  I  have  shown 

it.    I  am  sorry  that  dear is  so  far  from  you.    There  is 

something  about  her  that  makes  me  think  of  her  with  a  mix 
ture  of  affection  and  anxiety  —  such  a  pure  and  excellen 
heart,  joined  to  such  native  and  fascinating  manners,  cannot 
pass  unprotected  through  your  fashionable  scenes  without 
much  hazard  of  a  twinge  at  least,  if  not  a  stab.  I  remember 
we  talked  over  this  subject  once  while  riding  on  the  banks  of 
Tees,  and  somehow  (I  cannot  tell  why)  it  falls  like  a  death-bell 
on  my  ear.  She  is  too  artless  for  the  people  that  she  has  to 
live  amongst.  This  is  all  vile  croaking,  so  I  will  end  it  by 
begging  ten  times  love  and  compliments  to  Mrs.  Morritt,  in 
which  Charlotte  heartily  joins.  Believe  me  ever,  Dear  Mor 
ritt,  yours  most  faithfully,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Early  in  May  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  came  out  —  as 
her  two  elder  sisters  had  done  —  in  all  the  majesty  of 
quarto,  with  every  accompanying  grace  of  typography, 
and  with,  moreover,  an  engraved  frontispiece  of  Saxon's 
portrait  of  Scott ;  the  price  of  the  book,  two  guineas. 
For  the  copyright  the  poet  had  nominally  received  2000 
guineas,  but  as  John  Ballantyne  and  Co.  retained  three- 
fourths  of  the  property  to  themselves  (Miller  of  London 
purchasing  the  other  fourth),  the  author's  profits  were,  or 
should  have  been,  more  than  this. 

It  ought  to  be  mentioned,  that  during  the  progress  of 
the  poem  his  feelings  towards  Constable  were  so  much 
softened,  that  he  authorized  John  Ballantyne  to  ask,  in 
his  name,  that  experienced  bookseller's  advice  respecting 
the  amount  of  the  first  impression,  the  method  of  adver 
tising,  and  other  professional  details.  Mr.  Constable 


THE    LADY    OF    THE    LAKE.  99 

readily  gave  the  assistance  thus  requested,  and  would 
willingly  have  taken  any  share  they  pleased  in  the  ad 
venture.  The  property  had  been  disposed  of  before  these 
communications  occurred,  and  the  triumphant  success  of 
the  coup  d'essai  of  the  new  firm  was  sufficient  to  close 
Scott's  ears  for  a  season  against  any  propositions  of  the 
like  kind  from  the  house  at  the  Cross ;  but  from  this  time 
there  was  no  return  of  anything  like  personal  ill-will  be 
tween  the  parties.  One  article  of  this  correspondence 
will  be  sufficient. 

"  To  Mr.  Constable. 

"  Castle  Street,  13th  March  1810. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  sure  if  Mr.  Hunter  is  really  sorry  for  the 
occasion  of  my  long  absence  from  your  shop,  I  shall  be  happy 
to  forget  all  disagreeable  circumstances,  and  visit  it  often  as  a 
customer  and  amateur.  I  think  it  necessary  to  add  (before 
departing  from  this  subject,  and  I  hope  for  ever),  that  it  is  not 
in  my  power  to  restore  our  relative  situation  as  author  and 
publishers,  because,  upon  the  breach  between  us,  a  large  cap 
ital  was  diverted  by  the  Ballantynes  from  another  object,  and 
invested  in  their  present  bookselling  concern,  under  an  ex 
press  assurance  from  me  of  such  support  as  my  future  publica 
tions  could  give  them ;  which  is  a  pledge  not  to  be  withdrawn 
without  grounds  which  I  cannot  anticipate.  But  this  is  not  a 
consideration  which  need  prevent  our  being  friends  and  well- 
wishers.  Yours  truly,  W.  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Robert  Cadell,  the  publisher  of  this  Memoir,  who 
was  then  a  young  man  in  training  for  his  profession  in 
Edinburgh,  retains  a  strong  impression  of  the  interest 
which  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  excited  there  for  two  or 
three  months  before  it  was  on  the  counter.  "  James  Bal- 
lantyne,"  he  says,  "read  the  cantos  from  time  to  time 
to  select  coteries,  as  they  advanced  at  press.  Common 


100  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

fame  was  loud  in  their  favour ;  a  great  poem  was  on  all 
hands  anticipated.  I  do  not  recollect  that  any  of  all  the 
author's  works  was  ever  looked  for  with  more  intense 
anxiety,  or  that  any  one  of  them  excited  a  more  extraor 
dinary  sensation  when  it  did  appear.  The  whole  country 
rang  with  the  praises  of  the  poet  —  crowds  set  off  to  view 
the  scenery  of  Loch  Katrine,  till  then  comparatively  un 
known  ;  and  as  the  book  came  out  just  before  the  season 
for  excursions,  every  house  and  inn  in  that  neighbour 
hood  was  crammed  with  a  constant  succession  of  visitors 
It  is  a  well-ascertained  fact,  that  from  the  date  of  the 
publication  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  the  post-horse  duty 
in  Scotland  rose  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  and  indeed 
it  continued  to  do  so  regularly  for  a  number  of  years,  the 
author's  succeeding  works  keeping  up  the  enthusiasm  for 
our  scenery  which  he  had  thus  originally  created." 

I  owe  to  the  same  correspondent  the  following  de 
tails  :  —  "  The  quarto  edition  of  2050  copies  disappeared 
instantly,  and  was  followed  in  the  course  of  the  same 
year  by  four  editions  in  octavo,  viz.  one  of  3000,  a  sec 
ond  of  3250,  and  a  third  and  a  fourth  each  of  6000 
copies ;  thus,  in  the  space  of  a  few  months,  the  extraor 
dinary  number  of  20,000  copies  were  disposed  of.  In 
the  next  year  (1811)  there  was  another  edition  of  3000 ; 
there  was  one  of  2000  in  1814;  another  of  2000  in 
1815  ;  one  of  2000  again  in  1819 ;  and  two,  making  be 
tween  them  2500,  appeared  in  1825  :  Since  which  time 
the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  in  collective  editions  of  his  poetry, 
an  1  in  separate  issues,  must  have  circulated  to  the  extent 
of  at  least  20,000  copies  more."  So  that,  down  to  the 
month  of  July  1836,  the  legitimate  sale  in  Great  Britaiu 
has  been  not  less  than  50,000  copies. 

I  have  little  to  add  to  what  the  Introduction  of  1830 


THE  LADY  OV  THE  LAKE, 


101 


and  seme  letters  already  extracted,  have  told  us  concern 
ing  the  history  of  the  composition  of  this  poem.  Indeed 
the  coincidences  of  expression  and  illustration  in  the  In 
troduction,  and  those  private  letters  written  twenty  years 
before,  are  remarkable.  In  both  we  find  him  quoting 
Montrose's  lines,  and  in  both  he  quotes  also  "  Up  wi'  the 
bonnie  blue  bonnet,"  &c.  In  truth,  both  letters  and  In 
troduction  were  literal  transcripts  of  his  usual  conversa 
tion  on  the  subject.  "  A  lady,"  he  says,  "  to  whom  I  was 
nearly  related,  and  with  whom  I  lived  during  her  whole 
life  on  the  most  brotherly  terms  of  affection,  was  residing 
with  me  (at  Ashestiel)  when  the  work  was  in  progress, 
and  used  to  ask  me  what  I  could  possibly  do  to  rise  so 
early  in  the  morning.  At  last  I  told  her  the  subject  of 
my  meditations ;  and  I  can  never  forget  the  anxiety  and 
affection  expressed  in  her  reply.  '  Do  not  be  so  rash,' 
she  said,  '  my  dearest  cousin.  You  are  already  popular 
—  more  so  perhaps  than  you  yourself  will  believe,  01 
than  even  I  or  other  partial  friends  can  fairly  allow  to 
your  merit.  You  stand  high ;  —  do  not  rashly  attempt  to 
climb  higher  and  incur  the  risk  of  a  fall;  for,  depend 
upon  it,  a  favourite  will  not  be  permitted  even  to  stumble 
with  impunity.'  I  replied  to  this  affectionate  expostula 
tion  in  the  words  of  Montrose  :  — 

'  He  either  fears  his  fate  too  much, 

Or  his  deserts  are  small, 
Who  dares  not  put  it  to  the  touch, 
To  win  or  lose  it  all.' 

If  I  fail,'  I  said  —  for  the  dialogue  is  strong  in  my  rec- 
tllection,  ( it  is  a  sign  that  I  ought  never  to  have  suc 
ceeded,  and  I  will  write  prose  for  life :  you  shall  see  no 
change  in  my  temper,  DOF  will  I  eat  a  single  meal  the 
worse.  But  if  I  succeed  — 


103  ,LXFi£    OF    &IR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

'  Up  wi'  the  bonnie  blue  bonnet, 
The  dirk  and  the  feather  an'  a' ! ' 

Afterwards  I  showed  my  critic  the  first  canto,  which 
reconciled  her  to  my  imprudence."  —  The  lady  here  al 
luded  to  was  no  doubt  Miss  Christian  Rutherford,  his 
mother's  sister,  who,  as  I  have  already  mentioned,  was  so 
little  above  his  age,  that  they  seem  always  to  have  liver 
together  on  the  terms  of  equality  indicated  in  her  use  of 
the  word  "  cousin  "  in  the  dialogue  before  us.  She  was, 
however,  about  as  devout  a  Shakspearian  as  her  nephew, ' 
and  the  use  of  cousin,  for  kinsman  in  general,  is  common 
to  all  our  elder  dramatists.* 

He  says,  in  the  same  essay,  "  I  remember  that  about 
the  same  time  a  friend  started  in  to  '  heeze  up  my  hope, 
like  the  minstrel  in  the  old  song.  He  was  bred  a  farmer, 
but  a  man  of  powerful  understanding,  natural  good  taste, 
and  warm  poetical  feeling,  perfectly  competent  to  supply 
the  wants  of  an  imperfect  or  irregular  education.  He 
was  a  passionate  admirer  of  field  sports,  which  we  often 
pursued  together.  As  this  friend  happened  to  dine  with 
me  at  Ashestiel  one  day,  I  took  the  opportunity  of  read 
ing  to  him  the  first  canto  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  effect  the  poem  was  likely  to  pro 
duce  upon  a  person  who  was  but  too  favourable  a  rep- 
lesentative  of  readers  at  large.  His  reception  of  my 
recitation,  or  prelection,  was  rather  singular.  He  placed 
4is  hand  across  his  brow,  and  listened  with  great  atten 
tion  through  the  whole  account  of  the  stag-hunt,  till  the 
dogs  throw  themselves  into  the  lake  to  follow  their  mas 
ter,  who  embarks  with  Ellen  Douglas.  He  then  started 
up  with  a  sudden  exclamation,  struck  his  hand  on  thfe 

*  Thus  Lady  Capulet  exclaims,  on  seeing  the  corpse  of  Tybalt,  — 
"  Tybalt,  my  cousin  !  —  0  my  brother's  child  !  " 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  LAKE.  103 

table,  and  declared,  in  a  voice  of  censure  calculated  for 
the  occasion,  that  the  dogs  must  have  been  totally  ruined 
by  being  permitted  to  take  the  water  after  such  a  severe 
chase.  I  own  I  was  much  encouraged  by  the  species  of 
reverie  which  had  possessed  so  zealous  a  follower  of  the 
sports  of  the  ancient  Nimrod,  who  had  been  completely 
surprised  out  of  all  doubts  of  the  reality  of  the  tale." 
Scott  adds  — "  Another  of  his  remarks  gave  me  less 
pleasure.  He  detected  the  identity  of  the  king  with  the 
wandering  knight,  Fitz-James,  when  he  winds  his  bugle 
to  summon  his  attendants.  He  was  probably  thinking 
of  the  lively  but  somewhat  licentious  old  ballad  in  which 
the  denouement  of  a  royal  intrigue "  [one  of  James  V. 
himself  by  the  way]  "  takes  place  as  follows  :  — 

'  He  took  a  bugle  from  his  side, 

He  blew  both  loud  and  shrill, 
And  four-and-twenty  belted  knights 
Came  skipping  owre  the  hill. 

*  Then  he  took  out  a  little  knife, 

Let  a'  his  duddies  fa', 
And  he  was  the  bravest  gentleman 
That  was  amang  them  a'. 
And  we'll  go  no  more  a  roving,'  &c. 

This  discovery,  as  Mr.  Pepys  says  of  the  rent  in  his 
camlet  cloak,  '  was  but  a  trifle,  yet  it  troubled  me ; '  and 
T  was  at  a  good  deal  of  pains  to  efface  any  marks  by 
which  I  thought  my  secret  could  be  traced  before  the 
conclusion,  when  I  relied  on  it  with  the  same  hope  of 
producing  effect  with  which  the  Irish  postboy  is  said  to 
reserve  a  '  trot  for  the  avenue.' "  * 

I  believe  the  shrewd  critic  here  introduced  was  the 
poet's    excellent   cousin,    Charles    Scott,    now   laird   of 

*  Introduction  to  the  Lady    f  the  Lake  — 1830. 


l04  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Knowe-south.      The   storj  of  the   Irish   postilion's   trot 
he  owed  to  Mr.  Moore. 

In  their  reception  of  this  poem,  the  critics  were  for 
once  in  full  harmony  with  each  other,  and  with  the  popu 
lar  voice.  The  article  in  the  Quarterly  was  written  by 
George  Ellis ;  but  its  eulogies,  though  less  discriminative, 
are  not  a  whit  more  emphatic  than  those  of  Mr.  Jeffrey 
In  the  rival  Review.  Indeed,  I  have  always  considered 
this  last  paper  as  the  best  specimen  of  contemporary 
criticism  on  Scott's  poetry  ;  and  I  shall  therefore  indulge 
myself  with  quoting  here  two  of  its  paragraphs :  — 

"  There  is  nothing  in  Mr.  Scott  of  the  severe  and  majestic 
style  of  Milton  —  or  of  the  terse  and  fine  composition  of  Pope 
—  or  of  the  elaborate  elegance  and  melody  of  Campbell  —  or 
even  of  the  flowing  and  redundant  diction  of  Southey ;  —  but 
there  is  a  medley  of  bright  and  glowing  images,  set  carelessly 
and  loosely  together  —  a  diction  tinged  successively  with  the 
careless  richness  of  Shakspeare,  the  harshness  and  antique 
simplicity  of  the  old  romances,  the  homeliness  of  vulgar  bal 
lads  and  anecdotes,  and  the  sentimental  glitter  of  the  most 
modern  poetry  —  passing  from  the  borders  of  the  ludicrous  to 
those  of  the  sublime  —  alternately  minute  and  energetic  — 
sometimes  artificial,  and  frequently  negligent,  but  always  full 
of  spirit  and  vivacity  —  abounding  in  images  that  are  striking 
ftt  first  sight  to  minds  of  every  contexture  —  and  never  ex 
pressing  a  sentiment  which  it  can  cost  the  most  ordinary  reader 
any  exertion  to  comprehend.  Upon  the  whole,  we  are  inclined 
to  think  more  highly  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  than  of  either  of 
its  author's  former  publications.  We  are  more  sure,  howevei, 
that  it  has  fewer  faults  than  that  it  has  greater  beauties  ;  and 
as  its  beauties  bear  a  strong  resemblance  to  those  with  which 
the  public  has  been  already  made  familiar  in  these  celebrated 
works,  we  should  not  be  surprised  if  its  popularity  were  les? 
splendid  and  remarkable.  For  our  own  parts,  however,  we 
are  of  opinion,  that  it  will  be  oftener  read  hereafter  than  eithei 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  LAKE.  105 

•f  them ;  and  that  if  it  had  appeared  first  in  the  series,  their 
reception  would  have  been  less  favourable  than  that  which  it 
has  experienced.  It  is  more  polished  in  its  diction,  and  more 
regular  in  its  versification ;  the  story  is  constructed  with  infi 
nitely  more  skill  and  address ;  there  is  a  greater  proportion  of 
pleasing  and  tender  passages,  with  much  less  antiquarian  de 
tail  ;  and,  upon  the  whole,  a  larger  variety  of  characters,  more 
artfully  and  judiciously  contrasted.  There  is  nothing  so  fine, 
perhaps,  as  the  battle  in  Marmion  —  or  so  picturesque  as  some 
of  the  scattered  sketches  in  the  Lay ;  but  there  is  a  rich 
ness  and  a  spirit  in  the  whole  piece,  which  does  not  pervade 
either  of  those  poems — a  profusion  of  incident,  and  a  shift 
ing  brilliancy  of  colouring,  that  reminds  us  of  the  witchery 
of  Ariosto — and  a  constant  elasticity,  and  occasional  energy, 
which  seem  to  belong  more  peculiarly  to  the  author  now  be 
fore  us. 

"  It  is  honourable  to  Mr.  Scott's  genius  that  he  has  been  able 
to  interest  the  public  so  deeply  with  this  third  presentment  of 
the  same  chivalrous  scenes ;  but  we  cannot  help  thinking,  that 
both  his  glory  and  our  gratification  would  have  been  greater, 
if  he  had  changed  his  hand  more  completely,  and  actually 
given  us  a  true  Celtic  story,  with  all  its  drapery  and  accom 
paniments,  in  a  corresponding  style  of  decoration.  Such  a 
subject,  we  are  persuaded,  has  very  great  capabilities,  and  only 
wants  to  be  introduced  to  public  notice  by  such  a  hand  as  Mr. 
Scott's,  to  make  a  still  more  powerful  impression  than  he  has 
already  effected  by  the  resurrection  of  the  tales  of  romance. 
There  are  few  persons,  we  believe,  of  any  degree  of  poetical 
susceptibility,  who  have  wandered  among  the  secluded  valleys 
of  the  Highlands,  and  contemplated  the  singular  people  by 
whom  they  are  still  tenanted  —  with  their  love  of  music  and  of 
song  —  their  hardy  and  irregular  life,  so  unlike  the  unvarying 
toils  of  the  Saxon  mechanic  —  their  devotion  to  their  chiefs  — 
their  wild  and  lofty  traditions  —  their  national  enthusiasm  — 
the  melancholy  grandeur  of  the  scenes  they  inhabit  —  and  the 
multiplied  superstitions  which  still  linger  among  them  —  with 
out  feeling  that  there  is  no  existing  people  so  well  adapted  fat 


106  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  purposes  of  poetry,  or  so  capable  of  furnishing  the  occa 
rions  of  new  and  striking  inventions. 

"  We  are  persuaded,  that  if  Mr.  Scott's  powerful  and  crea 
tive  genius  were  to  be  turned  in  good  earnest  to  such  a  sub 
ject,  something  might  be  produced  still  more  impressive  and 
original  than  even  this  age  has  yet  witnessed."* 

The  second  of  these  paragraphs  is  a  strikingly  pro 
phetic  one ;  and  if  the  details  already  given  negative  the 
prediction  of  the  first, — namely,  that  the  immediate 
popularity  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  would  be  less  re 
markable  than  that  of  the  Lay  or  Marmion  had  been  — 
its  other  prediction,  that  the  new  poem  would  be  "  oftener 
read  hereafter  than  either  of  the  former,"  has,  I  believe, 
proved  just.  The  Lay,  if  I  may  venture  to  state  the 
creed  now  established,  is,  I  should  say,  generally  con 
sidered  as  the  most  natural  and  original,  Marmion  as  the 
most  powerful  and  splendid,  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  as  the 
most  interesting,  romantic,  picturesque,  and  graceful  of 
his  great  poems. 

Of  the  private  opinions  expressed  at  the  time  of  its 
first  publication  by  his  distinguished  literary  friends,  and 
expressed  with  an  ease  and  candour  equally  honourable 

*  It  may  interest  the  reader  to  compare  with  this  passage  a  brief 
extract  from  Sir  James  Mackintosh's  Indian  Diary  of  1811:  — 

"The  subject  of  the  Lady,"  says  he,  "is  a  common  Highland 
irruption,  but  at  a  point  where  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Lowlands 
affords  the  best  contrast  of  manners  —  Avhere  the  scenery  affords  the 
noblest  subject  of  description  —  and  where  the  wild  clan  is  so  near  to 
the  Court,  that  their  robberies  can  be  connected  with  the  romantic 
adventures  of  a  disguised  king,  an  exiled  lord,  and  a  high-born  beauty. 
The  whole  narrative  is  very  fine.  There  are  not  so  ninny  splendid 
passages  for  quotation  as  in  the  two  former  poems.  This  may  indeed 
silence  the  objections  of  the  critics,  but  I  doubt  whether  it  will  pn> 
mote  the  popularity  of  the  poem.  It  has  nothing  so  good  as  the  A<? 
iress  to  Scotland,  or  the  Death  of  Marmion." — Life  of  Mackintosh 
vol.  ii.  p.  82. 


LETTER    TO    MR.    SOUTHEY.  107 

to  them  and  to  him,  that  of  Mr.  Sou  they  was,  as  far  as  I 
know,  the  only  one  which  called  forth  anything  like  a 
critical  reply ;  and  even  here,  more  suo,  he  seems  glad  to 
turn  from  his  own  productions  to  those  of  his  correspond 
ent.  It  will  be  seen  that  Mr.  Southey  had  recently  put 
forth  the  first  volume  of  his  History  of  Brazil ;  that  his 
Kehama  was  then  in  the  Ballantyne  press ;  and  that  he. 
had  mentioned  to  Scott  his  purpose  of  writing  another 
poem  under  the  title  of  "  Don  Pelayo  "  —  which  in  the 
issue  was  exchanged  for  that  of  "  Roderick  the  Last  of 
the  Goths." 

"  To  Robert  Southey,  Esq.,  Durham. 

"  Edinburgh,  May  20,  1810. 

"  My  Dear  Southey,  —  I  am  very  sensible  of  the  value  of 
your  kind  approbation  of  my  efforts,  and  trust  I  shall,  under 
such  good  auspices,  keep  my  ground  with  the  public.  I  have 
studied  their  taste  as  much  as  a  thing  so  variable  can  be  cal 
culated  upon,  and  I  hope  I  have  again  given  them  an  accep 
table  subject  of  entertainment.  What  you  say  of  the  songs  is 
very  just,  and  also  of  the  measure.  But,  on  the  one  hand,  I 
wish  to  make  a  difference  between  my  former  poems  and  this 
new  attempt,  in  the  general  tenor  of  versification,  and  on  the 
other,  having  an  eye  to  the  benefits  derivable  from  the  change 
of  stanza,  I  omitted  no  opportunity  which  could  be  given  or 
taken,  of  converting  my  dog-trot  into  a  hop-step-and-jump.  I 
am  impatient  to  see  Kehama ;  James  Ballantyne,  who  has  a 
good  deal  of  tact,  speaks  very  highly  of  the  poetical  fire  and 
beauty  which  pervades  it ;  and,  considering  the  success  of  Sir 
William  Jones,  I  should  think  the  Hindhu  mythology  would 
not  revolt  the  common  readers,  for  in  that  lies  your  only 
ganger.  As  for  Don  Pelayo,  it  should  be  exquisite  under  your 
management:  the  subject  is  noble,  the  parties  finely  con 
trasted  in  manners,  dress,  religion,  and  all  that  the  poet  desires 
to  bring  into  action ;  and  your  complete  knowledge  of  everj 


108  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

historian  who  has  touched  upon  the  peiiod,  promises  the  reader 
at  once  delight  and  instruction. 

"Twenty  times  twenty  thanks  for  the  History  of  Brazil, 
which  has  been  my  amusement,  and  solace,  and  spring  of  in 
struction  for  this  month  past.  I  have  always  made  it  my  read 
ing-book  after  dinner,  between  the  removal  of  the  cloth  and 
our  early  tea-time.  There  is  only  one  defect  I  can  point  out, 
and  that  applies  to  the  publishers  —  I  mean  the  want  of  a  good 
map.  For,  to  tell  you  the  truth,  with  my  imperfect  atlas  of 
South  America,  I  can  hardly  trace  these  same  Tups  of  yours 
(which  in  our  Border  dialect  signifies  rams),  with  all  their 
divisions  and  subdivisions,  through  so  many  ramifications,  with 
out  a  carte  de  pays.  The  history  itself  is  most  singularly  enter 
taining,  and  throws  new  light  upon  a  subject  which  we  have 
hitherto  understood  very  imperfectly.  Your  labour  must  have 
been  immense,  to  judge  from  the  number  of  curious  facts 
quoted,  and  unheard-of  authorities  which  you  have  collected. 
I  have  traced  the  achievements  of  the  Portuguese  adventurers 
with  greater  interest  than  I  remember  to  have  felt  since,  when 
a  schoolboy,  I  first  perused  the  duodecimo  collection  of  Voy 
ages  and  Discoveries  called  the  World  Displayed  —  a  sensation 
which  I  thought  had  been  long  dead  within  me ;  for,  to  say  the 
truth,  the  philanthropic  and  cautious  conduct  of  modern  dis 
coverers,  though  far  more  amiable,  is  less  entertaining  than 
that  of  the  old  Buccaneers,  and  Spaniards,  and  Portuguese, 
who  went  to  conquer  and  achieve  adventures,  and  met  with 
Btrange  chances  of  fate  in  consequence,  which  could  never 
have  befallen  a  well-armed  boat's  crew,  not  trusting  themselves 
beyond  their  watering-place,  or  trading  with  the  natives  on  the 
principles  of  mercantile  good  faith. 

"  I  have  some  thoughts  of  a  journey  and  voyage  to  the  Heb 
rides  this  year,  but  if  I  don't  make  that  out,  I  think  I  shall 
make  a  foray  into  your  northern  counties,  go  to  see  my  friend 
Morritt  at  Greta  Bridge,  and  certainly  cast  myself  Keswick- 
ways  either  going  or  coming.  I  have  some  literary  projects 
to  talk  over  with  you,  for  the  re-editing  some  of  our  ancient 
elassical  romances  and  poetry,  and  ^o  forth.  I  have  great  com- 


LETTER    TO    MR.    SOUTHEY.  109 

mand  of  our  friends  the  Ballantynes,  and  I  think,  so  far  as  the 
filthy  lucre  of  gain  is  concerned,  I  could  make  a  very  advan 
tageous  bargain  for  the  time  which  must  necessarily  be  be 
stowed  in  such  a  labour,  besides  doing  an  agreeable  thing  for 
ourselves,  and  a  useful  service  to  literature.  What  is  be 
come  of  Coleridge's  Friend?  I  hope  he  had  a  letter  from 
me,  enclosing  my  trifling  subscription.  How  does  our  friend, 
Wordsworth  ?  I  won't  write  to  him,  because  he  hates  letter- 
writing  as  much  as  I  do ;  but  I  often  think  on  him,  and  al 
ways  with  affection.  If  you  make  any  stay  at  Durham  let 
me  know,  as  I  wish  you  to  know  my  friend  Surtees  of  Mains- 
forth.*  He  is  an  excellent  antiquary,  some  of  the  rust  of 
which  study  has  clung  to  his  manners ;  but  he  is  good-hearted, 
and  you  would  make  the  summer  eve  (for  so  by  the  courtesy  of 
the  kalendar  we  must  call  these  abominable  easterly  blighting 
afternoons)  short  between  you.  I  presume  you  are  with  my 
friend  Dr.  Southey,  who,  I  hope,  has  not  quite  forgotten  me, 
in  which  faith  I  beg  kind  compliments  to  him,  and  am  ever 
yours  most  truly,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

George  Ellis  having  undertaken,  at  Gifford's  request, 
to  review  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  does  not  appear  to  have 
addressed  any  letter  to  the  poet  upon  the  subject,  until 
after  his  article  had  appeared.  He  then  says  simply, 
that  he  had  therein  expressed  his  candid  sentiments,  and 
hoped  his  friend,  as  great  a  worshipper  as  himself  of  Dry- 
den's  tales,  would  take  in  good  part  his  remarks  on  the 
octosyllabic  metre  as  applied  to  serious  continued  narra 
tive.  The  following  was  Scott's  reply :  — 

*  This  amiable  gentleman,  author  of  the  History  of  Durham,  in 
three  volumes  folio,  —  one  of  the  most  learned  as  well  as  interesting 
works  of  its  class,  —  was  an  early  and  dear  friend  of  Scott's.  He  died 
at  the  family  seat  of  Mainsforth,  near  Durham,  llth  February  1834,  in 
his  55th  year.  A  club  has  since  been  instituted  for  the  publication  of 
.indent  documents,  &c.,  connected  with  the  history  of  the  English 
Border  and  called  in  honour  of  his  memory,  The  Surtees  Club.  * 


110  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


"  To  G.  Ellis,  Esq. 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  have  been  scandalously  lazy  in  answer 
ing  your  kind  epistle,  received  I  don't  know  how  long  since , 
but  then  I  had  been  long  your  creditor,  and  I  fancy  corre 
spondents,  like  merchants,  are  often  glad  to  plead  their  friends' 
neglect  of  their  accompt-current  as  an  apology  for  their  own, 
espacially  when  they  know  that  the  value  of  the  payments 
being  adjusted,  must  leave  a  sad  balance  against  them.  I 
have  run  up  an  attempt  on  the  Curse  of  Kehama  for  the  Quar 
terly;  a  strange  thing  it  is  —  the  Curse,  I  mean  —  and  the 
critique  is  not,  as  the  blackguards  say,  worth  a  damn;  but 
what  I  could  I  did,  which  was  to  throw  as  much  weight  as  pos 
sible  upon  the  beautiful  passages,  of  which  there  are  many, 
and  to  slur  over  the  absurdities,  of  which  there  are  not  a  few. 
Jt  is  infinite  pity  of  Southey,  with  genius  almost  to  exuber 
ance,  so  much  learning  and  real  good  feeling  of  poetry,  that, 
with  the  true  obstinacy  of  a  foolish  papa,  he  will  be  most  at 
tached  to  the  defects  of  his  poetical  offspring.  This  said  Ke 
hama  affords  cruel  openings  for  the  quizzers,  and  I  suppose  will 
get  it  roundly  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  I  could  have  made 
a  very  different  hand  of  it  indeed,  had  the  order  of  the  day 
been  pour  dechirer.* 

"  I  told  you  how  much  I  was  delighted  with  your  critique  on 
the  Lady ;  but,  very  likely  moved  by  the  same  feeling  for 
which  I  have  just  censured  Southey,  I  am  still  inclined  to  de 
fend  the  eight-syllable  stanza,  which  I  have  somehow  persuaded 
myself  is  more  congenial  to  the  English  language  —  more  fa 
vourable  to  narrative  poetry  at  least  —  than  that  which  has 
oeen  commonly  termed  heroic  verse.  If  you  will  take  the 
trouble  to  read  a  page  of  Pope's  Iliad,  you  will  probably  find  a 
good  many  lines  out  of  which  two  syllables  may  be  struck  with 
out  injury  to  the  sense.  The  first  lines  of  this  translation  have 
been  repeatedly  noticed  as  capable  of  being  cut  down  from 

*  See  this  article  in  his  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  vol.  xvii.  pp.  301- 
337,  (Edin.  Ed.) 


LETTER    TO    ELLIS.  Ill 

ships  of  the  line  into  frigates,  by  striking  out  the  said  two-syl 
labled  words,  as  — 

'  Achilles'  wrath  to  Greece,  the  direful  spring 
Of  woes  unnumbered,  heavenly  goddess,  sing, 
That  wrath  which  sent  to  Pluto's  gloomy  reign 
The  souls  of  mighty  chiefs  in  battle  slain, 
Whose  bones  unburied  on  the  desert  shore, 
Devouring  dogs  and  hungry  vultures  tore.' 

"  Now,  since  it  is  true  that  by  throwing  out  the  epithets  un 
derscored,  we  preserve  the  sense  without  diminishing  the  force 
of  the  verses  —  and  since  it  is  also  true  that  scarcely  one  of 
the  epithets  are  more  than  merely  expletive — I  do  really 
think  that  the  structure  of  verse  which  requires  least  of  this 
sort  of  bolstering,  is  most  likely  to  be  forcible  and  animated. 
The  case  is  different  in  descriptive  poetry,  because  there  epi 
thets,  if  they  are  happily  selected,  are  rather  to  be  sought  after 
than  avoided,  and  admit  of  being  varied  ad  infinltum.  But  if 
in  narrative  you  are  frequently  compelled  to  tag  your  substan 
tives  with  adjectives,  it  must  frequently  happen  that  you  are 
forced  upon  those  that  are  merely  commonplaces,  such  as 
'  heavenly  goddess,'  '  desert  shore,'  and  so  forth ;  and  I  need  not 
tell  you,  that  whenever  any  syllable  is  obviously  inserted  for 
the  completion  of  a  couplet,  the  reader  is  disposed  to  quarrel 
with  it.  Besides,  the  eight-syllable  stanza  is  capable  of  cer 
tain  varieties  denied  to  the  heroic.  Double  rhymes,  for  in 
stance,  are  congenial  to  it,  which  often  give  a  sort  of  Gothic 
richness  to  its  cadences ;  you  may  also  render  it  more  or  less 
rapid  by  retaining  or  dropping  an  occasional  syllable.  Lastly, 
and  which  I  think  its  principal  merit,  it  runs  better  into  sen 
tences  than  any  length  of  line  I  know,  as  it  corresponds,  upon 
an  average  view  of  our  punctuation,  very  commonly  with  the 
proper  and  usual  space  between  comma  and  comma.  Lastly 
the  Second,  —  and  which  o  jght  perhaps  to  have  been  said  first, 
• —  I  think  I  have  somehow  a  better  knack  at  this  '  false  gallop ' 
of  verse,  as  Touchstone  calls  it,  than  at  your  more  legitimate 
hexameters ;  and  so  there  is  the  short  and  long  of  my  longa 
and  shorts  Ever  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

VOL.   III.  8 


112  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Mr.  Ellis  recurs  to  the  octosyllabic  measure  of  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake  in  his  next  letter.  "  I  don't  think," 
says  he,  "  after  all  the  eloquence  with  which  you  plead 
for  your  favourite  metre,  that  you  really  like  it  from  any 
other  motive  than  that  sainte  paresse  —  that  delightful 
indolence  —  which  induces  one  to  delight  in  doing  those 
things  which  we  can  do  with  the  least  fatigue.  If  you 
will  take  the  trouble  of  converting  Dryden's  Theodore 
and  Honoria  (a  narrative,  is  it  not?)  into  Hudibrastic 
measure,  and  after  trying  this  on  the  first  twenty  lines 
you  feel  pleased  with  the  transformation,  I  will  give  up 
the  argument ;  —  although,  in  point  of  fact,  I  believe  that 
I  regret  the  variety  of  your  own  old  stanza,  much  more 
than  the  absence  of  that  heroic  measure,  which  you  justly 
remark  is  not,  without  great  difficulty,  capable  of  being 
moulded  into  sentences  of  various  lengths.  "When,  there 
fore,  you  give  us  another  poem,  pray  indulge  me  with 
rather  a  larger  share  of  your  ancient  dithyrambics." 

Canning,  too,  came  to  the  side  of  Ellis  in  this  debate. 
After  telling  Scott,  that  "  on  a  repeated  perusal "  he  had 
been  "  more  and  more  delighted  "  with  the  Lady  of  the 
Lake,  he  says  —  "  But  I  should  like  to  see  something  a 
little  different  when  you  write  next.  In  short,  I  have 
sometimes  thought  (very  presumptuously)  that  partly  by 
persuasion,  and  partly  by  showing  the  effect  of  a  change 
of  dress  —  of  a  fuller  and  more  sweeping  style  —  upon 
some  of  your  favourite  passages,  I  could  induce  you  to 
present  yourself  next  time  in  a  Drydenic  habit.  Has 
this  ever  occurred  to  you,  and  have  you  tried  it,  and  not 
liked  yourself  so  well  ?  "  We  shall  see  by  and  by  what 
Attention  Scott  gave  to  these  friendly  suggestions. 

Of  the  success  of  the  new  poem  he  speaks  as  follows 
in  his  Introduction  of  1830:  —  "It  was  certainly  s# 


THE  LADY  OF  THE  LAKE.  113 

extraordinary  as  to  induce  me  for  the  moment  to  con 
clude  that  I  had  at  last  fixed  a  nail  in  the  proverbially 
inconstant  wheel  of  Fortune.  I  had  attained,  perhaps, 
that  degree  of  public  reputation  at  which  prudence,  or 
certainly  timidity,  would  have  made  a  halt,  and  discon 
tinued  efforts  by  which  I  was  far  more  likely  to  diminish 
my  fame  than  to  increase  it.  But  —  as  the  celebrated 
John  Wilkes  is  said  to  have  explained  to  King  George 
the  Third  that  he  himself,  amid  his  full  tide  of  popu 
larity,  was  never  a  Wilkite  —  so  I  can  with  honest  truth 
exculpate  myself  from  having  been  at  any  time  a  partisan 
of  my  own  poetry,  even  when  it  was  in  the  highest  fash 
ion  with  the  million.  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  I  was 
either  so  ungrateful,  or  so  superabundantly  candid,  as  to 
despise  or  scorn  the  value  of  those  whose  voice  had  ele 
vated  me  so  much  higher  than  my  own  opinion  told  me  I 
deserved.  I  felt,  on  the  contrary,  the  more  grateful  to  the 
public,  as  receiving  that  from  partiality  which  I  could 
not  have  claimed  from  merit :  and  I  endeavoured  to  de 
serve  the  partiality  by  continuing  such  exertions  as  I  was 
capable  of  for  their  amusement." 

James  Ballantyne  has  preserved  in  his  Memorandum 
an  anecdote  strikingly  confirmative  of  the  most  remark 
able  statement  in  this  page  of  Scott's  confessions.  "I 
remember,"  he  says,  "  going  into  his  library  shortly  after 
the  publication  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  and  finding  Miss 
Scott  (who  was  then  a  very  young  girl)  there  by  herself. 
I  asked  her  — l  Well,  Miss  Sophia,  how  do  you  like  the 
Lady  of  the  Lake  ?  '  Her  answer  was  given  with  perfect 
simplicity  —  '  Oh,  I  have  not  read  it ;  papa  says  there's 
nothing  so  bad  for  young  people  as  reading  bad  poetry.  *  * 

In  fact,  his  children  in  those  days  had  no  idea  of  the 
source  of  his  distinction  —  or  rather,  indeed,  that  hia 


114  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

position  was  in  any  respect  different  from  that  of  other 
Advocates,  Sheriffs,  and  Clerks  of  Session.  The  eldest 
boy  came  home  one  afternoon  about  this  time  from  the 
High  School,  with  tears  and  blood  hardened  together 
upon  his  cheeks.  —  "  Well,  Wat,"  said  his  father,  "  what 
have  you  been  fighting  about  to-day  ? "  With  that  the 
boy  blushed  and  hung  his  head,  and  at  last  stammered 
out  —  that  "  he  had  been  called  a  lassie!'  "  Indeed  ! " 
said  Mrs.  Scott,  "  this  was  a  terrible  mischief  to  be  sure." 
"  You  may  say  what  you  please,  mamma,"  Wat  answered 
roughly,  "  but  I  dinna  think  there's  a  waufer  (shabbier) 
thing  in  the  world  than  to  be  a  lassie,  to  sit  boring  at  a 
clout."  Upon  further  inquiry  it  turned  out  that  one  or 
two  of  his  companions  had  dubbed  him  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake,  and  the  phrase  was  to  him  incomprehensible,  save 
as  conveying  some  imputation  on  his  prowess,  which  he 
accordingly  vindicated  in  the  usual  style  of  the  Yards. 
Of  the  poem  he  had  never  before  heard.  Shortly  after, 
this  story  having  got  wind,  one  of  Scott's  colleagues  of 
the  Clerks'  Table  said  to  the  boy  —  "  Gilnockie,  my  man, 
you  cannot  surely  help  seeing  that  great  people  make 
more  work  about  your  papa  than  they  do  about  me  or 
any  other  of  your  uncles  —  what  is  it,  do  you  suppose, 
that  occasions  this  ? "  The  little  fellow  pondered  for  a 
minute  or  two,  and  then  answered  very  gravely  —  "  It's 
commonly  him  that  sees  the  hare  sitting."  And  yet  this 
was  the  man  that  had  his  children  all  along  so  very  mush 
with  him.  In  truth,  however,  young  Walter  had  guessed 
pretty  shrewdly  in  the  matter,  for  his  father  had  all  the 
tact  of  the  Sutherland  Highlander,  whose  detection  of  an 
Irish  rebel  up  to  the  neck  in  a  bog,  he  has  commemorated 
in  a  note  upon  Rokeby.  Like  him,  he  was  quick  to  catch 
the  sparkle  of  the  future  victim's  eye ;  and  often  said  jest- 


JAMES  BALLANTYNE'S  MEMORANDA.  115 

mgly  of  himself,  that  whatever  might  be  thought  of  him 
as  a  maker  (poet),  he  was  an  excellent  trouveur. 

Ballantyne  adds  :  —  "  One  day  about  this  same  time, 
when  his  fame  was  supposed  to  have  reached  its  acme,  I 
said  to  him  — '  Will  you  excuse  me,  Mr.  Scott,  but  I 
should  like  to  ask  you  what  you  think  of  your  own  genius 
as  a  poet,  in  comparison  with  that  of  Burns  ?  '  He  re 
plied  —  '  There  is  no  comparison  whatever  —  we  ought 
not  to  be  named  in  the  same  day/  <  Indeed  ! '  I  an 
swered,  '  would  you  compare  Campbell  to  Burns  ? '  '  No, 
James,  not  at  all  —  If  you  wish  to  speak  of  a  real  poet, 
Joanna  Baillie  is  now  the  highest  genius  of  our  country/ 
—  But,  in  fact,"  (continues  Ballantyne)  —  "  he  had  often 
said  to  me  that  neither  his  own  nor  any  modern  popular 
style  of  composition  was  that  from  which  he  derived  most 
pleasure.  I  asked  him  what  it  was.  He  answered  — 
Johnson's  ;  and  that  he  had  more  pleasure  in  reading 
London,  and  The  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes,  than  any 
other  poetical  composition  he  could  mention  ;  and  I  think 
I  never  saw  his  countenance  more  indicative  of  high  ad 
miration  than  while  reciting  aloud  from  those  produc 
tions." 

In  his  sketch  of  Johnson's  Life,  Scott  says  —  "  The 
deep  and  pathetic  morality  of  The  Vanity  of  Human 
Wishes,  has  often  extracted  tears  from  those  whose  eyes 
wander  dry  over  pages  professedly  sentimental."  *  And 
Lord  Byron,  in  his  Ravenna  Diary,  f  has  the  following 
entry  on  the  same  subject :  — "  Read  Johnson's  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes,  —  all  the  examples  and  mode  of  giv 
ing  them  sublime,  as  well  as  the  latter  part,  with  the  ex- 

*  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  264, 1834;  —  vol.  i.  part  3d 
841,  (Edin.  Ed.) 
t  Life  and  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  66,  (Edin.  Ed.) 


116  JLIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ception  of  an  occasional  couplet.  'Tis  a  grand  poem  — 
and  so  true  !  —  true  as  the  10th  of  Juvenal  himself.  The 
lapse  of  ages  changes  all  things  —  time  —  language  — • 
the  earth  —  the  bounds  of  the  sea  —  the  stars  of  the  sky, 
and  everything  about,  around,  and  underneath  man, 
except  man  himself,  who  has  always  been,  and  always 
will  be,  an  unlucky  rascal.  The  infinite  variety  of  lives 
conduct  but  to  death,  and  the  infinity  of  wishes  lead  but 
to  disappointment."  — 

The  last  line  of  MS.  that  Scott  sent  to  the  press  was  a 
quotation  from  the  "  Vanity  of  Human  Wishes."  Yet  it 
is  the  cant  of  our  day  —  above  all,  of  its  poetasters,  that 
Johnson  was  no  poet  To  be  sure,  they  say  the  same  of 
Pope  —  and  hint  it  occasionally  even  of  Dryden. 


THE   HEBRIDES 


1810.  Il7 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

First  Visit  to  the  Hebrides  —  Staffa  —  Skye  —  Mull  —  lona, 
fyc.  —  The  Lord  of  the  Isles  projected  —  Letters  to  Joanna 
Baillie,  Southey,  and  Morritt. 

1810. 

WALTER  SCOTT  was  at  this  epoch  in  the  highest  spir 
its,  and  having  strong  reasons  of  various  kinds  for  his 
resolution  to  avail  himself  of  the  gale  of  favour,  only 
hesitated  in  which  quarter  to  explore  the  materials  of 
some  new  romance.  His  first  and  most  earnest  desire 
was  to  spend  a  few  months  with  the  British  army  in  the 
Peninsula,  but  this  he  soon  resigned,  from  an  amiable 
motive,  which  a  letter  presently  to  be  quoted  will  ex 
plain.  He  then  thought  of  revisiting  Rokeby  —  for  he 
had  from  the  first  day  that  he  spent  on  that  magnificent 
domain,  contemplated  it  as  the  scenery  of  a  future  poem. 
But  the  burst  of  enthusiasm  which  followed  the  appear 
ance  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  finally  swayed  him  to  un 
dertake  a  journey,  deeper  than  he  had  as  yet  gone,  into 
the  Highlands,  and  a  warm  invitation  from  the  Laird  of 
Staffa,*  a  brother  of  his  friend  and  colleague  Mr.  Mac- 
donald  Buchanan,  easily  induced  him  to  add  a  voyage  to 

*  The  reader  will  find  a  warm  tribute  to  Staffa' s  character  as  a 
Highland  landlord,  in  Scott's  article  on  Sir  John  Carr's  Caledonian 
Sketches,  —  (Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  vol.  xix.);  and  some  spirited 
verses,  written  at  his  mansion  of  Ulva,  in  Scott's  Poetical  Works^  edi< 
tion  1834,  vol.  x.  p.  356;  — 1841,  p.  641. 


118  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  Hebrides.  He  was  accompanied  by  part  of  his  family 
(not  forgetting  his  dog  Wallace),  and  by  several  friends 
besides  ;  among  others  his  relation  Mrs.  Apreece  (now 
Lady  Davy),  who  had  been,  as  he  says  in  one  of  his  let 
ters,  "  a  lioness  of  the  first  magnitude  in  Edinburgh," 
during  the  preceding  winter.  He  travelled  slowly  with 
his  own  horses,  through  Argyleshire,  as  far  as  Oban  ;  but 
indeed,  even  where  post-horses  might  have  been  had,  this 
was  the  mode  he  always  preferred  in  these  family  excur 
sions,  for  he  delighted  in  the  liberty  it  afforded  him  of  • 
alighting  and  lingering  as  often  and  as  long  as  he  chose  : 
and,  in  truth,  he  often  performed  the  far  greater  part  of 
the  day's  journey  on  foot  —  examining  the  map  in  the 
morning  so  as  to  make  himself  master  of  the  bearings  — • 
and  following  his  own  fancy  over  some  old  disused  riding 
track,  or  along  the  margin  of  a  stream,  while  the  carriage, 
with  its  female  occupants,  adhered  to  the  proper  road. 
At  Oban,  where  they  took  to  the  sea,  Mrs.  Apreece  met 
him  by  appointment. 

He  seems  to  have  kept  no  journal  during  this  expedi 
tion  ;  but  I  shall  string  together  some  letters  which,  with 
the  notes  that  he  contributed  many  years  afterwards  to 
Mr.  Croker's  Edition  of  Boswell,  may  furnish  a  tolerable 
sketch  of  the  insular  part  of  his  progress,  and  of  the  feel 
ings  with  which  he  first  inspected  the  localities  of  his  last 
great  poem  —  The  Lord  of  the  Isles.  The  first  of  these 
letters  is  dated  from  the  Hebridean  residence  of  the 
young  Laird  of  Staffa.* 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 

"  Ulva  House,  July  1&,  1810. 
"I  cannot,  my  dear  Miss  Baillie,  resist  the  temptation  of 

*  Sir  Reginald  Macdonald  Steuart  Seton,  of  Staffa,  Allantou,  ano 
Touch,  Baronet,  died  on  the  15th  of  April  1838,  in  his  61st  year. 


THE   HEBRIDES 1810.  119 

writing  to  you  from  scenes  which  you  have  rendered  classical 
;\s  well  as  immortal.  We  —  which  in  the  present  case  means 
my  wife,  my  eldest  girl,  and  myself —  are  thus  far  in  fortunate 
accomplishment  of  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Hebrides.  The  day 
before  yesterday  we  passed  the  Lady's  Rock,  in  the  Sound  of 
Mull,  so  near  that  I  could  almost  have  touched  it.  This  is, 
you  know,  the  Rock  of  your  Family  Legend.  The  boat,  by 
my  desire,  went  as  near  as  prudence  permitted  ;  and  I  wished 
to  have  picked  a  relic  from  it,  were  it  but  a  cockle-shell  or  a 
mussel,  to  have  sent  to  you;  but  a  spring-tide  was  running 
with  such  force  and  velocity  as  to  make  the  thing  impossible. 
About  two  miles  farther,  we  passed  under  the  Castle  of  Duart, 
the  seat  of  Maclean,  consisting  of  one  huge  (indeed  immense) 
square  tower,  in  ruins,  and  additional  turrets  and  castellated 
buildings  (the  work,  doubtless,  of  Benlora's  guardianship),  on 
which  the  roof  still  moulders.  It  overhangs  the  strait  channel 
from  a  lofty  rock,  without  a  single  tree  in  the  vicinity,  and  is 
surrounded  by  high  and  barren  mountains,  forming  altogether 
as  wild  and  dreary  a  scene  as  I  ever  beheld.  Duart  is  con 
fronted  by  the  opposite  castles  of  Dunstaffnage,  Dunolly,  Ard- 
tornish,  and  others,  all  once  the  abodes  of  grim  feudal  chiefs, 
who  warred  incessantly  with  each  other.  I  think  I  counted 
seven  of  these  fortresses  in  sight  at  once,  and  heard  seven 
times  seven  legends  of  war  and  wonder  connected  with  them. 
We  landed  late,  wet  and  cold,  on  the  Island  of  Mull,  near  an 
other  old  castle  called  Aros,  —  separated,  too,  from  our  clothes, 
which  were  in  a  large  wherry,  which  could  not  keep  pace  with 
our  row-boat.  Mr.  Macdonald  of  Staffa,  my  kind  friend  and 
guide,  had  sent  his  piper  (a  constant  attendant,  mark  that !) 
to  rouse  a  Highland  gentleman's  family  in  the  neighbourhood, 
where  we  were  received  with  a  profusion  of  kindness  and  hos 
pitality.  Why  should  I  appal  you  with  a  description  of  our 
difficulties  and  distresses  —  how  Charlotte  lost  her  shoes,  and 
little  Sophia  her  whole  collection  of  pebbles — how  I  was  di 
vorced  from  my  razors,  and  the  whole  party  looked  like  a 
Jewish  sanhedrim !  By  this  time  we  were  accumulated  as 
follows:  —  Sir  George  Paul,  the  great  philanthropist,  Mrs. 


120  LIFE    OF   SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

Apreece,  a  distant  relation  of  mine,  Hannah  Mackenzie,  a 
daughter  of  our  friend  Henry,  and  Mackinnon  of  Mackinnon, 
a  young  gentleman  born  and  bred  in  England,  but  neverthe 
less  a  Highland  chief.*  It  seems  his  father  had  acquired  wealth, 
and  this  young  man,  who  now  visits  the  Highlands  for  the  first 
time,  is  anxious  to  buy  back  some  of  the  family  property,  which 
was  sold  long  since.  Some  twenty  Mackinnons,  who  happened 
to  live  within  hearing  of  our  arrival  (that  is,  I  suppose,  within 
ten  miles  of  Aros),  came  posting  to  see  their  young  chief,  who 
behaved  with  great  kindness,  and  propriety,  and  liberality. 
Next  day  we  rode  across  the  isle  on  Highland  ponies,  attended 
by  a  numerous  retinue  of  gillies,  and  arrived  at  the  head  of 
the  salt-water  loch  called  Loch-an-Gaoil,  where  Staffa's  boats 
awaited  us  with  colours  flying  and  pipes  playing.  We  pro 
ceeded  in  state  to  this  lonely  isle,  where  our  honoured  lord  has 
a  very  comfortable  residence,  and  were  received  by  a  discharge 
of  swivels  and  musketry  from  his  people. 

"  Yesterday  we  visited  Staffa  and  lona :  The  former  is  one 
of  the  most  extraordinary  places  I  ever  beheld.  It  exceeded, 
in  my  mind,  every  description  I  had  heard  of  it ;  or  rather, 
the  appearance  of  the  cavern,  composed  entirely  of  basaltic 
pillars  as  high  as  the  roof  of  a  cathedral,f  and  running  deep 

*  William  Alexander  Mackinnon,  Esq.,  now  member  of  Parliameq4 
for  Lymington,  Hants. 

f  " that  wondrous  dome, 

Where,  as  to  shame  the  temples  deck'd 
By  skill  of  earthly  architect, 
Nature  herself,  it  seem'd,  would  raise 
A  minster  to  her  Maker's  praise ! 
Not  for  a  meaner  use  ascend 
Her  columns,  or  her  arches  bend ; 
Nor  of  a  theme  less  solemn  tells 
That  mighty  surge  that  ebbs  and  swells, 
And  still,  between  each  awful  pause 
From  the  high  vault  an  answer  draws, 
In  varied  tone  prolonged  and  high, 
That  mocks  the  organ's  melody. 
Nor  doth  its  entrance  front  in  vain 


STAFFA  —  1810.  121 

into  the  rock,  eternally  swept  by  a  deep  and  swelling  sea,  and 
paved  as  it  were  with  ruddy  marble,  baffles  all  description. 
You  can  walk  along  the  broken  pillars,  with  some  difficulty, 
and  in  some  places  with  a  little  danger,  as  far  as  the  farthest 
extremity.  Boats  also  can  come  in  below  when  the  sea  is 
placid,  —  which  is  seldom  the  case.  I  had  become  a  sort  of 
favourite  with  the  Hebridean  boatmen,  I  suppose  from  my 
anxiety  about  their  old  customs,  and  they  were  much  pleased 
to  see  me  get  over  the  obstacles  which  stopped  some  of  the 
party.  So  they  took  the  whim  of  solemnly  christening  a  great 
stone  seat  at  the  mouth  of  the  cavern,  Clachan-an-Bairdh,  or 
the  Poet's  Stone.  It  was  consecrated  with  a  pibroch,  which 
the  echoes  rendered  tremendous,  and  a  glass  of  whiskey,  not 
poured  forth  in  the  ancient  mode  of  libation,  but  turned  over 
the  throats  of  the  assistants.  The  head  boatman,  whose  father 
had  been  himself  a  bard,  made  me  a  speech  on  the  occasion ; 
but  as  it  was  in  Gaelic,  I  could  only  receive  it  as  a  silly  beauty 
does  a  fine-spun  compliment  —  bow,  and  say  nothing. 

"  When  this  fun  was  over  (in  which,  strange  as  it  may  seem, 
the  men  were  quite  serious),  we  went  to  lona,  where  there 
are  some  ancient  and  curious  monuments.  From  this  remote 
island  the  light  of  Christianity  shone  forth  on  Scotland  and 
Ireland.  The  ruins  are  of  a  rude  architecture,  but  curious  to 
the  antiquary.  Our  return  was  less  comfortable ;  we  had  to 
row  twenty  miles  against  an  Atlantic  tide  and  some  wind, 
besides  the  pleasure  of  seeing  occasional  squalls  gathering  to 
windward.  The  ladies  were  sick,  especially  poor  Hannah 
Mackenzie,  and  none  of  the  gentlemen  escaped  except  Staffa 
and  myself.  The  men,  however,  cheered  by  the  pipes,  and  by 
their  own  interesting  boat-songs,  which  were  uncommonly  wild 
and  beautiful,  one  man  leading  and  the  others  answering  in 

To  old  lona's  holy  fane, 
That  Nature's  voice  might  seem  to  say, 
1  Well  hast  thou  lone,  frail  Child  of  clay! 
Thy  humble  powers  that  stately  shrine 
Task'd  high  and  hard  —  but  witness  mine  1 ' " 

Lord  of  the  Isles,  Canto  iv.  St.  10, 


122  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

chorus,  kept  pulling  away  without  apparently  the  least  sense 
of  fatigue,  and  we  reached  Ulva  at  ten  at  night,  tolerably  wet, 
and  well  disposed  for  bed. 

"  Our  friend  Staffa  is  himself  an  excellent  specimen  of  High- 
land  chieftainship ;  he  is  a  cadet  of  Clanronald,  and  lord  of  a 
cluster  of  isles  on  the  western  side  of  Mull,  and  a  large  estate 
(in  extent  at  least)  on  that  island.  By  dint  of  minute  atten 
tion  to  this  property,  and  particularly  to  the  management  of 
his  kelp,  he  has  at  once  trebled  his  income  and  doubled  his 
population,  while  emigration  is  going  on  all  around  him.  But 
he  is  very  attentive  to  his  people,  who  are  distractedly  fond  of  • 
him,  and  he  has  them  under  such  regulations  as  conduce  both  to 
his  own  benefit  and  their  profit ;  and  keeps  a  certain  sort  of 
rude  state  and  hospitality,  in  which  they  can  take  much  pride. 
[  am  quite  satisfied  that  nothing  under  the  personal  attention 
of  the  landlord  himself  will  satisfy  a  Highland  tenantry,  and 
that  the  substitution  of  factors,  which  is  now  becoming  general, 
is  one  great  cause  of  emigration.  This  mode  of  life  has,  how 
ever,  its  evils ;  and  I  can  see  them  in  this  excellent  man.  The 
habit  of  solitary  power  is  dangerous  even  to  the  best  regulated 
minds,  and  this  ardent  and  enthusiastic  young  man  has  not 
escaped  the  prejudices  incident  to  his  situation.  But  I  think  I 
have  bestowed  enough  of  my  tediousness  upon  you.  To  bal 
last  my  letter,  I  put  in  one  of  the  hallowed  green  pebbles  from 
the  shore  of  St.  Columba  —  put  it  into  your  work-basket  until 
we  meet,  when  you  will  give  me  some  account  of  its  virtues. 
Don't  suppose  the  lapidaries  can  give  you  any  information 
about,  it,  for  in  their  profane  eyes  it  is  good  for  nothing.  —  But 
the  piper  is  sounding  to  breakfast,  so  no  more  (excepting  love 
to  Miss  Agnes,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Baillie),  from  your  truly  affec 
tionate  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  P.  S.  —  I  am  told  by  the  learned,  the  pebble  will  wear  its 
way  out  of  the  letter,  so  I  will  keep  it  till  I  get  to  Edinburgh. 
I  must  not  omit  to  mention,  that  all  through  these  islands  I 
have  found  every  person  familiarly  acquainted  with  the  Family 
Legend,  and  great  admirers." 


INCHKENNETH.  123 

It  would  be  idle  to  extract  many  of  Scott's  notes  on 
Boswell's  Hebridean  Journal;  but  the  following  speci 
mens  appear  too  characteristic  to  be  omitted.  Of  the 
island  Inchkenneth,  where  Johnson  was  received  by  the 
head  of  the  clan  Maclean,  he  says — 

"  Inchkenneth  is  a  most  beautiful  little  islet  of  the  most  ver 
dant  green,  while  all  the  neighbouring  shore  of  Greban,  as  well 
as  the  large  islands  of  Colonsay  and  Ulva,  are  as  black  as 
heath  and  moss  can  make  them.  But  Ulva  has  a  good  anchor 
age,  and  Inchkenneth  is  surrounded  by  shoals.  It  is  now  un 
inhabited.  The  ruins  of  the  huts,  in  which  Dr.  Johnson  was 
received  by  Sir  Allan  M'Lean,  were  still  to  be  seen,  and  some 
tatters  of  the  paper  hangings  were  to  be  seen  on  the  walls. 
Sir  George  Onesiphorus  Paul  was  at  Inchkenneth  with  the 
same  party  of  which  I  was  a  member.  He  seemed  to  me  to 
suspect  many  of  the  Highland  tales  which  he  heard,  but  he 
showed  most  incredulity  on  the  subject  of  Johnson's  having 
been  entertained  in  the  wretched  huts  of  which  we  saw  the 
ruins.  He  took  me  aside,  and  conjured  me  to  tell  him  the 
truth  of  the  matter.  '  This  Sir  Allan/  said  he,  '  was  he  a 
regular  baronet,  or  was  his  title  such  a  traditional  one  as  you 
find  in  Ireland  ?  '  I  assured  my  excellent  acquaintance,  that, 
'  for  my  own  part,  I  would  have  paid  more  respect  to  a  Knight 
of  Kerry,  or  Knight  of  Glynn  —  yet  Sir  Allan  M'Lean  was  a 
regular  baronet  by  patent ; '  and,  having  given  him  this  infor 
mation,  I  took  the  liberty  of  asking  him,  in  return,  whether  he 
would  not  in  conscience  prefer  the  worst  cell  in  the  jail  at 
Gloucester  (which  he  had  been  very  active  in  overlooking 
while  the  building  was  going  on)  to  those  exposed  hovels  where 
Johnson  had  been  entertained  by  rank  and  beauty.  He  looked 
round  the  little  islet,  and  allowed  Sir  Allan  had  some  advan 
tage  in  exercising  ground ;  but  in  other  respects  he  thought 
the  compulsory  tenants  of  Gloucester  had  greatly  the  advan 
tage.  Such  was  his  opinion  of  a  place,  concerning  which 
Johnson  has  recorded  that  '  it  wanted  little  which  palaces 
could  afford.' 


124  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  Sir  Allan  M'Lean,  like  many  Highland  chiefs,  was  embar 
rassed  in  his  private  affairs,  and  exposed  to  unpleasant  solici 
tations  from  attorneys,  called,  in  Scotland,  Writers  (which, 
indeed,  was  the  chief  motive  of  his  retiring  to  Inchkenneth)- 
Upon  one  occasion  he  made  a  visit  to  a  friend,  then  residing  at 
Carron  Lodge,  on  the  banks  of  the  Carron,  where  the  banks 
of  that  river  are  studded  with  pretty  villas.  Sir  Allan,  admir 
ing  the  landscape,  asked  his  friend  whom  that  handsome  seat 

belonged  to.    '  M ,  the  Writer  to  the  Signet,'  was  the  reply. 

'  Umph  ! '  said  Sir  Allan,  but  not  with  an  accent  of  assent,  '  I 
mean  that  other  house.'  '  Oh  !  that  belongs  to  a  very  honest 

fellow,  Jamie ,  also  a  Writer  to  the  Signet.'  — '  Umph  ! ' 

said  the  Highland  chief  of  M'Lean,  with  more  emphasis  than 
before. — 'And  yon  smaller  house?' — 'That  belongs  to  a 
Stirling  man  ;  I  forget  his  name,  but  I  am  sure  he  is  a  writer 

too ;  for  ' Sir  Allan,  who  had  recoiled  a  quarter  of  a  circle 

backward  at  every  response,  now  wheeled  the  circle  entire, 
and  turned  his  back  on  the  landscape,  saying,  '  My  good  friend, 
I  must  own  you  have  a  pretty  situation  here,  but  d — n  your 
neighbourhood.' " 

The  following  notices  of  Boswell  himself,  and  his 
father,  Lord  Auchinleck,  may  be  taken  as  literal  tran 
scripts  from  Scott's  Table-Talk:  — 

"  Boswell  himself  was  callous  to  the  contacts  of  Dr.  John- 
eon,  and  when  telling  them,  always  reminds  one  of  a  jockey 
receiving  a  kick  from  the  horse  which  he  is  showing  off  to  a 
customer,  and  is  grinning  with  pain  while  he  is  trying  to  cry 
out,  *  Pretty  rogue  —  no  vice  —  all  fun.'  To  him  Johnson's 
rudeness  was  only  « pretty  Fanny's  way.'  Dr.  Robertson  had  a 
sense  of  good  breeding,  which  inclined  him  rather  to  forego 
the  benefit  of  Johnson's  conversation  than  awaken  his  rude 
ness 

;'  Old  Lord  Auchinleck  was  an  able  lawyer,  a  good  scholar, 
after  the  manner  of  Scotland,  and  highly  valued  his  own  ad 
vantages  as  a  man  of  good  estate  and  ancient  family ;  and. 


BOSWELL  —  AUCHINLECK.  1 25 

Moreover,  he  was  a  strict  Presbyterian  and  Whig  of  the  old 
Scottish  cast.  This  did  not  prevent  his  being  a  terribly  proud 
aristocrat ;  and  great  was  the  contempt  he  entertained  and 
expressed  for  his  son  James,  for  the  nature  of  his  friendship, 
and  the  character  of  the  personages  of  whom  he  was  engoue 
one  after  another.  '  There 's  nae  hope  for  Jamie,  mon,'  he  said 
to  a  friend.  '  Jamie  is  gane  clean  gyte.  What  do  you  think, 
mon  ?  He 's  done  wi'  Paoli  —  he 's  off  wi'  the  land-louping 
scoundrel  of  a  Corsican ;  and  whose  tail  do  you  think  he  has 
pinned  himself  to  now,  mon  ?  '  Here  the  old  Judge  summoned 
up  a  sneer  of  most  sovereign  contempt.  '  A  dominie,  mon  —  an 
auld  dominie !  he  keeped  a  schule,  and  caud  it  an  acaadamy? 
Probably  if  this  had  been  reported  to  Johnson,  he  would  have 
felt  it  most  galling,  for  he  never  much  liked  to  think  of  that 
period  of  his  life ;  it  would  have  aggravated  his  dislike  of  Lord 
Auchinleck's  Whiggery  and  Presbyterianism.  These  the  old 
Lord  carried  to  such  an  unusual  height,  that  once,  when  a 
country  man  came  in  to  state  some  justice  business,  and  being 
required  to  make  his  oath,  declined  to  do  so  before  his  Lord- 
ihip,  because  he  was  not  a  covenanted  magistrate  — '  Is  that 
a'  your  objection,  mon  ?  '  said  the  Judge  ;  '  come  your  ways  in 
here,  and  we'll  baith  of  us  tak  the  solemn  league  and  covenant 
together.'  The  oath  was  accordingly  agreed  and  sworn  to  by 
Doth,  and  I  dare  say  it  was  the  last  time  it  ever  received  such 
homage.  It  may  be  surmised  how  far  Lord  Auchinleck,  such 
as  he  is  here  described,  was  likely  to  suit  a  high  Tory  and 
Episcopalian  like  Johnson.  As  they  approached  Auchinleck, 
Boswell  conjured  Johnson  by  all  the  ties  of  regard,  and  in 
requital  of  the  services  he  had  rendered  him  upon  his  tour, 
that  he  would  spare  two  subjects  in  tenderness  to  his  father's 
prejudices  $  the  first  related  to  Sir  John  Pringle,  President  of 
the  Royal  Society,  about  whom  there  was  then  some  dispute 
surrent ;  the  second  concerned  the  general  question  of  Whig 
uid  Tory.  Sir  John  Pringle,  as  Boswell  says,  escaped,  but 
the  controversy  between  Tory  and  Covenanter  raged  with 
great  fury,  and  ended  in  Johnson's  pressing  upon  the  old 
Judge  the  question,  what  good  Cromwell,  of  whom  he  had  said 


126  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Bomething  derogatory,  had  ever  done  to  his  country  ?  —  when, 
after  being  much  tortured,  Lord  Auchinleck  at  last  spoke  out, 
'  God  !  doctor,  he  gart  kings  ken  that  they  had  a  liih  in  their 
neck '  —  he  taught  kings  they  had  a  joint  in  their  necks.  Jamie 
then  set  to  mediating  between  his  father  and  the  philosopher, 
and  availing  himself  of  the  Judge's  sense  of  hospitality,  which 
was  punctilious,  reduced  the  debate  to  more  order." 

The  following  letter,  dated  Ashestiel,  August  9,  ap 
pears  to  have  been  written  immediately  on  Scott's  return, 
from  this  expedition  :  — 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  RoTceby  Park. 

"  My  Dear  Morritt,  —  Your  letter  reached  me  in  the  very 
centre  of  the  Isle  of  Mull,  from  which  circumstance  you  will 
perceive  how  vain  it  was  for  me  even  to  attempt  availing  my< 
self  of  your  kind  invitation  to  Rokeby,  which  would  otherwise 
have  given  us  so  much  pleasure.  We  deeply  regretted  the 
absence  of  our  kind  and  accomplished  friends,  the  Clephanes, 
yet,  entre  nous,  as  we  were  upon  a  visit  to  a  family  of  the  Cap- 
ulets,  I  do  not  know  but  we  may  pay  our  respects  to  them 
more  pleasantly  at  another  time.  There  subsist  some  aching 
scars  of  the  old  wounds  which  were  in  former  times  inflicted 
upon  each  other  by  the  rival  tribes  of  M'Lean  and  Macdonald, 
c.nd  my  very  good  friends  the  Laird  of  Staffa  and  Mrs.  M'Lean 
Clephane  are  both  too  true  Highlanders  to  be  without  the 
characteristic  prejudices  of  their  clans,  which,  in  their  case, 
divide  two  highly-accomplished  and  most  estimable  families, 
living  almost  within  sight  of  each  other,  and  on  an  island 
where  polished  conversation  cannot  be  supposed  to  abound. 

"  I  was  delighted,  on  the  whole,  with  my  excursion.  The 
weather  was  most  excellent  during  the  whole  time  of  our  wan 
derings  ;  and  I  need  not  tell  you  of  Highland  hospitality. 
Fhe  cavern  at  Staffa,  and  indeed  the  island  itself,  dont  ov 
parle  en  histoire,  is  one  of  the  few  lions  which  completely 
maintain  an  extended  reputation.  I  do  not  know  whether  its 
extreme  resemblance  to  a  work  of  art,  from  the  perfect  regu- 


THE    HEBRIDES 1810.  127 

larity  of  the  columns,  or  the  grandeur  of  its  dimensions,  far 
exceeding  the  works  of  human  industry,  joined  to  a  certain 
ruggedness  and  magnificent  irregularity,  by  which  nature  vin 
dicates  her  handiwork,  are  most  forcibly  impressed  upon  my 
memory.  We  also  saw  the  far-famed  Island  of  Columba, 
where  there  are  many  monuments  of  singular  curiosity,  forming 
a  strange  contrast  to  the  squalid  and  dejected  poverty  of  the 
present  inhabitants  of  the  isle.  We  accomplished  both  these 
objects  in  one  day,  but  our  return,  though  we  had  no  alarms 
to  boast  of,  was  fatiguing  to  the  ladies,  and  the  sea  not  afford 
ing  us  quite  such  a  smooth  passage  as  we  had  upon  the  Thames 
(that  morning  we  heard  the  voice  of  Lysons  setting  forth  the 
contents  of  the  records  in  the  White  Tower),  did,  as  one  may 
say,  excite  a  combustion  in  the  stomachs  of  some  of  our  party. 
Mine  being  a  staunch  anti-revolutionist,  was  no  otherwise 
troublesome  than  by  demanding  frequent  supplies  of  cold  beef 
and  biscuit.  Mrs.  Apreece  was  of  our  party.  Also 

4  —  Sir  George  Paul,  for  prison-house  renowned, 
A  wandering  knight,  on  high  adventures  bound.' 

—  We  left  this  celebrated  philanthropist  in  a  plight  not  unlike 
some  of  the  misadventures  of  '  Him  of  the  sorrowful  figure.' 
The  worthy  baronet  was  mounted  on  a  quadruped,  which  the 
owners  called  a  pony,  with  his  woful  valet  on  another,  and 
travelling  slowly  along  the  coast  of  Mull,  in  order  to  detect 
the  point  which  approached  nearest  to  the  continent,  protest 
ing  he  would  not  again  put  foot  in  a  boat  till  he  had  discovered 
the  shortest  possible  traject.  Our  separation  reminded  me  of 
the  disastrous  incident  in  Byron's  Shipwreck,  when  they  were 
forced  to  abandon  two  of  their  crew  on  an  unknown  coast,  and 
beheld  them  at  a  distance  commencing  their  solitary  peregri 
nation  along  the  cliffs.  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  lona  pebble,  mentioned  in  Scott's  letter  from 
Ulva,  being  set  in  a  brooch  of  the  form  of  a  harp,  was 
sent  to  Joanna  Baillie  some  months  later ;  but  it  may  be 
as  well  to  insert  here  the  letter  whic'ii  accompanied  it. 


128  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  young  friend,  to  whose  return  from  a  trip  to  the  seat 
of  war  in  the  Peninsula  it  alludes,  was  John  Miller,  Esq., 
then  practising  at  the  Scotch  Bar,  but  now  an  eminent 
King's  counsel  of  Lincoln's  Inn. 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

"Edinburgh,  No,r.  23,  ]SiO. 

"  I  should  not  have  been  so  long  your  debtor,  my  dear  IVLss 
Baillie,  for  your  kind  and  valued  letter,  had  not  the  false 
knave,  at  whose  magic  touch  the  lona  pebbles  were  to  assume 
a  shape  in  some  degree  appropriate  to  the  person  to  whom 
they  are  destined,  delayed  finishing  his  task.  I  hope  you  will 
Bet  some  value  upon  this  little  trumpery  brooch,  because  it  is 
a  harp,  and  a  Scotch  harp,  and  set  with  lona  stones.  This 
last  circumstance  is  more  valuable,  if  ancient  tales  be  true, 
than  can  be  ascertained  from  the  reports  of  dull  modern  lapi 
daries.  These  green  stones,  blessed  of  St.  Columba,  have  a 
virtue,  saith  old  Martin,  to  gratify  each  of  them  a  single  wish 
of  the  wearer.  I  believe,  that  which  is  most  frequently  formed 
by  those  who  gather  them  upon  the  shores  of  the  Saint,  is  for 
a  fair  wind  to  transport  them  from  his  domains.  Now,  after 
this,  you  must  suppose  everything  respecting  this  said  harp 
sacred  and  hallowed.  The  very  inscription  is,  you  will  please 
to  observe,  in  the  ancient  Celtic  language  and  character,  and 
has  a  very  talismanic  look.  I  hope  that  upon  you  it  will  have 
the  effect  of  a  conjuration,  for  the  words  Buail  a'n  Tend  sig 
nify  Strike  the  String ;  and  thus  having,  like  the  pedlars  who 
deal  in  like  matters  of  value,  exhausted  all  my  eloquence  in 
setting  forth  the  excellent  outward  qualities  and  mysterious 
virtues  of  my  little  keepsake,  I  have  only  to  add,  in  homely 
phrase,  God  give  you  joy  to  wear  it.  I  am  delighted  with  the 
account  of  your  brother's  silvan  empire  in  Glo'stershire.  The 
planting  and  cultivation  of  trees  always  seemed  to  me  the  most 
interesting  occupation  of  the  country.  I  cannot  enter  into  the 
spirit  of  common  vulgar  farming,  though  I  am  doomed  to  carry 
on,  in  a  small  extent,  that  losing  trade.  It  never  occurred  tf 


LETTER    TO    MISS    BAILL1E.  129 

me  to  be  a  bit  more  happy  because  my  turnips  were  better 
than  my  neighbours ;  and  as  for  grieving  my  shearers,  as  we 
very  emphatically  term  it  in  Scotland,  I  am  always  too  happy 
to  get  out  of  the  way,  that  I  may  hear  them  laughing  at  a  dis 
tance  when  on  the  harvest  rigor. 


00' 


'  So  every  servant  takes  his  course, 
And  bad  at  first,  they  all  grow  worse '  — 

I  mean  for  the  purposes  of  agriculture,  —  for  my  hind  shall  kill 
a  salmon,  and  my  plough-boy  find  a  hare  sitting,  with  any  man 
in  the  Forest.  But  planting  and  pruning  trees  I  could  work  at 
from  morning  till  night ;  and  if  ever  my  poetical  revenues  en 
able  me  to  have  a  few  acres  of  my  own,  that  is  one  of  the 
principal  pleasures  I  look  forward  to.  There  is,  too,  a  sort  of 
eelf-congratulation,  a  little  tickling  self-flattery  in  the  idea  that, 
while  you  are  pleasing  and  amusing  yourself,  you  are  seriously 
contributing  to  the  future  welfare  of  the  country,  and  that 
your  very  acorn  may  send  its  future  ribs  of  oak  to  future  vic 
tories  like  Trafalgar. 

"  You  have  now  by  my  calculation  abandoned  your  exten 
sive  domains  and  returned  to  your  Hampstead  villa,  which,  at 
this  season  of  the  year,  though  the  lesser,  will  prove,  from  your 
neighbourhood  to  good  society,  the  more  comfortable  habita 
tion  of  the  two.  Dr.  Baillie's  cares  are  transferred  (I  fear  for 
some  time)  to  a  charge  still  more  important  than  the  poor 
Princess.*  I  trust  in  God  that  his  skill  and  that  of  his  breth 
ren  may  be  of  advantage  to  the  poor  King ;  for  a  Regency, 
from  its  unsettled  and  uncertain  tenure,  must  in  every  country, 
but  especially  where  parties  run  so  high,  be  a  lamentable  busi 
ness.  I  wonder  that  the  consequences  which  have  taken  place 
had  not  occurred  sooner,  during  the  long  and  trying  suspense 
in  which  his  mind  must  have  been  held  by  the  protracted  lin 
gering  state  of  a  beloved  child. 

"  Your  country  neighbours  interest  me  excessively.  I  was 
delighted  with  the  man,  who  remembered  me,  though  he  had 

*  The  Princess  Amelia  —  whose  death  was  ''mmediately  followed  bj 
the  hopeless  malady  of  King  George  III. 


130  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

forgotten  Sancho  Panza ;  but  I  am  afraid  my  pre-eminence  in 
his  memory  will  not  remain  much  longer  than  the  worthy 
Bquire's  government  at  Barataria.  Meanwhile,  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake  is  likely  to  come  to  preferment  in  an  unexpected 
manner,  for  two  persons  of  no  less  eminence  than  Messrs. 
Martin  and  Reynolds,  play  carpenters  in  ordinary  to  Covent 
Garden,  are  employed  in  scrubbing,  careening,  and  cutting  her 
down  into  one  of  those  new-fashioned  sloops  called  a  melo 
drama,  to  be  launched  at  the  theatre ;  and  my  friend  Mr.  H. 
Siddons,  emulous  of  such  a  noble  design,  is  at  work  on  the 
same  job  here.  It  puts  me  in  mind  of  the  observation  with 
which  our  parish  smith  accompanied  his  answer  to  an  inquiry 
whom  he  had  heard  preach  on  Sunday  — '  Mr.  such-a-one  — 
O  !  sir,  he  made  neat  work'  thinking,  doubtless,  of  turning  off 
a  horse-shoe  handsomely.  I  think  my  worthy  artizans  will 
make  neat  work  too  before  they  have  done  with  my  unlucky 
materials  —  but,  as  Durandarte  says  in  the  cavern  of  Monte- 
einos —  *  Patience,  cousin,  and  shuffle  the  cards.'  Jeffrey  was 
the  author  of  the  critique  in  the  Edinburgh ;  he  sent  it  to  me 
in  the  sheet,  with  an  apology  for  some  things  in  that  of  Mar- 
mion  which  he  said  contained  needless  asperities ;  and,  indeed, 
whatever  I  may  think  of  the  justice  of  some  part  of  his  criti 
cism,  I  think  his  general  tone  is  much  softened  in  my  behalf. 

"  You  say  nothing  about  the  drama  on  Fear,  for  which  you 
have  chosen  so  admirable  a  subject,  and  which,  I  think,  will  be 
in  your  own  most  powerful  manner.  I  hope  you  will  have  an 
eye  to  its  being  actually  represented.  Perhaps  of  all  passions 
it  is  the  most  universally  interesting ;  for  although  most  part 
of  an  audience  may  have  been  in  love  once  in  their  lives,  and 
many  engaged  in  the  pursuits  of  ambition,  and  some  perhaps 
have  fostered  deadly  hate ;  yet  there  will  always  be  many  in 
each  case  who  cannot  judge  of  the  operations  of  these  motives 
from  personal  experience  :  Whereas,  I  will  bet  my  life  there  is 
not  a  soul  of  them  but  has  felt  the  impulse  of  fear,  were  it  but 
as  the  old  tale  goes,  at  snuffing  a  candle  with  his  fingers.  I 
believe  I  should  have  been  able  to  communicate  some  persona* 
anecdotes  on  the  subject,  had  I  been  enabled  to  accomplish  a 


LETTER    TO    MISS    BAILLIE.  131 

plar  I  have  had  much  at  heart  this  summer,  namely,  to  take  a 
peep  at  Lord  Wellington  and  his  merry  men  in  Portugal ;  but 
I  found  the  idea  gave  Mrs.  Scott  more  distress  than  I  am  enti 
tled  to  do  for  the  mere  gratification  of  my  own  curiosity.  Not 
that  there  would  have  been  any  great  danger,  —  for  I  could 
easily,  as  a  non-combatant,  have  kept  out  of  the  way  of  the 
4  grinning  honour '  of  my  namesake,  Sir  Walter  Blount,*  and 
I  think  I  should  have  been  overpaid  for  a  little  hardship  and 
risk  by  the  novelty  of  the  scene.  I  could  have  got  very  good 
recommendations  to  Lord  Wellington ;  and,  I  dare  say,  I 
should  have  picked  up  some  curious  materials  for  battle 
scenery.  A  friend  of  mine  made  the  very  expedition,  and 
arriving  at  Oporto  when  our  army  was  in  retreat  from  the 
frontier,  he  was  told  of  the  difficulty  and  danger  he  might  en 
counter  in  crossing  the  country  to  the  southward,  so  as  to  join 
them  on  the  march ;  nevertheless,  he  travelled  on  through  a 
country  totally  deserted,  unless  when  he  met  bands  of  fugitive 
peasantry  flying  they  scarce  knew  whither,  or  the  yet  wilder 
groups  of  the  Ordinanza,  or  levy  en  masse,  who,  fired  with  re 
venge  or  desire  of  plunder,  had  armed  themselves  to  harass 
the  French  detached  parties.  At  length  in  a  low  glen  he 
heard,  with  feelings  that  may  be  easily  conceived,  the  distant 
sound  of  a  Highland  bagpipe  playing  '  The  Garb  of  Old  Gaul,' 
and  fell  into  the  quarters  of  a  Scotch  regiment,  where  he  was 
most  courteously  received  by  his  countrymen,  who  assured 
'  his  honour  he  was  just  come  in  time  to  see  the  pattle.'  Ac 
cordingly,  being  a  young  man  of  spirit,  and  a  volunteer  sharp 
shooter,  he  got  a  rifle,  joined  the  light  corps,  and  next  day 
witnessed  the  Battle  of  Busaco,  of  which  he  describes  the  car- 
Dage  as  being  terrible.  The  narrative  was  very  simply  told, 
and  conveyed,  better  than  any  I  have  seen,  the  impressions 
which  such  scenes  are  likely  to  make  when  they  have  the 
effect  (I  had  almost  said  the  charm)  of  novelty.  I  don't  know 
why  it  is  I  never  found  a  soldier  could  give  me  an  idea  of  a 
battle.  I  believe  their  mind  is  too  much  upon  the  tactique.  to 

*  See  l8t  K.  K*nry  IV.  Act  V.  Scene  3. 


132  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT, 

regard  the  picturesque,  just  as  the  lawyers  care  very  little  for 
an  eloquent  speech  at  the  Bar,  if  it  does  not  show  good  doc 
trine.  The  technical  phrases  of  the  military  art,  too,  are  un 
favourable  to  convey  a  description  of  the  concomitant  terror 
and  desolation  that  attends  an  engagement;  but  enough  of 
'this  bald  disjointed  chat,'*  from  ever  yours,  W.  S." 

There  appeared  in  the  London  Courier  of  September 
15,  1810,  an  article  signed  S.  T.  C.,  charging  Scott  with 
being  a  plagiarist,  more  especially  from  the  works  of  the 
poet  for  whose  initials  this  signature  had  no  doubt  been 
meant  to  pass.  On  reading  this  silly  libel,  Mr.  Southey 
felt  satisfied  that  Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge  could  have 
no  concern  in  its  manufacture ;  but  as  Scott  was  not  so 
well  acquainted  with  Coleridge  as  himself,  he  lost  no 
time  in  procuring  his  friend's  indignant  disavowal,  and 
forwarding  it  to  Ashestiel.  Scott  acknowledges  this  deli 
cate  attention  as  follows  :  — 

"  To  Robert  Southey,  Esq. 

"Ashestiel,  Thursday. 

"  My  Dear  Southey,  —  Your  letter,  this  morning  received, 
released  me  from  the  very  painful  feeling,  that  a  man  of  Mr. 
Coleridge's  high  talents,  which  I  had  always  been  among  the 
first  to  appreciate  as  they  deserve,  had  thought  me  worthy  of 
the  sort  of  public  attack  which  appeared  in  the  Courier  of  the 
15th.  The  initials  are  so  remarkable,  and  the  trick  so  very  im 
pudent,  that  I  was  likely  to  be  fairly  duped  by  it,  for  which  I 
have  to  request  Mr.  Coleridge's  forgiveness.  I  believe  attacks  of 
any  sort  sit  as  light  upon  me  as  they  can  on  any  one.  If  I  have 
had  my  share  of  them,  it  is  one  point,  at  least,  in  which  I  resem 
ble  greater  poets  —  but  I  should  not  like  to  have  them  conn 
from  the  hand  of  contemporary  genius.  A  man,  though  he  doe* 

*  Hot! pur—  1st  K.  Henry  IV.  Act  I.  Scene  3. 


LETTER   TO    MR.    SOUTHEY.  133 

not  *  wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve  for  daws  to  peck  at,'  * 
would  not  willingly  be  stooped  upon  by  a  falcon.  I  am  truly 
obliged  to  your  friendship  for  so  speedily  relieving  me  from  so 
painful  a  feeling.  The  hoax  was  probably  designed  to  set  two 
followers  of  literature  by  the  ears,  and  I  dare  say  will  be  fol 
lowed  up  by  something  equally  impudent.  As  for  the  imita 
tions,  I  have  not  the  least  hesitation  in  saying  to  you,  that  I 
was  unconscious  at  the  time  of  appropriating  the  goods  of 
others,  although  I  have  not  the  least  doubt  that  several  of  the 
passages  must  have  been  running  in  my  head.  Had  I  meant 
to  steal,  I  would  have  been  more  cautious  to  disfigure  the  stolen 
goods.  In  one  or  two  instances  the  resemblance  seems  general 
and  casual,  and  in  one,  I  think,  it  was  impossible  I  could  prac 
tise  plagiarism,  as  Ethwald,  one  of  the  poems  quoted,  was  pub 
lished  after  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  A  witty  rogue,  the 
other  day,  who  sent  me  a  letter  subscribed  Detector,  proved 
me  guilty  of  stealing  a  passage  from  one  of  Vida's  Latin 
poems,  which  I  had  never  seen  or  heard  of;  yet  there  was  so 
strong  a  general  resemblance,  as  fairly  to  authorize  Detector's 
suspicion. 

"  I  renounced  my  Greta  excursion  in  consequence  of  having 
made  instead  a  tour  to  the  Highlands,  particularly  to  the  Isles. 
I  wished  for  Wordsworth  and  you  a  hundred  times.  The 
scenery  is  quite  different  from  that  on  the  mainland  —  dark, 
eavage,  and  horrid,  but  occasionally  magnificent  in  the  highest 
degree.  Stafia,  in  particular,  merits  well  its  far-famed  reputa 
tion  :  it  is  a  cathedral  arch,  scooped  by  the  hand  of  nature, 
equal  in  dimensions  and  in  regularity  to  the  most  magnificent 
aisle  of  a  gothic  cathedral.  The  sea  rolls  up  to  the  extrem 
ity  in  most  tremendous  majesty,  and  with  a  voice  like  ten 
thousand  giants  shouting  at  once.  I  visited  Icolmkill  also, 
where  there  are  some  curious  monuments,  mouldering  among 
the  poorest  and  most  naked  wretches  that  I  ever  beheld.  Af- 
pectionately  yours,  W.  SCOTT." 

The  « lines  of  VIDA,"  which  "  Detector  "  had  enclosed 
*  Othelk,  Act  I.  Scene  1. 


*34  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  Scott  as  the  obvious  original  of  the  address  to  "  Wom 
an  "  in  Marmion,  closing  with 

*'  When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 
A  ministering  angel  thou!  " 

end  as  follows ;  —  and  it  must  be  owned  that,  if  Vida  had 
really  written  them,  a  more  extraordinary  example  of 
casual  coincidence  could  never  have  been  pointed  out  — 

"  Cum  dolor  atque  supercilio  gravis  imminet  angor, 
Fungeris  angelico  sola  ministerio !  " 

Detector's  reference  is  "  VIDA  ad  Eranen,  El.  II.  v.  21 ; " 

—  but  it  is  almost  needless  to  add  there  are  no  such  lines 

—  and  no  piece  bearing  such  a  title  in  Vida's  works. 
Detector  was  no  doubt  some  young  college  wag,  for  hia 
letter  has  a  Cambridge  postmark. 


LIFE    OF   MISS    SEWABD.  135 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

tt/e  of  Miss  Seward —  Waverley  resumed  —  Ballantyne'' s  Cri 
tique  on  the  First  Chapters  of  the  Novel —  Waverley  again 
laid  aside —  Unfortunate  Speculations  of  John  Ballantyne 
and  Co. ;  History  of  the  Culdees  ;  Tixall  Poetry ;  Beau 
mont  and  Fletcher ;  Edinburgh  Annual  Register,  fyc.  — 
Scott's  Essay  on  Judicial  Reform  —  His  Scheme  of  going  to 
India — Letters  on  the  War  in  the  Peninsula  —  Death  of 
Lord  President  Blair —  and  of  Lord  Melville —  Publication 
of  the  Vision  of  Don  Roderick — The  Inferno  of  Altesir 
dora,  §*c. 

1810-1811. 

IN  the  course  of  this  autumn  appeared  the  Poetical 
Works  of  Miss  Seward,  in  three  volumes,  with  a  Prefa 
tory  Memoir  of  her  Life  by  Scott.  This  edition  had,  as 
we  have  seen,  been  enjoined  by  her  last  will  —  but  his 
part  in  it  was  an  ungrateful  one,  and  the  book  was  among 
the  most  unfortunate  that  James  Ballantyne  printed,  and 
his  brother  published,  in  deference  to  the  personal  feel 
ings  of  their  partner.  He  had  been,  as  was  natural, 
pleased  and  flattered  by  the  attentions  of  the  Lichfield 
poetess  in  the  days  of  his  early  aspirations  after  literary 
distinction ;  but  her  verses,  which  he  had  with  his  usual 
readiness  praised  to  herself  beyond  their  worth,  appeared 
when  collected  a  formidable  monument  of  mediocrity. 
Her  Correspondence,  published  at  the  same  time  by  Con- 


136  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

stable,  was  considered  by  him  with  still  greater  aversion. 
He  requested  the  bookseller  to  allow  him  to  look  over 
the  MS.,  and  draw  his  pen  through  passages  in  which 
her  allusions  to  letters  of  his  own  might  compromise  him 
as  a  critic  on  his  poetical  contemporaries.  To  this  re 
quest  Constable  handsomely  acceded,  although  it  was 
evident  that  he  thus  deprived  the  collection  of  its  best 
chance  of  popularity.  I  see,  on  comparing  her  letters  as 
they  originally  reached  Scott,  with  the  printed  copies, 
that  he  had  also  struck  out  many  of  her  most  extravagant 
rhapsodies  about  himself  and  his  works.  No  collection 
of  this  kind,  after  all,  can  be  wholly  without  value ;  I 
have  already  drawn  from  it  some  sufficiently  interesting 
fragments,  as  the  biographers  of  other  eminent  authors 
of  this  time  will  probably  do  hereafter  under  the  like 
circumstances :  and,  however  affected  and  absurd,  Miss 
Seward's  prose  is  certainly  far  better  than  her  verse. 

And  now  I  come  to  a  very  curious  letter  of  James 
Ballantyne's,  the  date  of  which  seems  to  fix  pretty  accu 
rately  the  time  when  Scott  first  resumed  the  long-forgot 
ten  MS.  of  his  Waverley.  As  in  the  Introduction  of 
1829  he  mentions  having  received  discouragement  as  to 
the  opening  part  of  the  novel  from  two  friends,  and  as 
Ballantyne  on  this  occasion  writes  as  if  he  had  never  be 
fore  seen  any  portion  of  it,  I  conclude  that  the  fragment 
of  1805  had  in  that  year  been  submitted  to  Erskine 
alone. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  AshestieL 

"  Edinburgh,  Sept.  15,  1810. 

"  Dear  Sir,  —  What  you  have  sent  of  Waverley  has  amused 
me  much ;  and  certainly  if  I  had  read  it  as  part  of  a  new 
novel,  the  remainder  of  which  was  open  to  my  perusal,  I 
should  have  proceeded  with  avidity.  So  much  for  its  genera) 


WA  VERLEY 1810.  137 

tffect ;  but  you  have  sent  me  too  little  to  enable  me  to  form  a 
decided  opinion.  Were  I  to  say  that  I  was  equally  struck  with 
Waverley  as  I  was  with  the  much  smaller  portion  of  the  Lady, 
which  you  first  presented  to  us  as  a  specimen,  the  truth  would 
not  be  in  me ;  but  the  cases  are  different.  It  is  impossible 
that  a  small  part  of  a  fine  novel  can  equally  impress  one  with 
the  decided  conviction  of  splendour  and  success  as  a  small  part 
of  a  fine  poem.  I  will  state  one  or  two  things  that  strike  me. 
Considering  that  '  sixty  years  since  '  only  leads  us  back  to  the 
year  1 750,  a  period  when  our  fathers  were  alive  and  merry,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  air  of  antiquity  diffused  over  the  charac 
ter  is  rather  too  great  to  harmonize  with  the  time.  The  pe 
riod  is  modern ;  Johnson  was  writing  —  and  Garrick  was  act 
ing  —  and  in  fact  scarcely  anything  appears  to  have  altered, 
more  important  than  the  cut  of  a  coat. 

"  The  account  of  the  studies  of  Waverley  seems  unnecessa- 
;*ily  minute.  There  are  few  novel  readers  to  whom  it  would 
be  interesting.  I  can  see  at  once  the  connexion  between  the 
studies  of  Don  Quixote,  or  of  the  Female  Quixote,  and  the 
wents  of  their  lives ;  but  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  trace 
betwixt  Waverley's  character  and  his  studies  such  clear  and 
decided  connexion.  The  account,  in  short,  seemed  to  me  too 
particular ;  quite  unlike  your  usual  mode  in  your  poetry,  and 
less  happy.  It  may  be,  however,  that  the  further  progress  of 
the  character  will  defeat  this  criticism.  The  character  itself  1 
:hink  excellent  and  interesting,  and  I  was  equally  astonished 
and  delighted  to  find  in  the  last-written  chapter,  that  you  can 
paint  to  the  eye  in  prose  as  well  as  in  verse. 

"  Perhaps  your  own  reflections  are  rather  too  often  mixed 
with  the  narrative  —  but  I  state  this  with  much  diffidence.  I 
do  not  mean  to  object  to  a  train  of  reflections  arising  from 
pome  striking  event,  but  I  don't  like  their  so  frequent  recur 
rence.  The  language  is  spirited,  but  perhaps  rather  careless. 
The  humour  is  admirable.  Should  you  go  on  ?  My  opinion 
is,  clearly  —  certainly.  I  have  no  doubt  of  success,  though  it 
is  impossible  to  guess  how  much —  Ever  respect 
fully,  J.  B," 


J38  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  part  of  the  letter  which  I  have  omitted,  refers  to 
tlie  state  of  Ballantyne's  business  at  the  time  when  it  was 
written.  He  Lad,  that  same  week,  completed  the  eleventh 
edition  of  the  Lay ;  and  the  fifth  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake 
had  not  passed  through  his  press,  before  new  orders  from 
London  called  for  the  beginning  of  a  sixth.  I  presume 
the  printer's  exultation  on  this  triumphant  success  had  a 
great  share  in  leading  him  to  consider  with  doubt  and 
suspicion  the  propriety  of  his  friend's  interrupting  just 
then  his  career  as  the  great  caterer  for  readers  of  poetry. 
However  this  and  other  matters  may  have  stood,  the 
novel  appears  to  have  been  forthwith  laid  aside  again. 

Some  sentences  refer  to  less  fortunate  circumstances  in 
their  joint  affairs.  The  publishing  firm  was  not  as  yet  a 
twelvemonth  old,  and  already  James  began  to  apprehend 
that  some  of  their  mightiest  undertakings  would  wholly 
disappoint  Scott's  prognostications.  He  speaks  with  par 
ticular  alarm  of  the  edition  of  Beaumont  and  Fletcher's 
plays,  of  which  Weber  had  now  dismissed  several  vol 
umes  from  his  incompetent  and  presumptuous  hand.  How 
Scott  should  ever  have  countenanced  the  project  of  an 
edition  of  an  English  book  of  this  class,  by  a  mere  drudg 
ing  German,  appears  to  me  quite  inexplicable.  He  placed 
at  Weber's  disposal  his  own  annotated  copy,  which  had 
been  offered  some  years  before  for  the  use  of  Gifford ; 
but  Weber's  text  is  thoroughly  disgraceful,  and  so  are  all 
the  notes,  except  those  which  he  owed  to  his  patron's  own 
pen.  James  Ballantyne  augurs,  and  well  might  he  do  so, 
not  less  darkly,  as  to  "  the  Aston  speculation  "  —  that  is, 
the  bulky  collection  entitled  "Tixall  poetry."  "Over 
this,"  he  says,  "the  (Edinburgh)  Review  of  the  Sadler 
has  thrown  a  heavy  cloud  —  the  fact  is,  it  seems  to  me  to 
have  ruined  it.  Here  is  the  same  editor  and  the  same 


EDINBURGH    ANNUAL    REGISTER,    ETC.  139 

printer,  and  your  name  withdrawn.  I  hope  you  agree 
with  John  and  me,  that  this  Aston  business  ought  to  be 
got  rid  of  at  almost  any  sacrifice.  We  could  not  now 
even  ask  a  London  bookseller  to  take  a  share,  and  a  net 
outlay  of  near  £2500,  upon  a  worse  than  doubtful  specu 
lation,  is  surely  '  most  tolerable  and  not  to  be  endured.'  " 
Another  unpromising  adventure  of  this  season,  was  the 
publication  of  the  History  of  the  Culdees  (that  is,  of  the 
clergy  of  the  primitive  Scoto-Celtic  Church),  by  Scott's 
worthy  old  friend,  Dr.  John  Jamieson,  the  author  of  the 
celebrated  Dictionary.  This  work,  treating  of  an  obscure 
subject,  on  which  very  different  opinions  were  and  are 
entertained  by  Episcopalians  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
adherents  of  Presbyterianism  on  the  other,  was  also 
printed  and  published  by  the  Ballantynes,  in  consequence 
of  the  interest  which  Scott  felt,  not  for  the  writer's  hy 
pothesis,  but  for  the  writer  personally  :  and  the  result  was 
another  heavy  loss  to  himself  and  his  partners.  But  a 
far  more  serious  business  was  the  establishment  of  the 
Edinburgh  Annual  Register,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
suggested  by  Scott  in  the  very  dawn  of  his  bookselling 
projects.  The  two  first  volumes  were  issued  about  this 
time,  and  expectation  had  been  highly  excited  by  the 
announcement  that  the  historical  department  was  in  the 
hands  of  Southey,  while  Scott  and  many  other  eminent 
persons  were  to  contribute  regularly  to  its  miscellaneous 
literature  and  science.  Mr.  Southey  was  fortunate  in 
beginning  his  narrative  with  the  great  era  of  the  Spanish 
Revolt  against  Napoleon,  and  it  exhibited  his  usual  re 
search,  reflection,  elegance,  and  spirit.  Several  of  the 
miscellanies,  also,  were  admirable :  Mr.  Southey  inserted 
in  the  second  volume  for  1808,  published  in  1810,  some 
tf  the  most  admired  of  his  minor  poems  ;  —  and  Scott  did 


140  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  like.  He  moreover  drew  up  for  that  volume  an 
Essay  of  considerable  extent  on  those  changes  in  the 
Scottish  System  of  Judicature,  which  had  occupied  the 
attention  of  the  Commission  under  which  he  served  as 
secretary  ;  and  the  sagacity  of  this  piece  appears,  on  the 
whole,  as  honourable  to  him,  as  the  clear  felicity  of  its 
language.  Nevertheless,  the  public  were  alarmed  by  the 
prospect  of  two  volumes  annually :  it  was,  in  short,  a  new 
periodical  publication  on  a  large  scale;  all  such  adven 
tures  are  hazardous  in  the  extreme  ;  and  none  of  them 
ever  can  succeed,  unless  there  be  a  skilful  bookseller,  and 
a  zealous  editor,  who  give  a  very  large  share  of  their 
industry  and  intelligence,  day  after  day,  to  the  conduct  of 
all  its  arrangements.  Such  a  bookseller  John  Ballan- 
tyne  was  not ;  such  an  editor,  with  Scott's  multifarious 
engagements,  he  could  not  be  for  an  Annual  Register ; 
and  who,  indeed,  could  wish  that  this  had  been  other 
wise  ?  The  volumes  succeeded  each  other  at  irregular 
intervals  ;  there  was  soon  felt  the  want  of  one  ever  active 
presiding  spirit ;  and  though  the  work  was  continued 
during  a  long  series  of  years,  it  never  was  the  source  of 
anything  but  anxiety  and  disappointment  to  its  original 
projectors. 

I  am  tempted,  as  Scott's  Essay  on  Judicial  Reform  has 
never  been  included  in  any  collection  of  his  writings,  to 
extract  here  a  few  specimens  of  a  composition  which 
appears  to  be  as  characteristic  of  the  man  as  any  that 
ever  proceeded  from  his  pen.  His  deep  jealousy  of  the 
national  honour  of  Scotland,  his  fear  lest  the  course  of 
innovation  at  this  time  threatened  should  end  in  a  tota 
assimilation  of  her  Jurisprudence  to  the  system  of  the 
more  powerful  sister  country,  and  his  habitual  and  deep- 
rooted  dread  of  change  in  matters  affecting  the  whole 


ESSAY    ON    JUDICIAL    REFORM 1810.  141 

machinery  of  social  existence,  are  expressed  in,  among 
ethers,  the  following  passages  :  — 

"An  established  system  is  not  to  be  tried  by  those  tests 
which  may  with  perfect  correctness  be  applied  to  a  new  theory. 
A  civilized  nation,  long  in  possession  of  a  code  of  law,  under 
which,  with  all  its  inconveniences,  they  have  found  means  to 
flourish,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  an  infant  colony,  on  which 
experiments  in  legislation  may,  without  much  charge  of  pre 
sumption,  be  hazarded.  A  philosopher  is  not  entitled  to  in 
vestigate  such  a  system  by  those  ideas  which  he  has  fixed  in 
his  own  mind  as  the  standard  of  possible  excellence.  The 
only  unerring  test  of  every  old  establishment  is  the  effect 
it  has  actually  produced ;  for  that  must  be  held  to  be  good, 
from  whence  good  is  derived.  The  people  have,  by  degrees, 
moulded  their  habits  to  the  law  they  are  compelled  to  obey ; 
for  some  of  its  imperfections,  remedies  have  been  found;  to 
others  they  have  reconciled  themselves ;  till,  at  last,  they  have, 
from  various  causes,  attained  the  object  which  the  most  san 
guine  visionary  could  promise  to  himself  from  his  own  perfect 
unembodied  system.  Let  us  not  be  understood  to  mean,  that  a 
superstitious  regard  for  antiquity  ought  to  stay  the  hand  of  a 
temperate  reform.  But  the  task  is  delicate,  and  full  of  dan 
ger  ;  perilous  in  its  execution,  and  extremely  doubtful  in  its 
issue.  Is  there  not  rational  ground  to  apprehend,  that,  in  at 
tempting  to  eradicate  the  disease,  the  sound  part  of  the  consti 
tution  may  be  essentially  injured  ?  Can  we  be  quite  certain 
that  less  inconvenience  will  result  from  that  newly  discovered 
and  unknown  remedy,  than  from  the  evil,  which  the  juices  and 
humours  with  which  it  has  long  been  incorporated  may  have 
neutralized  ?  —  that,  after  a  thorough  reformation  has  been 
achieved,  it  may  not  be  found  necessary  to  counterwork  the 
antidote  itself,  by  having  recourse  to  the  very  error  we  have 
incautiously  abjured  ?  We  are  taught,  by  great  authority,  that 
'  possibly  they  may  espy  something  that  may,  in  truth,  be  mis 
chievous  in  some  particular  case,  but  weigh  not  how  many  in 
conveniences  are,  on  the  other  side,  prevented  or  remedied  bj 


142  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that  which  is  the  supposed  vicious  strictness  of  the  law ;  and 
he  that  purchases  a  reformation  of  a  law  with  the  introduction 
of  greater  inconveniences,  by  the  amotion  of  a  mischief,  makes 
an  ill  bargain.  No  human  law  can  be  absolutely  perfect.  It 
is  sufficient  that  it  be  best  ut  plurimum;  and  as  to  the  mis 
chiefs  that  it  occasions,  as  they  are  accidental  and  casual,  so 
they  may  be  oftentimes,  by  due  care,  prevented,  without  an 
alteration  of  the  main.'  * 

"  Every  great  reform,  we  farther  conceive,  ought  to  be  taken 
at  a  point  somewhat  lower  than  the  necessity  seems  to  require. 
Montesquieu  has  a  chapter,  of  which  the  title  is,  Qu'il  ne  faut 
pas  tout  corriger.  Our  improvement  ought  to  contain  within 
itself  a  principle  of  progressive  improvement.  We  are  thug 
enabled  to  see  our  way  distinctly  before  us ;  we  have,  at  the 
same  time,  under  our  eyes,  the  ancient  malady,  with  the  pal 
liatives  by  which  the  hand  of  time  has  controlled  its  natural 
symptoms,  and  the  effects  arising  from  the  process  intended  to 
remove  it ;  and  our  course,  whether  we  advance  or  recede,  will 
be  safe,  and  confident,  and  honourable ;  whereas,  by  taking 
our  reform  at  the  utmost  possible  stretch  of  the  wrong  com 
plained  of,  we  cannot  fail  to  bring  into  disrepute  the  order 
of  things,  as  established,  without  any  corresponding  certainty 
that  our  innovations  will  produce  the  result  which  our  san 
guine  hopes  have  anticipated ;  and  we  thus  deprive  ourselves 
of  the  chance  of  a  secure  retreat,  in  the  event  of  our  failure." 

Nor  does  the  following  paragraph  on  the  proposal  for 
extending  to  Scotland  the  system  of  Jury  Trial  in  civil 
actions  of  all  classes,  appear  to  me  less  characteristic  of 
Scott :  — 

"  We  feel  it  very  difficult  to  associate  with  this  subject  any 
idea  of  political  or  personal  liberty;  both  of  which  have  been 
lupposed  to  be  secured,  and  even  to  be  rendered  more  valua 
ble,  by  means  of  the  trial  by  jury  in  questions  of  private  right. 
ft  is  perhaps  owing  to  our  want  of  information,  or  to  the 

*  Lord  Hale  on  the  Amendment  of  the  Laws. 


ESSAY    ON   JUDICIAL    REFORM  —  ^10.  143 

phlegm  and  frigidity  of  our  national  character,  that  we  can 
not  participate  in  that  enthusiasm  which  the  very  name  of  this 
institution  is  said  to  excite  in  many  a  patriotic  bosom.  We 
can  listen  to  the  cabalistic  sound  of  Trial  by  Jury,  which  has 
produced  effects  only  to  be  paralleled  by  those  of  the  mysteri 
ous  words  uttered  by  the  Queen  of  the  City  of  Enchantments, 
in  the  Arabian  Tale,  and  retain  the  entire  possession  of  our 
form  and  senses.  We  understand  that  sentiment  of  a  celebrat 
ed  author,  that  this  barrier  against  the  usurpation  of  power, 
in  matters  where  power  has  any  concern,  may  probably  avert 
from  our  island  the  fate  of  many  states  that  now  exist  but  in 
history ;  and  we  think  this  great  possession  is  peculiarly  valu 
able  in  Scotland,  where  the  privileges  of  the  public  prosecutor 
are  not  controlled  by  those  of  a  grand  jury.  The  merits  of 
the  establishment  we  are  now  examining  are  to  be  ascertained 
by  a  different  test.  It  is  merely  a  contrivance  for  attaining 
the  ends  of  private  justice,  for  developing  the  merits  of  a  civil 
question  in  which  individuals  are  interested  ;  and  that  contriv 
ance  is  the  best,  which  most  speedily  and  effectually  serves 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  framed.  In  causes  of  that  de 
scription,  no  shield  is  necessary  against  the  invasion  of  power ; 
the  issue  is  to  be  investigated  without  leaning  or  partiality, 
for  whatever  is  unduly  given  to  one  party  is  unduly  wrested 
from  the  other ;  and  unless  we  take  under  our  consideration 
those  advantages  which  time  or  accident  may  have  introduced, 
we  see  not  what  superiority  can  in  the  abstract  be  supposed  to 
belong  to  this  as  a  judicature  for  the  determination  of  all  or 
the  greater  number  of  civil  actions.  We  discover  no  grounu 
for  suspecting  that  the  judgments  of  a  few  well-educated  and 
upright  men  may  be  influenced  by  any  undue  bias ;  that  an 
interest,  merely  patrimonial,  is  more  safely  lodged  in  an  ob 
scure  and  evanescent  body  than  in  a  dignified,  independent, 
and  permanent  tribunal,  versed  in  the  science  to  be  adminis 
tered,  and  responsible  for  the  decisions  they  pronounce ;  —  and 
we  suspect  that  a  philosopher,  contemplating  both  in  his  closet, 
will  augur  more  danger  from  a  system  which  devolves  on  one 
jet  of  men  the  responsibility  of  doctrines  taught  them  by  an* 

VOL.  III.  10 


144  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

other,  than  from  that  system  which  attaches  to  the  judges  all 
the  consequences  of  the  law  they  deliver." 

Some,  though  not  all,  of  the  changes  deprecated  in  thia 
Essay,  had  been  adopted  by  the  Legislature  before  it  was 
published  ;  others  of  them  have  since  been  submitted  to 
experiment ;  and  I  believe  that,  on  the  whole,  his  views 
may  safely  bear  the  test  to  which  time  has  exposed  them 
—  though  as  to  the  particular  point  of  triil  by  jury  in  civil 
causes,  the  dreaded  innovation,  being  conducted  by  wise 
and  temperate  hands,  has  in  its  results  proved  satisfactory 
to  the  people  at  large,  as  well  as  to  the  Bench  and  the 
Bar  of  Scotland.  I  have,  however,  chiefly  introduced 
the  above  extracts  as  illustrative  of  the  dissatisfaction 
with  which  Scott  considered  the  commencement  of  a 
system  of  jurisprudential  innovation  ;  and  though  it  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  his  own  office  as  a  Clerk  of  Session 
had  never  yet  brought  him  anything  but  labour,  and  that 
he  consequently  complained  from  time  to  time  of  the 
inroads  this  labour  made  on  hours  which  might  other 
wise  have  been  more  profitably  bestowed,  I  suspect  his 
antipathy  to  this  new  system,  as  a  system,  had  no  small 
share  in  producing  the  state  of  mind  indicated  in  a  re 
markable  letter  addressed,  in  the  later  part  of  this  year, 
to  his  brother  Thomas.  The  other  source  of  uneasiness 
to  which  it  alludes  has  been  already  touched  upon  —  and 
we  shall  have  but  too  much  of  it  hereafter.  He  says  to 
his  brother  (Ashestiel,  1st  November  1810),  "I  have  no 
objection  to  tell  you  in  confidence,  that,  were  Dundas  to 
go  out  Governor- General  to  India,  and  were  he  willing 
to  take  me  with  him  in  a  good  situation,  I  would  not  hes 
itate  to  pitch  the  Court  of  Session  and  the  booksellers  to 
the  Devil,  and  try  my  fortune  in  another  climate."  He 
adds,  "but  this  is  strictly  entre  nous"  —  nor  indeed  was 


INDIAN    PROJECT 1810.  145 

I  aware,  until  I  found  tliis  letter,  that  he  had  ever  enter 
tained  such  a  design  as  that  which  it  communicates.  Mr. 
Dundas  (now  Lord  Melville),  being  deeply  conversant  ID 
our  Eastern  affairs,  and  highly  acceptable  to  the  Court 
of  Directors  in  the  office  of  President  of  the  Board  of 
Control,  which  he  had  long  filled,  was  spoken  of,  at  vari 
ous  times  in  the  course  of  his  public  life,  as  likely  to  be 
appointed  Governor-General  of  India.  He  had,  no  doubt, 
hinted  to  Scott,  that  in  case  he  should  ever  assume  that 
high  station  it  would  be  very  agreeable  for  him  to  be  ac 
companied  by  his  early  friend :  and  there  could  be  little 
question  of  his  capacity  to  have  filled  with  distinction  tho 
part  either  of  an  Indian  secretary  or  of  an  Indian  judge. 

But,  though  it  is  easy  to  account  for  his  expressing  in 
so  marked  a  manner  at  this  particular  period  his  willing 
ness  to  relinquish  literature  as  the  main  occupation  of 
his  time ;  it  is  impossible  to  consider  the  whole  course  of 
his  correspondence  and  conversation,  without  agreeing 
in  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Morritt,  that  he  was  all  along 
sincere  in  the  opinion  that  literature  ought  never  to  be 
ranked  on  the  same  scale  of  importance  with  the  con 
duct  of  business  in  any  of  the  great  departments  of  pub 
lic  life.  This  opinion  he  always  expressed ;  and  I  have 
no  doubt  that,  at  any  period  preceding  his  acquisition  of 
a  landed  property,  he  would  have  acted  on  it,  even  to 
the  extent  of  leaving  Scotland,  had  a  suitable  opportunity 
been  afforded  him  to  give  that  evidence  of  his  sincerity. 
This  is  so  remarkable  a  feature  in  his  character,  that  the 
reader  will  forgive  me  should  I  recur  to  it  in  the  sequel. 

At  the  same  time  I  have  no  notion  that  at  this  or 
any  other  period  he  contemplated  abandoning  literature 
Such  a  thought  would  hardly  enter  the  head  of  the  man 
uot  yet  forty  years  of  age,  whose  career  had  been  one  of 


146  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

unbroken  success,  and  whose  third  great  work  had  just 
been  received  with  a  degree  of  favour,  both  critical  and 
popular,  altogether  unprecedented  in  the  annals  of  hia 
country.  His  hope,  no  doubt,  was  that  an  honourable 
official  station  in  the  East  might  afford  him  both  a  world 
of  new  materials  for  poetry,  and  what  would  in  hia  case 
be  abundance  of  leisure  for  turning  them  to  account,  ac 
cording  to  the  deliberate  dictates  of  his  own  judgment. 
What  he  desired  to  escape  from  was  not  the  exertion  of 
his  genius,  which  must  ever  have  been  to  him  the  source 
of  his  most  exquisite  enjoyment,  but  the  daily  round  of 
prosaic  and  perplexing  toils  in  which  his  connexion  with 
the  Ballantynes  had  involved  him.  He  was  able  to  com 
bine  the  regular  discharge  of  such  functions  with  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  high  powers  of  imagination,  in  a  manner  of 
which  history  affords  no  other  example  ;  yet  many,  no 
doubt,  were  the  weary  hours,  when  he  repented  him  of 
the  rash  engagements  which  had  imposed  such  a  burden 
of  mere  task  work  on  his  energies.  But  his  external 
position,  before  the  lapse  of  another  year,  underwent  a 
change  which  for  ever  fixed  his  destiny  to  the  soil  of  his 
best  affections  and  happiest  inspirations. 

The  letters  of  Scott  to  all  his  friends  have  sufficiently 
shown  the  unflagging  interest  with  which,  among  all 
his  personal  labours  and  anxieties,  he  watched  the  prog 
ress  of  the  great  contest  in  the  Peninsula.  It  was  so 
earnest,  that  he  never  on  any  journey,  not  even  in  his 
very  frequent  passages  between  Edinburgh  and  Ashes- 
tiel,  omitted  to  take  with  him  the  largest  and  best  map 
he  had  been  able  to  procure  of  the  seat  of  war ;  upon 
this  he  was  perpetually  poring,  tracing  the  marches  and 
counter-marches  of  the  French  and  English  by  means 
cf  black  and  white  pins  ;  and  not  seldom  did  Mrs.  Scott 


LETTER   TO    MR.    MORRITT APRIL,   1811.          14  / 

complain  of  this  constant  occupation  of  his  attention  and 
her  carriage.  In  the  beginning  of  1811,  a  committee 
was  formed  in  London  to  collect  subscriptions  for  the  re 
lief  of  the  Portuguese,  who  had  seen  their  lands  wasted, 
their  vines  torn  up,  and  their  houses  burnt  in  the  course 
of  Massena's  last  unfortunate  campaign ;  and  Scott,  on 
reading  the  advertisement,  immediately  addressed  Mr. 
Whitmore,  the  chairman,  begging  that  the  committee 
would  allow  him  to  contribute  to  their  fund  the  profits, 
to  whatever  they  might  amount,  of  a  poem  which  he  pro 
posed  to  write  upon  a  subject  connected  with  the  localities 
of  the  patriotic  struggle.  His  offer  was  of  course  ac 
cepted  ;  and  "  THE  VISION  OF  DON  RODERICK  "  was 
begun  as  soon  as  the  Spring  vacation  enabled  him  to 
retire  to  Ashestiel. 

On  the  26th  of  April  he  writes  thus  to  Mr.  Mor- 
ritt,  who  had  lost  a  dear  young  friend  in  the  battle  of 
Barossa :  — 

"  I  rejoice  with  the  heart  of  a  Scotsman  in  the  success  of 
Lord  Wellington,  and  with  all  the  pride  of  a  seer  to  boot.  I 
have  been  for  three  years  proclaiming  him  as  the  only  man  we 
had  to  trust  to  —  a  man  of  talent  and  genius  —  not  deterred 
by  obstacles,  not  fettered  by  prejudices,  not  immured  within 
the  pedantries  of  his  profession  —  but  playing  the  general  and 
the  hero,  when  most  of  our  military  commanders  would  have 
exhibited  the  drill-sergeant,  or  at  best  the  adjutant.  These 
campaigns  will  teach  us  what  we  have  long  needed  to  know, 
that  success  depends  not  on  the  nice  drilling  of  regiments,  but 
upon  the  grand  movements  and  combinations  of  an  army. 
We  have  been  hitherto  polishing  hinges,  when  we  should  have 
studied  the  mechanical  union  of  a  huge  machine.  Now  — 
our  army  begin  to  see  that  the  grand  secret,  as  the  French  call 
it,  consists  only  in  union,  joint  exertion,  and  concerted  move 
ment.  This  will  enable  us  to  meet  the  dogs  on  fair  terms  a* 


148  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  numbers,  and  for  the  rest,  *  My  soul  and  body  on  the  action 
both.' 

"  The  downfall  of  Buonaparte's  military  fame  will  be  the 
signal  of  his  ruin,  and,  if  we  may  trust  the  reports  this  day 
brings  us  from  Holland,  there  is  glorious  mischief  on  foot  al 
ready.  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  fling  fuel  into  the  flame  im 
mediately.  A  country  with  so  many  dykes  and  ditches  must 
be  fearfully  tenable  when  the  peasants  are  willing  to  fight. 
How  I  should  enjoy  the  disconsolate  visages  of  those  Whig 
dogs,  those  dwellers  upon  the  Isthmus,  who  have  been  foretel 
ling  the  rout  and  ruin  which  it  only  required  their  being  in 
power  to  have  achieved !  It  is  quite  plain,  from  Sir  Robert 
Wilson's  account,  that  they  neglected  to  feed  the  lamp  of  Rus 
sia,  and  it  only  resulted  from  their  want  of  opportunity  that 
they  did  not  quench  the  smoking  flax  in  the  Peninsula  —  a 
thought  so  profligate,  that  those  who,  from  party  or  personal 
interest,  indulged  it  ought  to  pray  for  mercy,  and  return  thanks 
for  the  providential  interruption  which  obstructed  their  pur 
pose,  as  they  would  for  a  meditated  but  prevented  parricide. 
But  enough  of  the  thorny  subject  of  politics. 

"  I  grieve  for  your  loss  at  Barossa,  but  what  more  glorious 
fall  could  a  man  select  for  himself  or  friend,  than  dying  with 
his  sword  in  hand  and  the  cry  of  victory  in  his  ears  ? 

"  As  for  my  own  operations  they  are  very  trifling,  though 
sufficiently  miscellaneous.  I  have  been  writing  a  sketch  of 
Buonaparte's  tactics  for  the  Edinburgh  Register,  and  some 
other  trumpery  of  the  same  kind.  Particularly  I  meditate 
some  wild  stanzas  referring  to  the  Peninsula:  if  I  can  lick 
them  into  any  shape,  I  hope  to  get  something  handsome  from 
the  booksellers  for  the  Portuguese  sufferers  :  '  Silver  and  gold 
have  I  none,  but  that  which  I  have  I  will  give  unto  them.' 
My  lyrics  are  called  the  Vision  of  Don  Roderick  :  you  remem 
ber  the  story  of  the  last  Gothic  King  of  Spain  descending  into 
an  enchanted  cavern  to  know  the  fate  of  the  Moorish  invasion 
—  that  is  my  machinery.  Pray  don't  mention  this,  for  some 
one  will  snatch  up  the  subject,  as  I  have  been  served  before ; 
and  I  have  not  written  a  line  yet.  I  am  going  to  Ashestiel  for 
•ight  days,  to  fish  and  rhyme." 


LETTER    TO    MRS.    SCOTT    OF   HARDEN.  149 

The  poem  was  published,  in  4to,  in  July ;  and  the  im 
mediate  proceeds  were  forwarded  to  the  board  in  London. 
His  friend  the  Earl  of  Dalkeith  seems  to  have  been  a 
member  of  the  committee,  and  he  writes  thus  to  Scott  on 
the  occasion  :  —  "  Those  with  ample  fortunes  and  thicker 
heads  may  easily  give  100  guineas  to  a  subscription,  but 
the  man  is  really  to  be  envied  who  can  draw  that  sum 
from  his  own  brains,  and  apply  the  produce  so  benefi 
cially  and  to  so  exalted  a  purpose." 

In  the  original  preface  to  this  poem,  Scott  alludes  to 
two  events  which  had  "  cruelly  interrupted  his  task  "  — 
the  successive  deaths  of  his  kind  friend  the  Lord  Presi 
dent  of  the  Court  of  Session  (Blair),*  and  his  early  pa 
tron,  Henry  Dundas,  Viscount  Melville  :  and  his  letters 
at  the  time  afford  additional  evidence  of  the  shock  his 
feelings  had  thus  sustained. — 

The  following,  to  Mrs.  Scott  of  Harden,  is  dated  May 
20th,  1811:- 

"  My  Dear  Madam,  —  We  are  deprived  of  the  prospect  of 
waiting  upon  you  on  the  birth-day,  by  the  confusion  into  which 
the  business  of  this  court  is  thrown  by  the  most  unexpected 
and  irreparable  loss  which  it  has  sustained  in  the  death  of  the 
President.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a  calamity  which 
is  more  universally  or  will  be  so  long  felt  by  the  country.  His 
integrity  and  legal  knowledge,  joined  to  a  peculiar  dignity  of 
thought,  action,  and  expression,  had  begun  to  establish  in  the 
minds  of  the  public  at  large  that  confidence  in  the  regular  and 
solemn  administration  of  justice,  which  is  so  necessary  to  its 
usefulness  and  respectability.  My  official  situation,  as  weU 
as  the  private  intimacy  of  our  families,  makes  me  a  sincere 
mourner  on  this  melancholy  occasion,  for  I  feel  a  severe  per 
sonal  deprivation,  besides  the  general  share  of  sorrow  common 

*  The  Right  Hon.  Robert  Blair  of  Avontoun,  son  of  the  Author  of 
4  The  Grave." 


150  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

lo  all  of  every  party  or  description  who  were  in  the  way  of 
witnessing  his  conduct. 

"  He  was  a  rare  instance  of  a  man  whose  habits  were  every 
way  averse  to  the  cultivation  of  popularity,  rising,  neverthe 
less,  to  the  highest  point  in  the  public  opinion,  by  the  manly 
and  dignified  discharge  of  his  duty.  I  have  been  really  so 
much  shocked  and  out  of  spirits,  yesterday  and  the  day  pre 
ceding,  that  I  can  write  and  think  of  nothing  else. 

"  I  have  to  send  you  the  Vision  of  Don  Roderick,  as  soon  as 
we  can  get  it  out  —  it  is  a  trifle  I  have  written  to  eke  out  the 
subscription  for  the  suffering  Portuguese.  Believe  me,  my 
dear  Mrs.  Scott,  ever  yours  most  truly  and  respectfully, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  next  letter  is  to  Mr.  Morritt,  who,  like  himself, 
had  enjoyed  a  large  share  of  Lord  Melville's  friendly 
regard  ;  and  had  more  than  once  met  his  Lordship,  after 
his  fall,  at  the  Poet's  house,  in  Castle  Street ;  where,  by 
the  way,  the  old  Statesman  entered  with  such  simple- 
heartedness  into  all  the  ways  of  the  happy  circle,  that  it 
had  come  to  be  an  established  rule  for  the  children  to  sit 
up  to  supper  whenever  Lord  Melville  dined  there. 

"  Edinburgh,  July  1, 1811. 

"  My  Dear  M.  —  I  have  this  moment  got  your  kind  letter, 
just  as  I  was  packing  up  Don  Roderick  for  you.  This  patri 
otic  puppet-show  has  been  finished  under  wretched  auspices ; 
poor  Lord  Melville's  death  so  quickly  succeeding  that  of  Pres 
ident  Blair,  one  of  the  best  and  wisest  judges  that  ever  dis 
tributed  justice,  broke  my  spirit  sadly.  My  official  situation 
placed  me  in  daily  contact  with  the  President,  and  his  ability 
and  candour  were  the  source  of  my  daily  admiration.  As  for 
poor  dear  Lord  Melville,  '  'Tis  vain  to  name  him  whom  we 
mourn  in  vain.'  Almost  the  last  time  I  saw  him,  he  was  talk 
ing  of  you  in  the  highest  terms  of  regard,  and  expressing  great 
hopes  of  again  seeing  you  at  Dunira  this  summer,  where 


VISION    OF    DON    RODERICK 1811  151 

proposed  to  attend  you.  Hex  mihi!  quid  hei  miJdf  humana 
perpessi  sumus.  His  loss  will  be  long  and  severely  felt  here, 
and  Envy  is  already  paying  her  cold  tribute  of  applause  to 
the  worth  which  she  maligned  while  it  walked  upon  earth. 

"  There  is  a  very  odd  coincidence  between  the  deaths  of 
these  eminent  characters,  and  that  of  a  very  inferior  person,  a 
dentist  of  this  city,  named  Dubisson.  He  met  the  President 
before  his  death,  who  used  a  particular  expression  in  speaking 
to  him  ;  the  day  before  Lord  Melville  died,  he  also  met  Dubis 
son  nearly  on  the  same  spot,  and  to  the  man's  surprise  used  the 
President's  very  words  in  saluting  him.  On  this  second  death, 
he  expressed  (jocularly,  however)  an  apprehension  that  he 
himself  would  be  the  third  —  was  taken  ill  and  died  in  an 
hour's  space.  Was  not  this  remarkable  ?  Yours  ever, 

"W.  S." 

The  Vision  of  Don  Roderick  had  features  of  novelty, 
both  as  to  the  subject  and  the  manner  of  the  composition, 
which  excited  much  attention,  and  gave  rise  to  some 
sharp  controversy.  The  main  fable  was  indeed  from  the 
most  picturesque  region  of  old  romance  ;  but  it  was  made 
throughout  the  vehicle  of  feelings  directly  adverse  to 
those  with  which  the  Whig  critics  had  all  along  regarded 
the  interference  of  Britain  in  behalf  of  the  nations  of  the 
Peninsula ;  and  the  silence  which,  while  celebrating  our 
other  generals  on  that  scene  of  action,  had  been  pre 
served  with  respect  to  Scott's  own  gallant  countryman, 
Sir  John  Moore,  was  considered  or  represented  by  them 
ta  an  odious  example  of  genius  hoodwinked  by  the  in 
fluence  of  party.  Nor  were  there  wanting  persons  who 
affected  to  discover  that  the  charm  of  Scott's  poetry  had 
to  a  great  extent  evaporated  under  the  severe  test  to 
which  he  had  exposed  it,  by  adopting,  in  place  of  those 
comparatively  light  and  easy  measures  in  which  he  had 
hitherto  dealt,  the  most  elaborate  one  that  our  literature 


152  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

exhibits.  The  production,  notwithstanding  the  complex 
ity  of  the  Spenserian 'stanza,  had  been  very  rapidly  exe 
cuted;  and  it  shows,  accordingly,  many  traces  of  negli 
gence.  But  the  patriotic  inspiration  of  it  found  an  echo 
in  the  vast  majority  of  British  hearts  ;  many  of  the  Whig 
oracles  themselves  acknowledged  that  the  difficulties  of 
the  metre  had  been  on  the  whole  successfully  overcome ; 
and  even  the  hardest  critics  were  compelled  to  express 
unqualified  admiration  of  various  detached  pictures  and 
passages,  which,  in  truth,  as  no  one  now  disputes,  neither 
he  nor  any  other  poet  ever  excelled.  The  whole  setting  or 
framework  —  whatever  relates  in  short  to  the  last  of  the 
Goths  himself — was,  I  think,  even  then  unanimously 
pronounced  admirable ;  and  no  party  feeling  could  blind 
any  man  to  the  heroic  splendour  of  such  stanzas  as  those 
in  which  the  three  equally  gallant  elements  of  a  British 
army  are  contrasted.  I  incline  to  believe  that  the  choice 
of  the  measure  had  been  in  no  small  degree  the  result  of 
those  hints  which  Scott  received  on  the  subject  of  his 
favourite  octosyllabics,  more  especially  from  Ellis  and 
Canning ;  and,  as  we  shall  see  presently,  he  about  this 
time  made  more  than  one  similar  experiment,  in  all  like 
lihood  from  the  same  motive. 

Of  the  letters  which  reached  him  in  consequence  of  the 
appearance  of  The  Vision,  he  has  preserved  several, 
which  had  no  doubt  interested  and  gratified  him  at  the 
time.  One  of  these  was  from  Lady  Wellington,  to  whom 
he  had  never  had  the  honour  of  being  presented,  but  who 
could  not,  as  she  said,  remain  silent  on  the  receipt  of  such 
a  tribute  to  the  fame  of  "the  first  and  best  of  men." 
Ever  afterwards  she  continued  to  correspond  with  him, 
and  indeed,  among  the  very  last  letters  which  the  Duchesa 
of  Wellington  appears  to  have  written,  was  a  most  affect- 


LETTER  FROM  MR.  CANNING.          153 

ing  one,  bidding  him  farewell,  and  thanking  him  for  the 
solace  his  works  had  afforded  her  during  her  fatal  illness. 
Another  was  in  these  terms  :  — 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq. 

"  Hinckley,  July  26, 1811. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  very  glad  that  you  have  essayed  a 
new  metre  —  new  I  mean  for  you  to  use.  That  which  you 
have  chosen  is  perhaps  at  once  the  most  artificial  and  the  most 
magnificent  that  our  language  affords ;  and  your  success  in  it 
ought  to  encourage  you  to  believe,  that  for  you,  at  least,  the 
majestic  march  of  Dryden  (to  my  ear  the  perfection  of  har 
mony)  is  not,  as  you  seem  to  pronounce  it,  irrecoverable.  Am 
I  wrong  in  imagining  that  Spenser  does  not  use  the  plusquam- 
Alexandrine  —  the  verse  which  is  as  much  longer  than  an 
Alexandrine,  as  an  Alexandrine  is  longer  than  an  ordinary 
heroic  measure  ?  I  have  no  books  where  I  am,  to  which  to 
refer.  You  use  this  —  and  in  the  first  stanza. 

"  Your  poem  has  been  met  on  my  part  by  an  exchange 
bomewhat  like  that  of  Diomed's  armour  against  Glaucus's  — 
brass  for  gold  —  a  heavy  speech  upon  bullion.  If  you  have 
never  thought  upon  the  subject  —  as  to  my  great  contentment 
I  never  had  a  twelvemonth  ago  —  let  me  counsel  you  to  keep 
clear  of  it,  and  forthwith  put  my  speech  into  the  fire,  unread. 
It  has  no  one  merit  but  that  of  sincerity.  I  formed  my  opin 
ion  most  reluctantly ;  —  having  formed  it,  I  could  not  but  main 
tain  it ;  having  maintained  it  in  Parliament,  I  wished  to  record 
it  intelligibly.  But  it  is  one  which,  so  far  from  cherishing  and 
wishing  to  make  proselytes  to,  I  would  much  rather  renounce, 
if  I  could  find  a  person  to  convince  me  that  it  is  erroneous. 
.This  is  at  least  an  unusual  state  of  mind  in  controversy.  It  is 
such  as  I  do  not  generally  profess  on  all  subjects  —  such  as  you 
will  give  me. credit  for  not  being  able  to  maintain,  for  instance, 
when  either  the  exploits  which  you  celebrate  in  your  last 
poem,  or  your  manner  of  celebrating  them,  are  disputed  or 
disparaged.  Believfe  me,  with  great  regard  and  esteem,  very 
lincerely  yours,  GEORGE  CANNING." 


154  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

But,  of  all  the  letters  addressed  to  the  author  of  the 
Vision  of  Don  Roderick,  I  am  very  sure  no  one  was  so 
welcome  as  that  which  reached  him,  some  months  after 
his  poem  had  ceased  to  be  new  in  England,  from  a  dear 
friend  of  his  earliest  days,  who,  after  various  chances  and 
changes  of  life,  was  then  serving  in  Lord  Wellington's 
army,  as  a  captain  in  the  58th  regiment.  I  am  sure  that 
Sir  Adam  Fergusson's  good-nature  will  pardon  my  in 
serting  here  some  extracts  from  a  communication  which 
his  affectionate  schoolfellow  very  often  referred  to  in 
after  years  with  the  highest  appearance  of  interest  and 
pleasure. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq. 

"  Lisbon,  31st  August  1811. 

"My  Dear  Walter,  —  After  such  a  length  of  silence  be 
tween  us,  and,  I  grant  on  my  part,  so  unwarrantable,  I  think 
I  see  your  face  of  surprise  on  recognising  this  MS.,  and  hear 
you  exclaim  —  What  strange  wind  has  blown  a  letter  from 
Lintonf  I  must  say,  that  although  both  you  and  my  good 
friend  Mrs.  S.  must  long  ago  have  set  me  down  as  a  most  in 
different,  not  to  say  ungrateful  sort  of  gentleman,  far  other 
wise  has  been  the  case,  as  in  the  course  of  my  wanderings 
through  this  country,  I  have  often  beguiled  a  long  march,  or 
watchful  night's  duty,  by  thinking  on  the  merry  fireside  in 
North  Castle  Street.  However,  the  irregular  roving  life  we 
lead,  always  interfered  with  my  resolves  of  correspondence. 

"  But  now,  quitting  self,  I  need  not  tell  you  how  greatly  I 
was  delighted  at  the  success  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake.  I  dare 
gay  you  are  by  this  time  well  tired  of  such  greetings  —  so  I 
shall  only  say,  that  last  spring  I  was  so  fortunate  as  to  get  a 
reading  of  it,  when  in  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras,  and  thought 
I  had  no  inconsiderable  right  to  enter  into  and  judge  of  ita 
beauties,  having  made  one  of  the  party  on  your  first  visit  to 
the  Trossachs ;  and  -you  will  allow,  that  a  little  vanity  on  mj 


LETTER    FROM    CAPT.    ADAM   FERGUSSON.  155 

part  on  this  account  (everything  considered)  was  natural 
enough.  While  the  book  was  in  my  possession,  I  had  nightly 
invitations  to  evening  parties  !  to  read  and  illustrate  passages 
of  it ;  and  I  must  say  that  (though  not  conscious  of  much  merit 
in  the  way  of  recitation)  my  attempts  to  do  justice  to  the  grand 
opening  of  the  stag-hunt,  were  always  followed  with  bursts  of 
applause  —  for  this  Canto  was  the  favourite  among  the  rough 
sons  of  the  fighting  Third  Division.  At  that  time  supplies  of 
various  kinds,  especially  anything  in  the  way  of  delicacies, 
were  very  scanty  ;  —  and,  in  gratitude,  I  am  bound  to  declare, 
that  to  the  good  offices  of  the  Lady  I  owed  many  a  nice  slice 
of  ham,  and  rummer  of  Lot  punch,  which,  I  assure  you,  were 
amongst  the  most  welcome  favours  that  one  officer  could  be 
stow  on  another,  during  the  long  rainy  nights  of  last  January 
and  February.  By  desire  of  my  messmates  of  the  Black-cuffs, 
I  some  time  ago  sent  a  commission  to  London  for  a  copy  of  the 
music  of  the  Boat-Song,  '  Hail  to  the  Chief,'  as  performed  at 
Covent  Garden,  but  have  not  yet  got  it.  If  you  can  assist  in 
this,  I  need  not  say  that  on  every  performance  a  flowing  bump 
er  will  go  round  to  the  Bard.  We  have  lately  been  fortunate 
in  getting  a  good  master  to  our  band,  who  is  curious  in  old 
Scotch  and  Irish  airs,  and  has  harmonized  Johnny  Cope,  &c. 
&c 

"  Lisbon,  6th  October. 

"  I  had  written  all  the  foregoing  botheration,  intending  to 
send  it  by  a  wounded  friend  going  home  to  Scotland,  when,  to 
my  no  small  joy,  your  parcel,  enclosing  Den  Roderick,  reached 
me.  How  kind  I  take  it  your  remembering  old  Linton  in 
this  way.  A  day  or  two  after  I  received  yours,  I  was  sent  into 
the  Alentejo,  where  I  remained  a  month,  and  only  returned  a 
few  days  ago,  much  delighted  with  the  trip.  You  wish  to 
know  how  I  like  the  Vision;  but  as  you  can't  look  for  any 
*  earned  critique  from  me,  I  shall  only  say  that  I  fully  entered 
<nto  the  spirit  and  beauty  of  it,  and  that  I  relished  much  thfl 
wild  and  fanciful  opening  of  the  introductory  part ;  yet  what 
particularly  delighted  me  were  the  stanzas  announcing  the 


156  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

approach  of  the  British  fleets  and  armies  to  this  country,  and 
the  three  delightful  ones  descriptive  of  the  different  troops, 
English,  Scotch,  and  Irish ;  and  I  can  assure  you  the  Pats  are, 
to  a  man,  enchanted  with  the  picture  drawn  of  their  country 
men,  and  the  mention  of  the  great  man  himself.  Your  swear 
ing,  in  the  true  character  of  a  minstrel,  *  shiver  my  harp,  and 
burn  its  every  chord,'  amused  me  not  a  little.  From  being 
well  acquainted  with  a  great  many  of  the  situations  described, 
they  had  of  course  the  more  interest,  and  '  Grim  Busaco's  iron 
ridge '  most  happily  paints  the  appearance  of  that  memorable 
field.  You  must  know  that  we  have  got  with  us  some  bright 
geniuses,  natives  of  the  dear  country,  and  who  go  by  the  name 
of '  the  poets.'  Of  course,  a  present  of  this  kind  is  not  thrown 
away  upon  indifferent  subjects,  but  it  is  read  and  repeated 
with  all  the  enthusiasm  your  warmest. wish  could  desire. — 
Should  it  be  my  fate  to  survive,  I  am  resolved  to  try  my 
hand  on  a  snug  little  farm  either  up  or  down  the  Tweed, 
somewhere  in  your  neighbourhood ;  and  on  this  dream  many 
a  delightful  castle  do  I  build. 

"  I  am  most  happy  to  hear  that  the  Club  *  goes  on  in  the 
old  smooth  style.  I  am  afraid,  however,  that  now  ***** 
has  become  a  judge,  the  delights  of  Scrogum  and  The  Tailor 
will  be  lost,  till  revived  perhaps  by  the  old  croupier  in  the 
shape  of  a  battered  half-pay  officer.  Yours  affectionately, 

"  ADAM  FERGUSSON." 

More  than  one  of  the  gallant  captain's  chateaux  en 
Espagne  were,  as  we  shall  see,  realized  in  the  sequel. 
I  must  not  omit  a  circumstance  which  had  reached  Scott 
from  another  source,  and  which  he  always  took  special 
pride  in  relating,  namely,  that  in  the  course  of  the  day 
when  the  Lady  of  the  Lake  first  reached  Sir  Adam  Fer- 
gusson,  he  was  posted  with  his  company  on  a  point  of 
ground  exposed  to  the  enemy's  artillery ;  somewhere  n« 
doubt  on  the  lines  of  Torres  Vedras.  The  men  were 
*  See  ante,  vol.  i.  p.  183. 


THE    VISION    OF    DON    RODERICK.  157 

ordered  to  lie  prostrate  on  the  ground ;  while  they  kept 
that  attitude,  the  Captain,  kneeling  at  their  head,  read 
aloud  the  description  of  the  battle  in  Canto  VI.,  and  the 
listening  soldiers  only  interrupted  him  by  a  joyous  huzza, 
whenever  the  French  shot  struck  the  bank  close  above 
them. 

The  only  allusion  which  I  have  found,  in  Scott's  letters, 
to  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  his  Vision,  occurs  in  a  letter 
to  Mr.  Morritt  (26th  September  1811),  which  also  con 
tains  the  only  hint  of  his  having  been  about  this  time  re 
quested  to  undertake  the  task  of  rendering  into  English 
the  Charlemagne  of  Lucien  Buonaparte.  He  says  — 
"  The  Edinburgh  Reviewers  have  been  down  on  my 
poor  Don  hand  to  fist;  but,  truly,  as  they  are  too  fas 
tidious  to  approve  of  the  campaign,  I  should  be  very  un 
reasonable  if  I  expected  them  to  like  the  celebration  of 
it.  I  agree  with  them,  however,  as  to  the  lumbering 
weight  of  the  stanza,  and  I  shrewdly  suspect  it  would 
require  a  very  great  poet  indeed  to  prevent  the  tedium 
arising  from  the  recurrence  of  rhymes.  Our  language 
is  unable  to  support  the  expenditure  of  so  many  for 
each  stanza :  even  Spenser  himself,  with  all  the  license 
of  using  obsolete  words  and  uncommon  spellings,  some 
times  fatigues  the  ear.  They  are  also  very  wroth  with 
me  for  omitting  the  merits  of  Sir  John  Moore ;  but  as 
I  never  exactly  discovered  in  what  these  lay,  unless  in 
conducting  his  advance  and  retreat  upon  a  plan  the  most 
likely  to  verify  the  desponding  speculations  of  the  fore- 
said  reviewers,  I  must  hold  myself  excused  for  not 
giving  praise  where  I  was  unable  to  see  that  much 
was  due.  The  only  literary  news  I  have  to  send  you 
.  s,  that  Lucien  Buonaparte's  epic,  in  twenty-four  chants, 
is  about  to  appear.  An  application  was  made  to  me 


Jd5  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  translate  it,  which   I   negatived  of  course,  and  that 
roundly."  * 

I  have  alluded  to  some  other  new  experiments  in  ver 
sification  about  this  time  as  probably  originating  in  the 
many  hints  of  Ellis,  Canning,  and  probably  of  Erskine, 
that,  if  he  wished  to  do  himself  full  justice  in  poetical 
narration,  he  ought  to  attempt  at  least  the  rhyme  of 
Dryden's  Fables.  Having  essayed  the  most  difficult  of 
all  English  measures  in  Don  Roderick,  he  this  year  tried 
also  the  heroic  couplet,  and  produced  that  imitation  of 
Crabbe,  The  Poacher  —  on  seeing  which,  Crabbe,  as  his 
eon's  biography  tells  us,  exclaimed,  "  This  man,  whoever 
he  is,  can  do  all  that  I  can,  and  something  more"  This 
piece,  together  with  some  verses,  afterwards  worked  up 
into  the  Bridal  of  Triermain,  and  another  fragment  in 
imitation  of  Moore's  Lyrics,  when  first  forwarded  to  Bal- 
lantyne,  were  accompanied  with  a  little  note,  in  which  he 
says  —  "  Understand  I  have  no  idea  of  parody,  but  serious 
imitation,  if  I  can  accomplish  it.  The  subject  for  my 
Crabbe  is  a  character  in  his  line  which  he  has  never 
touched.  I  think  of  Wordsworth,  too,  and  perhaps  a 
ghost  story  after  Lewis.  I  should  be  ambitious  of  try 
ing  Campbell ;  but  his  peculiarity  consists  so  much  in 
the  matter,  and  so  little  in  the  manner,  that  (to  his  praise 
be  it  spoken),  I  rather  think  I  cannot  touch  him.'*  The 
three  imitations  which  he  did  execute  appeared  in  the 
Edinburgh  Register  for  1809,  published  in  the  autumn 
of  1811.  They  were  there  introduced  by  a  letter  en 
titled  The  Inferno  of  Altesidora,  in  which  he  shadows 
out  the  chief  reviewers  of  the  day,  especially  his  friends 

*  The  ponderous  epic  entitled,  Charlemagne  ou  VEglise  Delivree 
vras  published  in  1814;  and  an  English  version,  by  the  Rev.  S.  ButJet 
and  the  Rev.  F.  Hodgson,  appeared  in  1815.  2  vols.  4to. 


POETICAL    IMITATIONS,    ETC. 1811.  159 

Jeffrey  and  Gifford,  with  admirable  breadth  and  yet 
lightness  of  pleasantry.  He  kept  his  secret  as  to  this 
Inferno,  and  all  its  appendages,  even  from  Miss  Baillie 
—  to  whom  he  says,  on  their  appearance,  that  —  "  the 
imitation  of  Crabbe  had  struck  him  as  good;  that  of 
Moore  as  bad ;  and  that  of  himself  as  beginning  well, 
but  falling  off  grievously  to  the  close."  He  seems  to 
have  been  equally  mysterious  as  to  an  imitation  of  the 
quaint  love  verses  of  the  beginning  of  the  17th  century, 
which  had  found  its  way  shortly  before  into  the  news 
papers,  under  the  name  of  The  Resolve  ;  *  but  I  find 
him  acknowledging  its  parentage  to  his  brother  Thomas, 
whose  sagacity  had  at  once  guessed  at  the  truth.  "  As 
to  the  Resolve,"  he  says,  "  it  is  mine  ;  and  it  is  not  —  or, 
to  be  less  enigmatical,  it  is  an  old  fragment,  which  I 
coopered  up  into  its  present  state  with  the  purpose  of 
quizzing  certain  judges  of  poetry,  who  have  been  ex 
tremely  delighted,  and  declare  that  no  living  poet  could 
write  in  the  same  exquisite  taste."  These  critics  were 
his  Friends  of  the  Friday  Club.  When  included  in  the 
Register,  however,  the  Resolve  had  his  name  affixed  to 
it.  In  that  case  his  concealment  had  already  answered 
its  purpose.  It  is  curious  to  trace  the  beginnings  of  the 
systematic  mystification  which  he  afterwards  put  in  prac 
tice  with  regard  to  the  most  important  series  of  his 
works. 

The  quarto  edition  of  Don  Roderick  having  rapidly 
gone  off,  instead  of  reprinting  the  poem  as  usual  in  a 
separate  octavo,  he  inserted  it  entire  in  the  current  vol 
ume  of  the  Register ;  a  sufficient  proof  how  much  that 
undertaking  was  already  felt  to  require  extraordinary 
exertion  on  the  part  of  its  proprietors.  Among  other 
*  See  Poetical  Works,  Edition  1834,  vol.  viii.  p.  374. 

TOL.  III.  11 


160         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

minor  tasks  of  the  same  year,  he  produced  an  edition  of 
Wilson's  Secret  History  of  the  Court  of  King  James  I., 
in  two  vols.  8vo,  to  which  he  supplied  a  copious  preface, 
and  a  rich  body  of  notes.  He  also  contributed  two  or 
three  articles  to  the  Quarterly  Review. 


THE    CLEEKS    OF    SESSION.  161 


CHAPTER  XXHL 

tfeto  Arrangement  concerning  the  Clerks  of  Session  —  Scott* 
first  Purchase  of  Land — Abbotsford  ;  Turn-again,  &fc. — 
Joanna  Baillie's  Orra,  Sfc.  —  Death  of  James  Grahame  — 
and  of  John  Leyden. 

1811. 

THROUGHOUT  1811,  Scott's  serious  labour  continued 
to  be  bestowed  on  the  advancing  edition  of  Swift ;  but 
this  and  all  other  literary  tasks  were  frequently  inter 
rupted  in  consequence  of  an  important  step  which  he 
took  early  in  the  year ;  namely,  the  purchase  of  the  first 
portion  of  what  became  in  the  sequel  an  extensive  landed 
property  in  Roxburghshire.  He  had  now  the  near  pros 
pect  of  coming  into  the  beneficial  use  of  the  office  he  had 
so  long  filled  without  emolument  in  the  Court  of  Session. 
For,  connected  with  the  other  reforms  in  the  Scotch  judi 
cature,  was  a  plan  for  allowing  the  retirement  of  function 
aries,  who  had  served  to  an  advanced  period  of  life,  upon 
pensions ;  should  this  meet  the  approbation  of  Parliament, 
there  was  little  doubt  that  Mr.  George  Home  would  avail 
himself  of  the  opportunity  to  resign  the  place  of  which 
he  had  for  five  years  executed  none  of  the  duties ;  and 
the  second  Lord  Melville,  who  had  now  succeeded  his 
father  as  the  virtual  Minister  for  Scotland,  had  so  much 
at  heart  a  measure  in  itself  obviously  just  and  prudent, 


162  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

that  little  doubt  could  be  entertained  of  the  result  of  his 
efforts  in  its  behalf.  The  Clerks  of  Session,  it  had  been 
already  settled,  were  henceforth  to  be  paid  not  by  fees, 
but  by  fixed  salaries ;  the  amount  of  each  salary,  it  was 
soon  after  arranged,  should  be  £1300  per  annum ;  and 
contemplating  a  speedy  accession  of  professional  income 
so  considerable  as  this,  and  at  the  same  time  a  vigorous 
prosecution  of  his  literary  career,  Scott  fixed  his  eyes  on  . 
a  small  farm  within  a  few  miles  of  Ashestiel,  which  it 
was  understood  would  presently  be  in  the  market,  and 
resolved  to  place  himself  by  its  acquisition  in  the  situa 
tion  to  which  he  had  probably  from  his  earliest  days 
looked  forward  as  the  highest  object  of  ambition,  that  of 
a  Tweedside  Laird.  —  Sit  mihi  sedes  utinam  senectce  ! 

And  the  place  itself,  though  not  to  the  general  observer 
a  very  attractive  one,  had  long  been  one  of  peculiar  in 
terest  for  him.  I  have  often  heard  him  tell,  that  when 
travelling  in  his  boyhood  with  his  father,  from  Selkirk  to 
Melrose,  the  old  man  suddenly  desired  the  carriage  to 
halt  at  the  foot  of  an  eminence,  and  said,  "  We  must  get 
out  here,  Walter,  and  see  a  thing  quite  in  your  line." 
His  father  then  conducted  him  to  a  rude  stone  on  the 
edge  of  an  acclivity  about  half  a  mile  above  the  Tweed 
at  Abbotsford,  which  marks  the  spot  — 

"  Where  gallant  Cessford's  life-blood  deer 
Reeked  on  dark  Elliot's  bo/der  spear." 

This  was  the  conclusion  of  the  battle  of  Melrose,  fought 
in  1526,  between  the  Earls  of  Angus  and  Home,  and  the 
two  chiefs  of  the  race  of  Kerr  on  the  one  side,  and  Buc- 
aleuch  on  the  other,  in  sight  of  the  young  King  James  V 
the  possession  of  whose  person  was  the  object  of  the  con 
test.  This  battle  is  often  mentioned  in  the  Border  Min* 


ABBOTSFORD — 1811.  163 

Btrelsy,  and  the  reader  will  find  a  long  note  on  it,  under 
the  lines  which  I  have  just  quoted  from  the  Lay  of  the 
Last  Minstrel.  In  the  names  of  various  localities  be 
tween  Melrose  and  Abbotsford,  such  as  Skirmish-field, 
Charge-Law,  and  so  forth,  the  incidents  of  the  fight  have 
found  a  lasting  record  ;  and  the  spot  where  the  retainer 
of  Buccleuch  terminated  the  pursuit  of  the  victors  by  the 
mortal  wound  of  Kerr  of  Cessford  (ancestor  of  the  Dukes 
of  Roxburghe),  has  always  been  called  Turn-again.  In 
his  own  future  domain  the  young  minstrel  had  before 
him  the  scene  of  the  last  great  Clan-battle  of  the  Bor 
ders. 

On  the  12th  of  May  1811,  he  writes  to  James  Bal- 
lantyne,  apologizing  for  some  delay  about  proof-sheets. 
"  My  attention,"  he  adds,  "  has  been  a  little  dissipated  by 
considering  a  plan  for  my  own  future  comfort,  which  I 
hasten  to  mention  to  you.  My  lease  of  Ashestiel  is  out 
• —  I  now  sit  a  tenant  at  will  under  a  heavy  rent,  and  at 
all  the  inconvenience  of  one  when  in  the  house  of  another. 
I  have,  therefore,  resolved  to  purchase  a  piece  of  ground 
sufficient  for  a  cottage  and  a  few  fields.  There  are  two 
pieces,  either  of  which  would  suit  me,  but  both  would 
make  a  very  desirable  property  indeed.  They  stretch 
along  the  Tweed,  near  half-way  between  Melrose  and 
Selkirk,  on  the  opposite  side  from  Lord  Somerville,  and 
could  be  had  for  between  £7000  and  £8000  —  or  either 
separate  for  about  half  the  sum.  I  have  serious  thoughts 
of  one  or  both,  and  must  have  recourse  to  my  pen  to 
make  the  matter  easy.  The  worst  is  the  difficulty  which 
John  might  find  in  advancing  so  large  a  sum  as  the  copy 
right  of  a  new  poem ;  supposing  it  to  be  made  payable 
within  a  year  at  farthest  from  the  work  going  to  press,  — • 
which  would  be  essential  to  my  purpose.  Yet  the  Lady 


164  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  the  Lake  came  soon  home.  I  have  a  letter  this  morn 
ing  giving  me  good  hope  of  my  Treasury  business  being 
carried  through :  if  this  takes  place,  I  will  buy  both  the 
little  farms,  which  will  give  me  a  mile  of  the  beautiful 
turn  of  Tweed,  above  Gala-foot  —  if  not,  I  will  confine 
myself  to  one.  As  my  income,  in  the  event  supposed, 
will  be  very  considerable,  it  will  afford  a  sinking  fund  to 
clear  off  what  debt  I  may  incur  in  making  this  purchase. 
It  is  proper  John  and  you  should  be  as  soon  as  possible 
apprized  of  these  my  intentions,  which  I  believe  you  will 
think  reasonable  in  my  situation,  and  at  my  age,  while  I 
may  yet  hope  to  sit  under  the  shade  of  a  tree  of  my  own 
planting.  I  shall  not,  I  think,  want  any  pecuniary  as 
sistance  beyond  what  I  have  noticed,  but  of  course  my 
powers  of  rendering  it  will  be  considerably  limited  for  a 
time.  I  hope  this  Register  will  give  a  start  to  its  prede 
cessors  ;  I  assure  you  I  shall  spare  no  pains.  John  must 
lend  his  earnest  attention  to  clear  his  hands  of  the  quire 
stock,  and  to  taking  in  as  little  as  he  can  unless  in  the 
way  of  exchange ;  in  short,  reefing  our  sails,  which  are 
at  present  too  much  spread  for  our  ballast." 

He  alludes  in  the  same  letter  to  a  change  in  the  firm 
of  Messrs.  Constable,  which  John  Ballantyne  had  just 
announced  to  him ;  and,  although  some  of  his  prognosti 
cations  on  this  business  were  not  exactly  fulfilled,  I  must 
quote  his  expressions  for  the  light  they  throw  on  his  opin 
ion  of  Constable's  temper  and  character.  "  No  associ 
ation,"  he  says,  "  of  the  kind  Mr.  C.  proposes,  will  stand 
two  years  with  him  for  its  head.  His  temper  is  too 
haughty  to  bear  with  the  complaints,  and  to  answer  all 
the  minute  inquiries,  which  partners  of  that  sort  will 
think  themselves  entitled  to  make,  and  expect  to  have 
answered.  Their  first  onset,  however,  will  be  terrible^ 


ABBOTSFORD 1811.  1 65 

and  John  must  be  prepared  to  lie  by The  new 

poem  would  help  the  presses."  The  new  partners  to 
which  he  refers  were  Mr.  Robert  Cathcart  of  Drum, 
Writer  to  the  Signet,  a  gentleman  of  high  worth  and  in 
tegrity,  who  continued  to  be  connected  with  Constable's 
business  until  his  death  in  November  1812  ;  and  Mr. 
Robert  Cadell,  who  afterwards  married  Mr.  Constable's 
eldest  daughter.* 

Of  the  two  adjoining  farms,  both  of  which  he  had  at 
this  time  thought  of  purchasing,  he  shortly  afterwards 
made  up  his  mind  that  one  would  be  sufficient  to  begin 
with  ;  and  he  selected  that  nearest  to  Ashestiel,  and  com 
prising  the  scene  of  Cessford's  slaughter.  The  person 
from  whom  he  bought  it  was  an  old  friend  of  his  own, 
whose  sterling  worth  he  venerated,  and  whose  humorous 
conversation  rendered  him  an  universal  favourite  among 
the  gentry  of  the  Forest — the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Robert 
Douglas,  minister  of  Galashiels  —  the  same  man  to  whom 
Mrs.  Cockburn  described  the  juvenile  prodigy  of  George's 
Square,  in  November  1777.  Dr.  Douglas  had  never  re 
sided  on  the  property,  and  his  efforts  to  embellish  it  had 
been  limited  to  one  stripe  of  firs,  so  long  and  so  narrow 
that  Scott  likened  it  to  a  black  hair-comb.  It  ran  from 
the  precincts  of  the  homestead  towards  Turn-again,  and 
has  bequeathed  the  name  of  the  Doctor's  redding-kame  to 
the  mass  of  nobler  trees  amidst  which  its  dark  straight 
line  can  now  hardly  be  traced.  The  farm  consisted  of  a 
rich  meadow  or  haugh  along  the  banks  of  the  river,  and 
about  a  hundred  acres  of  undulated  ground  behind,  all  in 
a,  neglected  state,  undrained,  wretchedly  enclosed,  much 

*  This  union  was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  the  lady  within  a  year 
of  the  marriage.  Mr.  Cadell,  not  long  after  the  catastrophe  of  1826 
became  sole  publisher  of  Scott's  later  works. 


166          LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

of  it  covered  with  nothing  better  than  the  native  heath. 
The  farm-house  itself  was  small  and  poor,  with  a  common 
kail-yard  on  one  flank,  and  a  staring  barn  of  the  Doctor's 
erection  on  the  other ;  while  in  front  appeared  a  filthy 
pond  covered  with  ducks  and  duckweed,  from  which  the 
whole  tenement  had  derived  the  unharmonious  designa 
tion  of  Clarty  Hole.  But  the  Tweed  was  everything  to 
him  —  a  beautiful  river,  flowing  broad  and  bright  over  a 
bed  of  milkwhite  pebbles,  unless  here  and  there  where  it 
darkened  into  a  deep  pool,  overhung  as  yet  only  by 
the  birches  and  alders  which  had  survived  the  statelier 
growth  of  the  primitive  Forest ;  and  the  first  hour  that 
he  took  possession  he  claimed  for  his  farm  the  name  of 
the  adjoining  ford,  situated  just  above  the  influx  of  the 
classical  tributary  Gala.  As  might  be  guessed  from  the 
name  of  A bbotsford,  these  lands  had  all  belonged  of  old 
to  the  great  Abbey  of  Melrose ;  and  indeed  the  Duke  of 
Buccleuch,  as  the  territorial  representative  of  that  relig 
ious  brotherhood,  still  retains  some  seignorial  rights  over 
them,  and  almost  all  the  surrounding  district.  Another 
feature  of  no  small  interest  in  Scott's  eyes  was  an  ancient 
Roman  road  leading  from  the  Eildon  hills  to  this  ford, 
the  remains  of  which,  however,  are  now  mostly  sheltered 
from  view  amidst  his  numerous  plantations.  The  most 
graceful  and  picturesque  of  all  the  monastic  ruins  in  Scot 
land,  the  Abbey  of  Melrose  itself,  is  visible  from  many 
points  in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  house ;  and 
last,  not  least,  on  the  rising  ground  full  in  view  across 
the  river,  the  traveller  may  still  observe  the  chief  traces 
of  that  ancient  British  barrier,  the  Catrail,  of  which  the 
reader  has  seen  frequent  mention  in  Scott's  early  letter? 
to  Ellis,  when  investigating  the  antiquities  of  Beged  and 
Strathclyde. 


ABBOTSFORD  —  1811.  167 

Such  was  the  territory  on  which  Scott's  prophetic  eye 
already  beheld  rich  pastures,  embosomed  among  flourish 
ing  groves,  where  his  children's  children  should  thank 
the  founder.  But  the  state  of  his  feelings  when  he  first 
called  these  fields  his  own,  will  be  best  illustrated  by  * 
few  extracts  from  his  letters.  To  his  brother-in-law,  Mr 
Carpenter,  he  thus  writes,  from  Ashestiel,  on  the  5th  of 
August  — 

"  As  my  lease  of  this  place  is  out,  I  have  bought,  for  about 
£4000,  a  property  in  the  neighbourhood,  extending  along  the 
banks  of  the  river  Tweed  for  about  half-a-mile.  It  is  very 
bleak  at  present,  having  little  to  recommend  it  but  the  vicinity 
of  the  river ;  but  as  the  ground  is  well  adapted  by  nature  to 
grow  wood,  and  is  considerably  various  in  form  and  appear 
ance,  I  have  no  doubt  that  by  judicious  plantations  it  may  be 
rendered  a  very  pleasant  spot ;  and  it  is  at  present  my  great 
amusement  to  plan  the  various  lines  which  may  be  necessary 
for  that  purpose.  The  farm  comprehends  about  a  hundred 
acres,  of  which  I  shall  keep  fifty  in  pasture  and  tillage,  and 
plant  all  the  rest,  which  will  be  a  very  valuable  little  posses 
sion  in  a  few  years,  as  wood  bears  a  high  price  among  us.  I 
intend  building  a  small  cottage  here  for  my  summer  abode, 
being  obliged  by  law,  as  well  as  induced  by  inclination,  to 
make  this  county  my  residence  for  some  months  every  year. 
This  is  the  greatest  incident  which  has  lately  taken  place  in 
our  domestic  concerns,  and  I  assure  you  we  are  not  a  little 
proud  of  being  greeted  as  laird  and  lady  of  Abbotsford.  We 
will  give  a  grand  gala  when  we  take  possession  of  it,  and  as 
we  are  very  clannish  in  this  corner,  all  the  Scotts  in  the  coun 
try,  from  the  Duke  to  the  peasant,  shall  dance  on  the  green  to 
the  bagpipes,  and  drink  whisky  punch.  Now  as  this  happy 
festival  is  to  be  deferred  for  more  than  a  twelvemonth,  during 
which  our  cottage  is  to  be  built,  &c.  &c.,  what  is  there  to 
tender  brother  and  sister  Carpenter  from  giving  us  their  com 
pany  upon  so  gratifying  an  occasion  ?  Pray,  do  not  stay  broil- 


168  LIFE    OF    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

ing  yourself  in  India  for  a  moment  longer  than  you  have  se 
cured  comfort  and  competence.  Don't  look  forward  to  peace  t 
it  will  never  come  either  in  your  day  or  mine." 

The  same  week  he  says  to  Joanna  Baillie  — 

"  My  dreams  about  my  cottage  go  on  ;  of  about  a  hundred 
acres  I  have  manfully  resolved  to  plant  from  sixty  to  seventy ; 
as  to  my  scale  of  dwelling  —  why,  you  shall  see  my  plan  when  • 
I  have  adjusted  it.  My  present  intention  is  to  have  only  two 
spare  bed-rooms,  with  dressing-rooms,  each  of  which  will  on  a 
pinch  have  a  couch  bed ;  but  I  cannot  relinquish  my  Border 
principle  of  accommodating  all  the  cousins  and  duniwastles, 
who  will  rather  sleep  on  chairs,  and  on  the  floor,  and  in  the 
hay-loft,  than  be  absent  when  folks  are  gathered  together ;  and 
truly  I  used  to  think  Ashestiel  was  very  much  like  the  tent  of 
Periebanou,  in  the  Arabian  Nights,  that  suited  alike  all  num 
bers  of  company  equally  ;  ten  people  fill  it  at  any  time,  and  I 
remember  its  lodging  thirty-two  without  any  complaint.  As 
for  the  go-about  folks,  they  generally  pay  their  score  one  way 
or  other ;  for  you  who  are  always  in  the  way  of  seeing,  and 
commanding,  and  selecting  your  society,  are  too  fastidious  to 
understand  how  a  dearth  of  news  may  make  anybody  welcome 
that  can  tell  one  the  current  report  of  the  day.  If  it  is  any 
pleasure  to  these  stragglers  to  say  I  made  them  welcome  as 
strangers,  I  am  sure  that  costs  me  nothing  —  only  I  deprecate 
publication,  and  am  now  the  less  afraid  of  it  that  I  think  scarce 
any  bookseller  will  be  desperate  enough  to  print  a  new  Scot 
tish  tour.  Besides,  one  has  the  pleasure  to  tell  over  all  the 
stories  that  have  bored  your  friends  a  dozen  of  times,  with 
some  degree  of  propriety.  In  short,  I  think,  like  a  true  Scotch 
man,  that  a  stranger,  unless  he  is  very  unpleasant  indeed, 
usually  brings  a  title  to  a  welcome  along  with  him ;  and  to 
confess  the  truth,  I  do  a  little  envy  my  old  friend  Abonhassan 
his  walks  on  the  bridge  of  Bagdad,  and  evening  conversations, 
and  suppers  with  the  guests  whom  he  was  never  to  see  again 
in  his  life:  he  never  fell  into  a  scrape  till  he  met  with  the 


LETTER    TO    MISS    BAILLIE  —  AUG.    1811.  169 

Caliph  —  and,  thank  God,  no  Caliphs  frequent  the  brigg  of 
Melrose,  which  will  be  my  nearest  Rialto  at  Abbotsford. 

"  I  never  heard  of  a  stranger  that  utterly  baffled  all  efforts 
to  engage  him  in  conversation,  excepting  one  whom  an  ac 
quaintance  of  mine  met  in  a  stage-coach.  My  friend,*  who 
piqued  himself  on  his  talents  for  conversation,  assailed  this  tor 
toise  on  all  hands,  but  in  vain,  and  at  length  descended  to 
expostulation.  '  I  have  talked  to  you,  my  friend,  on  all  the 
ordinary  subjects  —  literature,  farming,  merchandise  —  gam 
ing,  game-laws,  horse-races  —  suits  at  law  —  politics,  and  swin 
dling,  and  blasphemy,  and  philosophy  —  is  there  any  one 
subject  that  you  will  favour  me  by  opening  upon  ? '  The 
wight  writhed  his  countenance  into  a  grin  — '  Sir,'  said  he, 
'  can  you  say  anything  clever  about  bend  leather  f '  There,  I 
own,  I  should  have  been  as  much  non-plussed  as  my  acquaint 
ance  ;  but  upon  any  less  abstruse  subject,  I  think,  in  general, 
something  may  be  made  of  a  stranger,  worthy  of  his  clean 
sheets,  and  beef-steak,  and  glass  of  port.  You,  indeed,  my 
dear  friend,  may  suffer  a  little  for  me,  as  I  should  for  you, 
when  such  a  fortuitous  acquaintance  talks  of  the  intercourse 
arising  from  our  meeting  as  anything  beyond  the  effect  of 
chance  and  civility  :  but  these  braggings  break  no  bones,  and 
are  always  a  compliment  to  the  person  of  whom  the  discourse 
is  held,  though  the  narrator  means  it  to  himself;  for  no  one 
can  suppose  the  affectation  of  intimacy  can  be  assumed  unless 
from  an  idea  that  it  exalts  the  person  who  brags  of  it.  My 
little  folks  are  well,  and  I  am  performing  the  painful  duty  of 
hearing  my  little  boy  his  Latin  lesson  every  morning  ;  painful, 
because  my  knowledge  of  the  language  is  more  familiar  than 
grammatical,  and  because  little  Walter  has  a  disconsolate 
yawn  at  intervals,  which  is  quite  irresistible,  and  has  nearly 
cost  me  a  dislocation  of  my  jaws." 

In  answering  the  letter  which  announced  the  acquisi 
tion  of  Abbotsford,  Joanna  Baillie  says,  very  prettily :  — 

*  This  friend  was  Mr.  William  Clerk. 


170  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"Yourself  and  Mrs.  Scott,  and  the  children,  will  fee. 
sorry  at  leaving  Ashestiel,  which  will  long  have  a  conse 
quence,  and  be  the  object  of  kind  feelings  with  many 
from  having  once  been  the  place  of  your  residence.  If 
I  should  ever  be  happy  enough  to  be  at  Abbotsford,  you 
must  take  me  to  see  Ashestiel  too.  I  have  a  kind  of 
tenderness  for  it,  as  one  has  for  a  man's  first  wife,  when 
you  hear  he  has  married  a  second."  The  same  natural 
sentiment  is  expressed  in  a  manner  characteristically  dif 
ferent,  in  a  letter  from  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  of  about 
the  same  date :  —  "  Are  you  not  sorry  at  leaving  auld 
Ashestiel  for  gude  an'  a\  after  having  been  at  so  much 
trouble  and  expense  in  making  it  a  complete  thing? 
Upon  my  word  I  was,  on  seeing  it  in  the  papers." 

That  Scott  had  many  a  pang  in  quitting  a  spot  which 
had  been  the  scene  of  so  many  innocent  and  noble  pleas 
ures,  no  one  can  doubt  ;  but  the  desire  of  having  a 
permanent  abiding-place  of  his  own,  in  his  ancestorial 
district,  had  long  been  growing  upon  his  mind ;  and, 
moreover,  he  had  laboured  in  adorning  Ashestiel,  not 
only  to  gratify  his  own  taste  as  a  landscape  gardener,  but 
because  he  had  for  years  been  looking  forward  to  the  day 
when  Colonel  Russell  *  would  return  from  India  to  claim 
possession  of  his  romantic  inheritance.  And  he  was  over 
paid  for  all  his  exertions,  when  the  gallant  soldier  sat 
down  at  length  among  the  trees  which  an  affectionate 
kinsman  had  pruned  and  planted  in  his  absence.  Pie 
retained,  however,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  a  certain  "  ten 
derness  of  feeling "  towards  Ashestiel,  which  could  not 
perhaps  be  better  shadowed  than  in  Joanna  Baillie's  simil 
itude.  It  was  not  his  first  country  residence  —  nor  could 
its  immediate  landscape  be  said  to  equal  the  Vale  of  th« 
*  Now  Major-General  Sir  James  Russell,  K.  C.  B. 


AUGUST    1811.  171 

Esk,  either  in  actual  picturesqueness,  or  (before  Mar- 
mion)  in  dignity  of  association.  But  it  was  while  occupy 
ing  Ashestiel  that  he  first  enjoyed  habitually  the  free 
presence  of  wild  and  solitary  nature ;  and  I  shall  here 
quote  part  of  a  letter,  in  which  he  alludes  to  his  favourite 
wildernesses  between  Tweed  and  Yarrow,  in  language, 
to  my  mind,  strongly  indicative  of  the  regrets  and  mis 
givings  with  which  he  must  have  taken  his  farewell 
wanderings  over  them  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1811. 

Miss  Baillie  had  then  in  the  press  a  new  volume  of 
Tragedies,  but  had  told  her  friend  that  the  publication, 
for  booksellers'  reasons,  would  not  take  place  until  win 
ter.  He  answers  (August  24th)  — "  Were  it  possible 
for  me  to  hasten  the  treat  I  expect  by  such  a  composition 
with  you,  I  would  promise  to  read  the  volume  at  the 
silence  of  noonday,  upon  the  top  of  Minchmuir,  or  Win- 
dlestrawlaw.  The  hour  is  allowed,  by  those  skilful  in  de- 
monology,  to  be  as  full  of  witching  as  midnight  itself ;  and 
I  assure  you,  I  have  felt  really  oppressed  with  a  sort  of 
fearful  loneliness,  when  looking  around  the  naked  and  tow 
ering  ridges  of  desolate  barrenness,  which  is  all  the  eye 
takes  in  from  the  top  of  such  a  mountain  —  the  patches 
of  cultivation  being  all  hidden  in  the  little  glens  and  val 
leys  —  or  only  appearing  to  make  one  sensible  how  feeble 
and  inefficient  the  efforts  of  art  have  been  to  contend  witl 
the  genius  of  the  soil.  It  is  in  such  a  scene  that  the  un 
known  author  of  a  fine,  but  unequal  poem,  called  Alba 
nia,  places  the  remarkable  superstition  which  consists  in 
hearing  the  noise  of  a  chase,  with  the  baying  of  the 
hounds,  the  throttling  sobs  of  the  deer,  the  halloos  of 
a  numerous  band  of  huntsmen,  and  the  *  hoofs  thick 
beating  on  the  hollow  hill.'  I  have  often  repeated  his 


172  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

verses  with  some  sensations  of  awe  in  such  a  place, 
and  I  am  sure  yours  would  effect  their  purpose  as  com 
pletely."  * 

Miss  Baillie  sent  him,  as  soon  as  it  was  printed,  the 
book  to  which  this  communication  refers  ;  she  told  him  it 
was  to  be  her  last  publication,  and  that  she  was  getting 
her  knitting-needles  in  order  —  meaning  to  begin  her 
new  course  of  industry  with  a  purse,  by  way  of  return 
for  his  lona  brooch.  The  poetess  mentioned,  at  the  same 
time,  that  she  had  met  the  evening  before  with  a  Scotch 
lady  who  boasted  that  "  she  had  once  been  Walter  Scott's 
bedfellow."  —  "  Don't  start,"  adds  Joanna  ;  "  it  is  thirty 
years  since  the  irregularity  took  place,  and  she  describes 
her  old  bedfellow  as  the  drollest  looking,  entertaining 

*  The  lines  here  alluded  to  —  and  which  Scott  delighted  to  repeat 
»-  are  as  follows :  — 

"  Ere  since,  of  old,  the  haughty  thanes  of  Ross, — 
So  to  the  simple  swain  tradition  tells,  — 
Were  wont  with  clans,  and  ready  vassals  throng'd, 
To  wake  the  hounding  stag,  or  guilty  wolf, 
There  oft  is  heard,  at  midnight  or  at  noon, 
Beginning  faint,  but  rising  still  more  loud, 
And  nearer,  voice  of  hunters,  and  of  hounds, 
And  horns,  hoarse  winded,  blowing  far  and  keen:  — 
Forthwith  the  hubbub  multiplies  ;  the  gale 
Labours  with  wilder  shrieks,  and  rifer  din 
Of  hot  pursuit ;  the  broken  cry  «f  deer 
Mangled  by  throttling  dogs  ;  the  shouts  of  men. 
And  hoofs,  thick  beating  on  the  hollow  hill 
Sudden  the  grazing  heifer  in  the  vale 
Starts  at  the  noise,  and  both  the  herdsman's  ears 
Tingle  with  inward  dread.     Aghast,  he  eyes 
The  mountain's  height,  and  all  the  ridges  round, 
Yet  not  one  trace  of  living  wight  discerns, 
Nor  knows,  o'erawed,  and  trembling  as  he  stands, 
To  what,  or  whom,  he  owes  his  idle  fear, 
To  ghost,  to  witch,  to  fairy,  or  to  fiend  ; 
But  wonders,  and  no  end  of  wondering  finds." 

Albania  —  reprinted  in  Scottish  Descriptive  Potmt. 
pp.  167, 168 


JOANNA    BAILLIE?S    ORRA.  173 

little  urchin  that  ever  was  seen.  I  told  her  that  you  are 
a  great  strong  man,  six  feet  high,  but  she  does  not  b*»- 
Heve  me."  In  point  of  fact,  the  assigned  date  was  a 
lady's  one ;  for  the  irregularity  in  question  occurred  on 
board  the  Leith  smack  which  conveyed  Walter  Scott  to 
London  on  his  way  to  Bath,  when  he  was  only  four  years 
of  age,  A.  D.  1775. 

Miss  Baillie's  welcome  volume  contained,  among 
others,  her  tragedy  on  the  Passion  of  Fear ;  and  Scott 
gives  so  much  of  himself  in  the  letter  acknowledging 
this  present,  that  I  must  insert  it  at  length. 

"To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 

"  My  Dear  Friend,  — ....  It  is  too  little  to  say  I  am  en 
chanted  with  the  said  third  volume,  especially  with  the  two 
first  plays,  which  in  every  point  not  only  sustain,  but  even 
exalt  your  reputation  as  a  dramatist.  The  whole  character  of 
Orra  is  exquisitely  supported  as  well  as  imagined,  and  the  lan 
guage  distinguished  by  a  rich  variety  of  fancy,  which  I  know 
no  instance  of  excepting  in  Shakspeare.  After  I  had  read 
Orra  twice  to  myself,  Terry  read  it  over  to  us  a  third  time, 
aloud,  and  I  have  seldom  seen  a  little  circle  so  much  affected 
as  during  the  whole  fifth  act.  I  think  it  would  act  charmingly, 
omitting,  perhaps,  the  baying  of  the  hounds,  which  could  not 
be  happily  imitated,  and  retaining  only  the  blast  of  the  horn 
and  the  halloo  of  the  huntsmen  at  a  distance.  Only  I  doubt 
if  we  have  now  an  actress  that  could  carry  through  the  mad 
scene  in  the  fifth  act,  which  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  sub 
lime  that  ever  were  written.  Yet  I  have  a  great  quarrel  with 
this  beautiful  drama,  for  you  must  know  you  have  utterly  de 
stroyed  a  song  of  mine,  precisely  in  the  turn  of  your  outlaw's 
ditty,  and  sung  by  persons  in  somewhat  the  same  situation.  I 
took  out  my  unfortunate  manuscript  to  look  at  it,  but  alas !  it 
was  the  encounter  of  the  iron  and  the  earthen  pitchers  in  the 
fable.  I  was  clearly  sunk,  and  the  potsherds  not  worth  gath- 


174  LIFE    OP    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

ering  up.     But  only  conceive  that  the  chorus  should  have  rui? 
thus  verbatim  — 

'  'Tis  mirk  midnight  with  peaceful  men, 
"With  us  'tis  dawn  of  day '  — 

And  again  — 

*  Then  boot  and  saddle,  comrades  boon, 
Nor  wait  the  dawn  of  day.'  * 

"  I  think  the  Dream  extremely  powerful  indeed,  but  I  am 
rather  glad  we  did  not  hazard  the  representation.  It  rests  so 
entirely  on  Osterloo,  that  I  am  almost  sure  we  must  have 
made  a  bad  piece  of  work  of  it.  By-the-by,  a  story  is  told  of 
an  Italian  buffoon,  who  had  contrived  to  give  his  master,  a 
petty  prince  of  Italy,  a  good  hearty  ducking,  and  a  fright  to 
boot,  to  cure  him  of  an  ague ;  the  treatment  succeeded,  but 
the  potentate,  by  way  of  retaliation,  had  his  audacious  physi 
cian  tried  for  treason,  and  condemned  to  lose  his  head;  th« 
criminal  was  brought  forth,  the  priest  heard  his  confession,  and 
the  poor  jester  knelt  down  to  the  block.  Instead  of  wielding 
his  axe,  the  executioner,  as  he  had  been  instructed,  threw  a 
pitcher  of  water  on  the  bare  neck  of  the  criminal ;  here  the 
jest  was  to  have  terminated,  but  poor  Gonella  was  found  dead 
on  the  spot.  I  believe  the  catastrophe  is  very  possible.f  The 
latter  half  of  the  volume  I  have  not  perused  with  the  same 
attention,  though  I  have  devoured  both  the  Comedy  and  the 
Beacon  in  a  hasty  manner.  I  think  the  approbation  of  the 
public  will  make  you  alter  your  intention  of  taking  up  the 
knitting-needle  —  and  that  I  shall  be  as  much  to  seek  for  my 
purse  as  for  the  bank-notes  which  you  say  are  to  stuff  it  — 

*  These  lines  were  accordingly  struck  out  of  the  outlaw's  song  in 
Bokeby.  The  verses  of  Orra,  to  which  Scott  alludes,  are  no  doubt  th» 
following: 

"  The  wild  fire  dances  on  the  fen, 

The  red  star  sheds  its  ray, 
Up  rouse  ye,  then,  my  merry  men, 
It  is  our  opening  day,"  &c 

Plays  on  the  Passions,  vol.  iii.  p.  44 

t  Thi*  story  is  told,  among  others,  by  Montaigne. 


OBRA FEAR.  IV  d 

khougli  I  have  no  idea  where  they  are  to  come  from.  Bufc  1 
shall  think  more  of  the  purse  than  the  notes,  come  when  01 
how  they  may. 

"  To  return,  I  really  think  Fear  the  most  dramatic  passion 
you  have  hitherto  touched,  because  capable  of  being  drawn  to 
the  most  extreme  paroxysm  on  the  stage.     In  Orra  you  have 
all  gradations,  from  a  timidity  excited  by  a  strong  and  irrita 
ble  imagination,  to  the  extremity  which  altogether  unhinges 
the  understanding.     The  most  dreadful  fright  I  ever  had  in 
my  life  (being  neither  constitutionally  timid,  nor  in  the  way 
of  being  exposed  to  real  danger)  was  in  returning  from  Hamp- 
stead  the  day  which  I  spent  so  pleasantly  with  you.     Although 
the  evening  was  nearly  closed,  I  foolishly  chose  to  take  the 
short  cut  through  the  fields,  and  in  that  enclosure,  where  the 
path  leads  close  by  a  thick  and  high  hedge  —  with  several  gaps 
in  it,  however  —  did  I  meet  one  of  your  very  thorough-paced 
London  ruffians,  at  least  judging  from  the  squalid  and  jail-bird 
appearance  and  blackguard  expression  of  countenance.     Like 
the  man  that  met  the  devil,  I  had  nothing  to  say  to  him,  if  he 
had  nothing  to  say  to  me,  but  I  could  not  help  looking  back  to 
watch  the  movements  of  sach  a  suspicious  figure,  and  to  my 
great  uneasiness  saw  him  creep  through  the  hedge  on  my  left 
hand.     I  instantly  went  to  the  first  gap  to  watch  his  motions, 
and  saw  him  stooping,  as  I  thought,  either  to  lift  a  bundle  or 
to  speak  to  some  person  who  seemed  lying  in  the  ditch.     Im 
mediately  after,  he  came  cowering  back  up  the  opposite  side 
of  the  hedge,  as  returning  towards  me  under  cover  of  it.     I 
saw  no  weapons  he  had,  except  a  stick,  but  as  I  moved  on  to 
gain  the  stile  which  was  to  let  me  into  the  free  field —  with 
the  idea  of  a  wretch  springing  upon  me  from  the  cover  at 
eveiy  step  I  took  —  I  assure  you  I  would  not  wish  the  worst 
enemy  I  ever  had  to  undergo  such  a  feeling  as  I  had  for  about 
five  minutes ;  my  fancy  made  him  of  that  description  which 
usually  combines  murder  with  plunder,  and  though  I  was  well 
armed  with  a  stout  stick  and  a  very  formidable  knife,  which 
when  opened  becomes  a  sort  of  skene-dhu,  or  dagger,  I  confess 

VOL.  III.  12 


176  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

my  sensations,  though  those  of  a  man  much  resolved  not  to 
die  like  a  sheep,  were  vilely  short  of  heroism;  so  much  so, 
that  when  I  jumped  over  the  stile,  a  sliver  of  the  wood  run 
a  third  of  an  inch  between  my  nail  and  flesh,  without  my  feel 
ing  the  pain,  or  being  sensible  such  a  thing  had  happened. 
However,  I  saw  my  man  no  more,  and  it  is  astonishing  how 
my  spirits  rose  when  I  got  into  the  open  field ;  —  and  <vhen  I 
reached  the  top  of  the  little  mount,  and  all  the  bells  in  Lon 
don  (for  aught  I  know)  began  to  jingle  at  once,  I  thought  I  • 
had  never  heard  anything  so  delightful  in  my  life  —  so  rapid 
are  the  alternations  of  our  feelings.  This  foolish  story,  —  for 
perhaps  I  had  no  rational  ground  for  the  horrible  feeling  which 
possessed  my  mind  for  a  little  while,  came  irresistibly  to  my 
pen  when  writing  to  you  on  the  subject  of  terror. 

"  Poor  Grahanae,  gentle,  and  amiable,  and  enthusiastic,  de 
serves  all  you  can  say  of  him  ;  his  was  really  a  hallowed  harp, 
as  he  was  himself  an  Israelite  without  guile.  How  often  have 
I  teazed  him,  but  never  out  of  his  good-humour,  by  praising 
Dundee  and  laughing  at  the  Covenanters  !  —  but  I  beg  your 
pardon ;  you  are  a  Westland  Whig  too,  and  will  perhaps  make 
less  allowance  for  a  descendant  of  the  persecutors.  I  think 
his  works  should  be  collected  and  published  for  the  benefit  of 
his  family.  Surely  the  wife  and  orphans  of  such  a  man  have 
a  claim  on  the  generosity  of  the  public.* 

"  Pray  make  my  remembrance  to  the  lady  who  so  kindly 
remembers  our  early  intimacy.  I  do  perfectly  remember  being 
an  exceedingly  spoiled,  chattering  monkey,  whom  indifferent 
health  and  the  cares  of  a  kind  Grandmamma  and  Aunt,  had 
\nade,  I  suspect,  extremely  abominable  to  everybody  who  had 

*  James  Grahame,  author  of  The  Sabbath,  had  been  originally  a 
member  of  the  Scotch  Bar,  and  was  an  early  friend  of  Scott's.  Not 
succeeding  in  the  law,  he  —  (with  all  his  love  for  the  Covenanters)  — 
took  orders  in  the  Church  of  England,  obtained  a  curacy  in  the  county 
of  Durham,  and  died  there,  on  the  14th  of  September  1811,  in  the  47tfc 
year  of  his  age.  See  a  Memoir  of  his  Life  and  Writings  in  the  Edin 
Vurgh  Annual  Register  for  1812,  part  ii.  pp.  384-415. 


DANIEL    TERRY.  177 

uot  a  great  deal  of  sympathy  and  good-nature,  which  I  dare 
tay  was  the  case  of  my  quondam  bedfellow,  since  she  recollects 
me  so  favourably.  Farewell,  and  believe  me  faithfully  and 
respectfully,  your  sincere  friend, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Miss  Baillie,  in  her  next  letter,  mentioned  the  name 
of  the  "  old  bedfellow,"  and  that  immediately  refreshed 
Scott's  recollection.  "  I  do,"  he  replies,  "  remember  Miss 
Wright  perfectly  well.  Oh,  how  I  should  like  to  talk 
over  with  her  our  voyage  in  the  good  ship  the  Duchess 
of  Buccleuch,  Captain  Beatson,  master ;  much  of  which, 
from  the  novelty  doubtless  of  the  scene,  is  strongly  im 
pressed  on  my  memory.  A  long  voyage  it  was  —  of 
twelve  days,  if  I  mistake  not,  with  the  variety  of  a  day  or 
two  in  Yarmouth  Roads.  I  believe  the  passengers  had  a 
good  deal  of  fun  with  me ;  for  I  remember  being  per 
suaded  to  shoot  one  of  them  with  an  air-gun,  who,  to  my 
great  terror,  lay  obstinately  dead  on  the  deck,  and  would 
not  revive  till  I  fell  a-crying,  which  proved  the  remedy 
specific  upon  the  occasion." 

The  mention  of  Mr.  Terry,  in  the  letter  about  Orra, 
reminds  me  to  observe  that  Scott's  intimacy  with  that 
gentleman  began  to  make  very  rapid  progress  from  the 
date  of  the  first  purchase  of  Abbotsford.  He  spent 
several  weeks  of  that  autumn  at  Ashestiel,  riding  over 
daily  to  the  new  farm,  and  assisting  his  friend  with  ad 
vice,  which  his  acquirements  as  an  architect  and  draughts 
man  rendered  exceedingly  valuable,  as  to  the  future  ar 
rangements  about  both  house  and  grounds.  Early  in 
1812  Terry  proceeded  to  London,  and  made,  on  the  20th 
May,  a  very  successful  debut  on  the  boards  of  the  Hay- 
aaarket  as  Lord  Ogleby.  He  continued,  however,  to  visit 


178  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Scotland  almost  every  season,  and  no  ally  had  more  to  do 
either  with  the  plans  ultimately  adopted  as  to  Scott's  new 
structure,  or  with  the  collection  of  literary  and  antiqua 
rian  curiosities  which  now  constitute  its .  museum.  From 
this  time  the  series  of  letters  between  them  is  an  ample 
one.  The  intelligent  zeal  with  which  the  actor  laboured 
to  promote  the  gratification  of  the  poet's  tastes  and  fancies 
on  the  one  side  :  on  the  other,  Scott's  warm  anxiety  for 
Terry's  professional  success,  the  sagacity  and  hopefulness 
with  which  he  counsels  and  cheers  him  throughout,  and 
the  good-natured  confidence  with  which  he  details  his 
own  projects,  —  both  the  greatest  and  the  smallest,  —  all 
this  seems  to  me  to  make  up  a  very  interesting  picture. 
To  none  of  his  later  correspondents,  with  the  one  excep 
tion  of  Mr.  Morritt,  does  Scott  write  with  a  more  perfect 
easy-heartedness  than  to  Terry ;  and  the  quaint  dramatic 
turns  and  allusions  with  which  these  letters  abound,  will 
remind  all  who  knew  him  of  the  instinctive  courtesy  with 
which  he  uniformly  adopted,  in  conversation,  a  strain  the 
most  likely  to  fall  in  with  the  habits  of  any  companion. 
It  has  been  mentioned  that  his  acquaintance  with  Terry 
sprung  from  Terry's  familiarity  with  the  Ballantynes  ;  as 
it  ripened,  he  had,  in  fact,  learned  to  consider  the  in 
genious  comedian  as  another  brother  of  that  race ;  and 
Terry,  transplanted  to  the  south,  was  used  and  trusted 
by  him,  and  continued  to  serve  and  communicate  with 
him,  very  much  as  if  one  of  themselves  had  found  it  con 
venient  to  establish  his  headquarters  in  London. 

Among  the  letters  written  immediately  after  Scott  had 
completed  his  bargain  with  Dr.  Douglas,  is  one  which 
(unlike  the  rest)  I  found  in  his  own  repositories :  — 


LAST    LETTER    TO    LEYDEN.  179 

*'  For  Doctor  Leyden,  Calcutta. 
M  Favoured  by  the  Hon.  Lady  Hood. 

41  Ashestiel,  25th  August  1811, 

«'  My  Dear  Leyden,  —  You  hardly  deserve  I  should  write  to 
you,  for  I  have  written  you  two  long  letters  since  I  saw  Mr. 
Purves,  and  received  from  him  your  valued  dagger,*  which  I 
preserve  carefully  till  Buonaparte  shall  come  or  send  for  it. 
I  might  take  a  cruel  revenge  on  you  for  your  silence,  by  de 
clining  Lady  Hood's  request  to  make  you  acquainted  with  her ; 
in  which  case,  I  assure  you,  great  would  be  your  loss.  She  is 
quite  a  congenial  spirit ;  an  ardent  Scotswoman,  and  devotedly 
attached  to  those  sketches  of  traditionary  history  which  all  the 
waters  of  the  Burrampooter  cannot,  I  suspect,  altogether  wash 
out  of  your  honour's  memory.  This,  however,  is  the  least  of 
her  praises.  She  is  generous,  and  feeling,  and  intelligent,  and 
has  contrived  to  keep  her  heart  and  social  affections  broad 
awake  amidst  the  chilling  and  benumbing  atmosphere  of  Lon 
don  fashion.  I  ought  perhaps  first  to  have  told  you,  that  Lady 
H.  was  the  honourable  Mary  Mackenzie,  daughter  of  Lord 
Seaforth,  and  is  the  wife  of  Sir  Samuel  Hood,  one  of  our  most 
distinguished  naval  heroes,  who  goes  out  to  take  the  command 
in  your  seas.  Lastly,  she  is  a  very  intimate  friend  of  Mrs. 
Scott's  and  myself,  and  first  gained  my  heart  by  her  admira 
tion  of  the  Scenes  of  Infancy.  So  you  see,  my  good  friend, 
what  your  laziness  would  have  cost  you,  if,  listening  rather  to 
the  dictates  of  revenge  than  generosity,  I  had  withheld  my  pen 
from  the  inkhorn.  But,  to  confess  the  truth,  I  fear  two  such 
minds  would  soon  have  found  each  other  out,  like  good  dancers 
in  a  ball-room,  without  the  assistance  of  a  master  of  ceremonies. 
So  I  may  even  play  Sir  Clement  Cotterel  with  a  good  grace, 
since  I  cannot  further  my  vengeance  by  withholding  my  good 
offices.  My  last  went  by  favour  of  John  Pringle,f  who  carried 
you  a  copy  of  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  a  poem  which  I  realty 

*  A  Malay  crease,  now  at  Abbotsford. 
f  A  son  of  Mr.  Pringle  of  Why  tbank. 


180  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

think  you  will  like  better  than  Marmion  on  the  whole,  though 
not  perhaps  in  particular  passages.  Pray  let  me  know  if  it 
tarried  you  back  to  the  land  of  mist  and  mountain  ? 

"  Lady  Hood's  departure  being  sudden,  and  your  deserti 
not  extraordinary  (speaking  as  a  correspondent),  I  have  not 
time  to  write  you  much  news.  The  best  domestic  intelligence 
is,  that  the  Sheriff  of  Selkirkshire,  his  lease  of  Ashestiel  being 
out,  has  purchased  about  100  acres,  extending  along  the  banks 
of  the  Tweed  just  above  the  confluence  of  the  Gala,  and  about 
three  miles  from  Melrose.  There,  saith  fame,  he  designs  to 
bigg  himself  a  bower  —  sibi  et  amicis —  and  happy  will  he  be 
when  India  shall  return  you  to  a  social  meal  at  his  cottage. 
The  place  looks  at  present  very  like  'poor  Scotland's  gear.' 
It  consists  of  a  bank  and  haugh  as  poor  and  bare  as  Sir  John 
Falstaff's  regiment;  though  I  fear,  ere  you  come  to  see,  the 
verdant  screen  I  am  about  to  spread  over  its  nakedness  will 
have  in  some  degree  removed  this  reproach.  But  it  has  a  wild 
solitary  air,  and  commands  a  splendid  reach  of  the  Tweed ; 
and,  to  sum  all  in  the  words  of  Touchstone,  '  it  is  a  poor  thing, 
but  mine  own.'  * 

"  Our  little  folks,  whom  you  left  infante,  are  now  shooting 
fast  forward  to  youth,  and  show  some  blood,  as  far  as  aptitude 
to  learning  is  concerned.  Charlotte  and  I  are  wearing  on  as 
easily  as  this  fashions  world  will  permit.  The  outside  of  my 
head  is  waxing  grizzled,  but  I  cannot  find  that  this  snow  has 
cooled  either  my  brain  or  my  heart.  —  Adieu,  dear  Leyden  !  — 
Pray,  brighten  the  chain  of  friendship  by  a  letter  when  occa 
sion  serves ;  and  believe  me  ever  yours,  most  affectionately, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

On  the  28th  of  August  1811,  just  three  days  after  this 
letter  was  penned,  John  Leyden  died.  On  the  very  day 
when  Scott  was  writing  it,  he,  having  accompanied  the 
Governor- General,  Lord  Minto,  on  the  expedition  againsf 

*  "An  ill-favoured  thing,  sir,  but  mine  own,"  &c. 

As  You  Like  It,  Act  V.  Scene  4. 


DEATH    OF    LEYDEN.  181 

Java,  dashed  into  the  surf,  that  he  might  be  the  first 
Briton  in  the  armament  who  should  set  foot  on  the 
island.  "  When,"  says  Scott,  in  his  Sketch  of  Leyden's 
Life,  "  the  well-concerted  movements  of  the  invaders  had 
given  them  possession  of  the  town  of  Batavia,  he  dis 
played  the  same  ill-omened  precipitation  in  his  haste  to 
examine  a  library,  or  rather  warehouse  of  books,  in  which 
many  Indian  MSS.  of  value  were  said  to  be  deposited. 
The  apartment  had  not  been  regularly  ventilated,  and, 
either  from  this  circumstance,  or  already  affected  by  the 
fatal  sickness  peculiar  to  Batavia,  Leyden,  when  he  left 
the  place,  had  a  fit  of  shivering,  and  declared  the  atmos 
phere  was  enough  to  give  any  mortal  a  fever.  The  pres 
age  was  too  just.  He  took  to  his  bed  and  died  in  three 
days,  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  which  gave  Java  to  the 
British  empire  — 

*  Grata  quies  patriae,  sed  et  omnis  terra  sepulchrum.'  "  * 

The  packet  in  which  Lady  Hood,  on  her  arrival  in 
India,  announced  this  event,  and  returned  Scott's  un 
opened  letter,  contained  also  a  very  touching  one  from 
the  late  Sir  John  Malcolm,  who,  although  he  had  never 
at  that  time  seen  the  poet,  assumed,  as  a  brother  borderer 
lamenting  a  common  friend,  the  language  of  old  acquaint 
anceship;  and  to  this  Scott  replied  in  the  same  style 
which,  from  their  first  meeting  in  the  autumn  of  the  next 
year,  became  that,  on  both  sides,  of  warm  and  respectful 
attachment.  I  might  almost  speak  in  the  like  tenor  of  a 
third  letter  in  the  same  melancholy  packet,  from  another 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  Leyden,  Mr.  Henry  Ellis,f  who 

*  This  little  biography  of  Leyden  is  included  in  Scott's  Miscellane 
ous  Prose  Works,  vol.  iv.  p.  137  (Edin.  Ed.) 

t  Now  the  Right  Honourable  Henry  Ellis,  appointed,  in  1836,  am- 
assador  from  the  Court  of  St.  James's  to  the  Shah  of  Persia. 


162         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

also  communicated  to  Scott  his  spirited  stanzas  on  that 
untimely  fate  ;  but  his  personal  intercourse  with  this  dis 
tinguished  diplomatist  took  place  at  a  later  period. 

Before  passing  from  the  autumn  of  1811,  I  may  men 
tion,  that  the  letter  of  James  Hogg,  from  which  I  have 
quoted  an  expression  of  regret  as  to  Ashestiel,  was  one 
of  many  from  the  Shepherd,  bearing  about  this  date, 
which  Scott  esteemed  worthy  of  preservation.  Strange 
as  the  fact  may  appear,  Hogg,  on  the  other  hand,  seems 
to  have  preserved  none  of  the  answers  ;  but  the  half  of 
the  correspondence  is  quite  sufficient  to  show  how  con 
stantly  and  earnestly,  in  the  midst  of  his  own  expanding 
toils  and  interests,  Scott  had  continued  to  watch  over  the 
struggling  fortunes  of  the  wayward  and  imprudent  Shep 
herd.  His  letters  to  the  different  members  of  the  Buc- 
cleuch  family  at  this  time  are  full  of  the  same  subject. 
I  shall  insert  one,  addressed,  on  the  24th  of  August,  to 
the  Countess  of  Dalkeith,  along  with  a  presentation  copy 
of  Hogg's  u  Forest  Minstrel."  It  appears  to  me  a  re 
markable  specimen  of  the  simplest  natural  feelings  on 
more  subjects  than  one,  couched  in  a  dialect  which,  in 
any  hands  but  the  highest,  is  apt  to  become  a  cold 
one:  — 

.  "  Ashestiel,  Aug.  24, 1811. 
"Dear  Lady  Dalkeith,  —  The  Ettrick  Bard,  who  compiled 

he  enclosed  collection,  which  I  observe  is  inscribed  to  your 
ladyship,  has  made  it  his  request  that  I  would  transmit  a  copy 
for  your  acceptance.  I  fear  your  Ladyship  will  find  but  little 
amusement  in  it ;  for  the  poor  fellow  has  just  talent  sufficient 

o  spoil  him  for  his  own  trade,  without  having  enough  to  sup 
port  him  by  literature.  But  I  embrace  the  more  readily  an 
opportunity  of  intruding  upon  your  Ladyship's  leisure,  that  I 
might  thank  you  for  the  very  kind  and  affecting  letter  with 


JAMES    HOGG  —  LADY    DALKEITH,    ETC.  183 

which  you  honoured  me  some  time  ago.  You  do  me  justice  in 
believing  that  I  was  deeply  concerned  at  the  irreparable  loss 
you  sustained  in  the  dear  and  hopeful  boy  *  to  whom  all  the 
friends  of  the  Buccleuch  family  looked  forward  with  so  much 
confidence.  I  can  safely  say,  that  since  that  inexpressible 
misfortune,  I  almost  felt  as  if  the  presence  of  one,  with  whom 
the  recollection  of  past  happiness  might  in  some  degree  be 
associated,  must  have  awakened  and  added  to  your  Lady 
ship's  distress,  from  a  feeling  that  scenes  of  which  we  were  not 
to  speak,  were  necessarily  uppermost  in  the  recollection  of  both. 
But  your  Ladyship  knows  better  than  I  can  teach,  that,  where 
all  common  topics  of  consolation  would  be  inapplicable,  Heaven 
provides  for  us  the  best  and  most  effectual  lenitive  in  the  prog 
ress  of  time,  and  in  the  constant  and  unremitting  discharge 
of  the  duties  incumbent  on  the  station  in  which  we  are  placed. 
Those  of  your  Ladyship  are  important,  in  proportion  to  the 
elevation  of  your  rank,  and  the  promising  qualities  of  the 
young  minds  which  I  have  with  so  much  pleasure  seen  you 
forming  and  instructing  —  to  be  comforts,  I  trust,  to  yourself, 
and  an  honour  to  society.  Poor  Lady  Kosslyn  f  is  gone,  with 
all  the  various  talent  and  vivacity  that  rendered  her  society  so 
delightful.  I  regret  her  loss  the  more,  as  she  died  without, 
ever  making  up  some  unkindness  she  had  towards  me  for  these 
foolish  politics.  It  is  another  example  of  the  great  truth,  that 
life  is  too  short  for  the  indulgence  of  animosity.  I  have  the 
honour  to  be,  with  the  greatest  respect,  your  Ladyship's  obliged 
and  very  humble  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

The  Countess,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  dedication  of 
the  Forest  Minstrel,  sent  Hogg,  through  Scott's  hands, 

*  Lord  Scott.    See  ante,  vol.  ii.  p.  288. 

t  The  Countess  of  Rosslyn,  born  Lady  Harriet  Bouverie,  a  very  in 
timate  friend  of  Lady  Dalkeith,  died  8th  August  1810.  She  had,  as 
fcas  been  mentioned  before,  written  to  Scott,  resenting  somewhat 
warmly  his  eong  at  the  Melville  dinner.  See  ante,  vol.  ii.  p.  244. 


184         LIFE  OP  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

the  donation  of  a  hundred  guineas  —  a  sum  which,  to 
him,  in  those  days,  must  have  seemed  a  fortune ;  but 
which  was  only  the  pledge  and  harbinger  of  still  more 
important  benefits  conferred  soon  after  her  Ladyship's 
husband  became  the  head  of  his  house. 


EOKEBY   BEGUN.  185 


CHAPTER  XXTV. 

The  Poem  of  Rokeby  begun  —  Correspondence  with  Mr.  Mar- 
ritt  —  Death  of  Henry  Duke  of  Buccleuch  —  George  Ellis  — 
John  Wilson  —  Apprentices  of  Edinburgh  —  Scott's  "  Nick- 
Nackatories  "  —  Letter  to  Miss  Baillie  on  the  Publication  of 
Childe  Harold  —  Correspondence  with  Lord  Byron. 

1811-1812. 

OP  the  £4000  which  Scott  paid  for  the  original  farm 
of  Abbotsford,  he  borrowed  one  half  from  his  eldest 
brother,  Major  John  Scott ;  the  other  moiety  was  raised 
by  the  Ballantynes,  and  advanced  on  the  security  of  the 
as  yet  unwritten,  though  long  meditated,  poem  of  Rokeby. 
He  immediately,  I  believe  by  Terry's  counsel,  requested 
Mr.  Stark  of  Edinburgh,  an  architect  of  whose  talents  he 
always  spoke  warmly,  to  give  him  a  design  for  an  orna 
mental  cottage  in  the  style  of  the  old  English  vicarage- 
house.  But  before  this  could  be  done,  Mr.  Stark  died ; 
and  Scott's  letters  will  show  how,  in  the  sequel,  his  build 
ing  plans,  checked  for  a  season  by  this  occurrence,  grad 
ually  expanded,  —  until  twelve  years  afterwards  the  site 
was  occupied  not  by  a  cottage  but  a  castle. 

His  first  notions  are  sketched  as  follows,  in  a  letter  ad 
dressed  to  Mr.  Morritt  very  shortly  after  the  purchase  :  — 
"  We  stay  at  Ashestiel  this  season,  but  migrate  the  next 


186  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

to  our  new  settlements.  I  have  fixed  only  two  points 
respecting  my  intended  cottage  —  one  is,  that  it  shall  be 
in  my  garden,  or  rather  kailyard  —  the  other,  that  the 
little  drawing-room  shall  open  into  a  little  conservatory, 
in  which  conservatory  there  shall  be  a  fountain.  These 
are  articles  of  taste  which  I  have  long  since  determined 
upon  ;  but  I  hope,  before  a  stone  of  my  paradise  is  begun, 
we  shall  meet  and  collogue  upon  it." 

Three  months  later  (December  20th,  1811),  he  opens 
the  design  of  his  new  poem  in  another  letter  to  the  lord 
of  Rokeby,  whose  household,  it  appears,  had  just  been 
disturbed  by  the  unexpected  accouchement  of  a  fair  vis 
itant.  The  allusion  to  the  Quarterly  Review,  towards 
the  close,  refers  to  an  humorous  article  on  Sir  John  Sin 
clair's  pamphlets  about  the  Bullion  Question  —  a  joint 
production  of  Mr.  Ellis  and  Mr.  Canning. 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq. 

"  My  Dear  Morritt,  —  I  received  your  kind  letter  a  week  or 
two  ago.  The  little  interlude  of  the  bantling  at  Rokeby  re 
minds  me  of  a  lady  whose  mother  happened  to  produce  her 
upon  very  short  notice,  between  the  hands  of  a  game  at  whist, 
and  who,  from  a  joke  of  the  celebrated  David  Hume,  who  was 
one  of  the  players,  lived  long  distinguished  by  the  name  of 
The  Parenthesis.  My  wife  had  once  nearly  made  a  similar 
blunder  in  very  awkward  circumstances.  We  were  invited  to 
dine  at  Melville  Castle  (to  which  we  were  then  near  neigh 
bours),  with  the  Chief  Baron  *  and  his  lady,  its  temporary  in 
habitants, —  when  behold,  the  Obadiah  whom  I  despatched 
two  hours  before  dinner  from  our  cottage  to  summon  the  Dr. 
Slop  of  Edinburgh,  halting  at  Melville  Lodge  to  rest  his  wea 
ried  horse,  make  apologies,  and  so  forth,  encountered  the  Mel- 

*  The  late  Right  Honourable  Robert  Dundas,  Chief  Baron  of  th« 
Scotch  Court  of  Exchequer. 


ROKEBY  —  1811.  187 

*ie  Casuc  C^diah  sallying  on  the  identical  errand,  for  the 
identical  man  of'  skill,  who,  like  an  active  knight-errant,  relieved 
the  two  distressed  dames  within  three  hours  of  each  other.  A 
blessed  duet  they  would  have  made  if  they  had  put  off  their 
crying  bout,  as  it  is  called,  till  they  could  do  it  in  concert. 

"  And  now,  I  have  a  grand  project  to  tell  you  of.  Nothing 
less  than  a  fourth  romance,  in  verse  ;  the  theme,  during  the 
English  civil  wars  of  Charles  I.,  and  the  scene,  your  own  do 
main  of  Rokeby.  I  want  to  build  my  cottage  a  little  better 
than  my  limited  finances  will  permit  out  of  my  ordinary  in 
come  ;  and  although  it  is  very  true  that  an  author  should  not 
hazard  his  reputation,  yet,  as  Bob  Acres  says,  I  really  think 
Reputation  should  take  some  care  of  the  gentleman  in  return. 
Now,  I  have  all  your  scenery  deeply  imprinted  in  my  memory, 
and  moreover,  be  it  known  to  you,  I  intend  to  refresh  its  traces 
this  ensuing  summer,  and  to  go  as  far  as  the  borders  of  Lan 
cashire,  and  the  caves  of  Yorkshire,  and  so  perhaps  on  to  Der 
byshire.  I  have  sketched  a  story  which  pleases  me,  and  I  am 
only  anxious  to  keep  my  theme  quiet,  for  its  being  piddled 
upon  by  some  of  your  Ready-to-catch  literati,  as  John  Bunyan 
calls  them,  would  be  a  serious  misfortune  to  me.  I  am  not 
without  hope  of  seducing  you  to  be  my  guide  a  little  way  on 
my  tour.  Is  there  not  some  book  (sense  or  nonsense,  I  care 
not)  on  the  beauties  of  Teesdale  —  I  mean  a  descriptive 
work  ?  If  you  can  point  it  out  or  lend  it  me,  you  will  do  me 
a  great  favour,  and  no  less  if  you  can  tell  me  any  traditions 
of  the  period.  By  which  party  was  Barnard  Castle  occupied  ? 
It  strikes  me  that  it  should  be  held  for  the  Parliament.  Pray, 
help  me  in  this,  by  truth,  or  fiction,  or  tradition,  —  I  care  not 
which,  if  it  be  picturesque.  What  the  deuce  is  the  name  of 
that  wild  glen,  where  we  had  such  a  clamber  on  horseback  up 
a  stone  staircase  ?  —  Cat's  Cradle,  or  Cat's  Castle,  I  think  it 
was.  I  wish  also  to  have  the  true  edition  of  the  traditionary 
tragedy  of  your  old  house  at  Mortham,  and  the  ghost  there 
unto  appertaining,  and  you  will  do  me  yeoman's  service  in 
Compiling  the  relics  of  so  valuable  a  legend.  Item  —  Do  you 
Snow  anything  of  a  striking  ancient  castle  belonging,  I  think, 


188  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

fco  the  Duke  of  Leeds,  called  Coningsburgh  ?  *  Grose  notices 
it,  but  in  a  very  flimsy  manner.  I  once  flew  past  it  on  the 
mail-coach,  when  its  round  tower  and  flying  buttresses  had  a 
most  romantic  effect  in  the  morning  dawn. 

"  The  Quarterly  is  beyond  my  praise,  and  as  much  beyond 
me  as  I  was  beyond  that  of  my  poor  old  nurse  who  died  the 
other  day.  Sir  John  Sinclair  has  gotten  the  golden  fleece  at 
last.  Dogberry  would  not  desire  a  richer  reward  for  having 
been  written  down  an  ass.  £6000  a-year!f  Good  faith,  the 
whole  reviews  in  Britain  should  rail  at  me,  with  my  free  con- 
Bent,  better  cheap  by  at  least  a  cypher.  There  is  no  chance, 
with  all  my  engagements,  to  be  at  London  this  spring.  My 
little  boy  Walter  is  ill  with  the  measles,  and  I  expect  the  rest 
to  catch  the  disorder,  which  appears,  thank  God,  very  mild. 
Mrs.  Scott  joins  in  kindest  compliments  to  Mrs.  Morritt, — 
many  merry  Christmases  to  you  —  and  believe  me,  truly, 
yours  WALTER  SCOTT." 

I  insert  Mr.  Morritt's  answer,  both  for  the  light  which 
it  throws  on  various  particular  passages  in  the  poem  as 
we  have  it,  and  because  it  shows  that  some  of  those  feat 
ures  in  the  general  plan,  which  were  censured  by  the  pro 
fessional  critics,  had  been  early  and  strongly  recommended 
to  the  poet's  consideration  by  the  person  whom,  on  this 
eceasion,  he  was  most  anxious  to  please. 

«  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq. 

"  Rokeby,  28th  December  1811. 

"  My  Dear  Scott,  —  I  begin  at  the  top  of  my  paper,  because 
four  request  must  be  complied  with,  and  I  foresee  that  a  letter 

*  See  note,  Ivanhoe,  ch.  42. 

t  Shortly  after  the  appearance  of  the  article  alluded  to,  Sir  John 
Sinclair  was  appointed  cashier  of  Excise  for  Scotland.  "  It  should  be 
added,"  says  his  biographer,  "  that  the  emoluments  of  the  situation 
were  greatly  reduced  at  the  death  of  Sir  James  Grant,  his  predeces' 


LETTER    FROM    MR.    MORRITT  —  1811.  189 

on  the  antiquities  of  Teesdale  will  not  be  a  short  one.  Your 
project  delights  me  much,  and  I  willingly  contribute  my  mite 
to  its  completion.  Yet,  highly  as  I  approve  of  the  scene  where 
you  lay  the  events  of  your  romance,  I  have,  I  think,  some  ob 
servations  to  make  as  to  the  period  you  have  chosen  for  it.  Of 
this,  however,  you  will  be  a  better  judge  after  I  have  detailed 
my  antiquarian  researches.  —  Now,  as  to  Barnard  Castle,  it 
was  built  in  Henry  I.'s  tune,  by  Barnard,  son  of  Guy  Baliol, 
who  landed  with  the  Conqueror.  It  remained  with  the  Baliola 
till  their  attainder  by  Edward  I.  The  tomb  of  Alan  of  Gallo 
way  was  here  in  Leland's  time;  and  he  gives  the  inscription. 
Alan,  if  you  remember,  married  Margaret  of  Huntingdon, 
David's  daughter,  and  was  father,  by  her,  of  Devorgild,  who 
married  John  Baliol,  and  from  whom  her  son,  John  Baliol, 
claimed  the  crown  of  Scotland.  Edward  I.  granted  the  castle 
and  liberties  to  Beauchamp,  Earl  of  Warwick ;  it  descended 
(with  that  title)  to  the  Nevills,  and  by  Ann  Nevill  to  Richard 
Duke  of  Gloucester,  afterwards  King  Richard  HI.  It  does  not 
appear  to  whom  Henry  VII.  or  his  son  re-granted  it,  but  it  fell 
soon  into  the  hands  of  the  Nevills,  Earls  of  Westmoreland,  by 
whom  it  was  forfeited  in  the  Rising  of  the  North.  It  was 
granted  by  James  I.  to  the  citizens  of  London,  from  whom  Sir 
Henry  Vane  received  it  by  purchase.  It  does  not  seem  ever 
to  have  been  used  as  a  place  of  strength  after  the  Rising  of  the 
North  ;  and  when  the  Vanes  bought  it  of  the  citizens,  it  was 
probably  in  a  dismantled  state.  It  was,  however,  a  possession 
of  the  Vanes  before  the  Civil  Wars,  and,  therefore,  with  a  safe 
conscience  you  may  swear  it  stood  for  the  Parliament.  The 
lady  for  whose  ghost  you  inquire  at  Rokeby,  has  been  so 
buried  in  uncertainty,  you  may  make  what  you  like  of  her. 
The  most  interesting  fiction  makes  her  the  heiress  of  the  Roke- 
bys,  murdered  in  the  woods  of  the  Greta  by  a  greedy  collateral 
who  inherited  the  estate.  She  reached  the  house  before  she 
expired,  and  her  blood  was  extant  in  my  younger  days  at 
Mortham  tower.  Others  say  it  was  a  Lady  Rokeby,  the  wife 
pf  the  owner,  who  was  shot  in  the  walks  by  robbers ;  but  she 
certainly  became  a  ghost,  and,  under  the  very  poetic  nom  fa 


190  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

guerre  01  Mortham  Dobby,  she  appeared  dressed  as  a  fine  lady, 
with  a  piece  of  white  silk  trailing  behind  her  —  without  a  head, 
indeed  (though  no  tradition  states  how  she  lost  so  material  a 
member),  but  with  many  of  its  advantages,  for  she  had  long 
hair  011  her  shoulders  —  and  eyes,  nose,  and  mouth,  in  her 
breast.  The  parson  once,  by  talking  Latin  to  her,  confined 
her  under  the  bridge  that  crosses  the  Greta  at  my  dairy,  but 
the  arch  being  destroyed  by  floods  in  1771,  became  incapable 
of  containing  a  ghost  any  longer,  and  she  was  seen  after  tha  • 
time  by  some  of  the  older  parishioners.  I  often  heard  of  her 
in  my  early  youth,  from  a  sibyl  who  lived  in  the  park  to  the 
age  of  105,  but  since  her  death  I  believe  the  history  has  be 
come  obsolete. 

"  The  Rokebys  were  at  all  times  loyal,  at  least  from  Henry 
IV.  downward.  They  lived  early  at  Mortham  tower,  which 
was,  I  believe,  a  better  building  than  the  tower  of  Rokeby,  for 
here  also  was  one  where  my  house  now  stands.  I  fancy  they 
got  Mortham  by  marriage.*  Colonel  Rokeby,  the  last  posses 
sor  of  the  old  blood,  was  ruined  in  the  Civil  Wars  by  his  loyalty 
and  unthriftiness,  and  the  estates  were  bought  by  the  Robin 
sons,  one  of  whom,  the  long  Sir  Thomas  Robinson,  so  well- 
known  and  well-quizzed  in  the  time  of  our  grandfathers,  after 
laying  out  most  of  the  estate  on  this  place,  sold  the  place  and 
the  estate  together  to  my  father  in  1769.  Oliver  Cromwell 
paid  a  visit  to  Barnard  Castle  in  his  way  from  Scotland,  Octo 
ber  1648.  He  does  not  seem  to  have  been  in  the  castle,  but 
lodged  in  the  town,  whence  I  conclude  the  castle  was  then  un 
inhabitable.  Now  I  would  submit  to  you,  whether,  considering 
the  course  of  events,  it  would  not  be  expedient  to  lay  the  time 
of  your  romance  as  early  as  the  war  of  the  Roses.  For,  1-st, 
As  you  seem  to  hint  that  there  will  be  a  ghost  or  two  in  it,  like 
the  King  of  Bohemia's  giants,  they  will  be  '  more  out  of  the 

*  The  heiress  of  Mortham  married  Rokeby  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
II. ;  and  his  own  castle  at  Rokeby  having  been  destroyed  by  the  Scoter 
after  the  battle  of  Bannockburn,  he  built  one  on  his  wife's  estate  —  the 
game  of  which  considerable  remains  still  exist  —  on  the  northern  bank 
of  the  Greta. 


LETTER    FROM    MR.    MORRITT 1811.  191 

way.'  2d,  Barnard  Castle,  at  the  time  I  propose,  belonged  to 
Nevills  and  Plantagenets,  of  whom  something  advantageous 
(according  to  your  cavalier  views)  may  be  brought  forward ; 
whereas,  a  short  time  before  the  Civil  Wars  of  the  Parliament, 
the  Vanes  became  possessors,  and  still  remain  so ;  of  whom,  if 
any  Tory  bard  should  be  able  to  say  anything  obliging,  it  will 
certainly  be  *  insigne,  recens,  adhuc  indicium  ore  alio,'  and  d 
honour  to  his  powers  of  imagination.  3d,  The  knights  of 
Rokeby  itself  were  of  high  rank  and  fair  domain  at  the  earlier 
period,  and  were  ruining  themselves  ignobly  at  the  other.  4tht 
Civil  war  for  civil  war :  the  first  had  two  poetical  sides,  and 
the  last  only  one ;  for  the  roundheads,  though  I  always  thought 
them  politically  right,  were  sad  materials  for  poetry;  even 
Milton  cannot  make  much  of  them.  I  think  no  time  suits  so 
well  with  a  romance,  of  which  the  scene  lies  in  this  country, 
as  the  Wars  of  the  two  Roses  —  unless  you  sing  the  Rising  of 
the  North  ;  and  then  you  will  abuse  Queen  Elizabeth,  and  be 
censured  as  an  abettor  of  Popery.  How  you  would  be  in 
volved  in  political  controversy  —  with  all  our  Whigs,  who  are 
anti- Stuarts ;  and  all  our  Tories,  who  are  anti-Papistical !  I 
therefore  see  no  alternative  but  boldly  to  venture  back  to  the 
days  of  the  holy  King  Harry ;  for,  God  knows,  it  is  difficult  to 
say  anything  civil  of  us  since  that  period.  Consider  only,  did 
not  Cromwell  himself  pray  that  the  Lord  would  deliver  him 
from  Sir  Harry  Vane  ?  and  what  will  you  do  with  him  ?  — 
still  more,  if  you  take  into  the  account  the  improvements  in 
and  about  the  castle  to  which  yourself  was  witness  when  we 
visited  it  together  ?  * 

"  There  is  a  book  of  a  few  pages,  describing  the  rides 
through  and  about  Teesdale  ;  I  have  it  not,  but  if  I  can  get  it 
I  will  send  it.  It  is  very  bare  of  information,  but  gives  names. 
If  you  can  get  the  third  volume  of  Hutchinson's  History  of 
Durham,  it  would  give  you  some  useful  bits  of  information, 

*  Mr.  Morritt  alludes  to  the  mutilation  of  a  curious  vaulted  roof  of 
Extreme  antiquity,  in  the  great  tower  of  Barnard  Castle,  occasioned  by 
its  conversion  into  a  manufactory  of  patent  shot;  —  an  improvement  at 
the  Poet  had  expressed  some  indignation. 


192  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

though  very  ill  written.  The  glen  where  we  clambered  up  to 
Cat-castle  is  itself  called  Deepdale.  I  fear  we  have  few  tra 
ditions  that  have  survived  the  change  of  farms,  arid  property 
of  all  sorts,  which  has  long  taken  place  in  this  neighbourhood. 
But  we  have  some  poetical  names  remaining,  of  which  we  none 
of  us  know  the  antiquity,  or  at  least  the  origin.  Thus,  in  the 
scamper  we  took  from  Deepdale  and  Cat-castle,  we  rode  next, 
if  you  remember,  to  Cotherstone,  an  ancient  village  of  the  Fitz- 
hughs  on  the  Tees,  whence  I  showed  you  a  rock  rising  over 
the  crown  of  the  wood,  still  called  Pendragon  Castle.  The 
river  that  joins  the  Tees  at  Cotherstone  is  yclept  the  Balder,  I 
fancy  in  honour  of  the  son  of  Odin ;  for  the  farm  contiguous 
to  it  retains  the  name  of  Woden's  Croft.  The  parish  in  which 
it  stands  is  Romaldkirk,  the  church  of  St.  Romald  the  hermit, 
and  was  once  a  hermitage  itself  in  Teesdale  forest.  The  parish 
next  to  Rokeby,  on  the  Tees  below  my  house,  is  Wycliff,  where 
the  old  reformer  was  born,  and  the  day-star  of  the  Reformation 
first  rose  on  England. 

"  The  family  of  Rokeby,  who  were  the  proprietors  of  this 
place,  were  valiant  and  knightly.  They  seem  to  have  had 
good  possessions  at  the  Conquest  (see  Doomsday  Book) ;  in 
Henry  IH.'s  reign  they  were  Sheriffs  of  Yorkshire.  In  Ed 
ward  II.'s  reign,  Froissart  informs  us,  that  when  the  Scotch 
army  decamped  in  the  night  so  ingeniously  from  Weardale 
that  nobody  knew  the  direction  of  their  march,  a  hue  and  cry 
was  raised  after  them,  and  a  reward  of  a  hundred  merka 
annual  value  in  land  was  offered  by  the  Crown  for  whoever 
could  discover  them,  and  that  de  Rokeby  —  I  think  Sir  Ralph 
—  was  the  fortunate  knight  who  ascertained  their  quarters 
on  the  moors  near  Hexham.  In  the  time  of  Henry  IV.,  the 
High- Sheriff  of  Yorkshire,  who  overthrew  Northumberland  and 
drove  him  to  Scotland  after  the  battle  of  Shrewsbury,  was  aisw 
a  Rokeby.  Tradition  says  that  this  sheriff  was  before  this  an 
adherent  of  the  Percys,  and  was  the  identical  knight  who  dis- 
Buaded  Hotspur  from  the  enterprise,  on  whose  letter  the  angry 
warrior  comments  so  freely  in  Shakspeare.  They  are  indeed, 
\  think,  mentioned  as  adherents  of  the  Percys  in  Chevy  Chase. 


LETTER   FROM    MR.    MORRITT 1811.  193 

and  fought  under  their  banner ;  I  hope,  therefore,  that  they 
broke  that  connexion  from  pure  patriotism,  and  not  for  filthy 
lucre. 

"  Such  are  all  the  annals  that  occur  to  me  at  present.  If 
you  will  come  here,  we  can  summon  a  synod  of  the  oldest 
women  in  the  country,  and  you  shall  cross-examine  them  aa 
much  as  you  please.  There  are  many  romantic  spots,  and  old 
names  rather  than  remains  of  peels,  and  towers,  once  called 
castles,  which  belonged  to  Scroops,  Fitzhughs,  and  Nevills, 
with  which  you  should  be  intimate  before  you  finish  your  poem, 
—  and  also  the  abbots  and  monks  of  Egglestone,  who  were  old 
and  venerable  people,  if  you  carry  your  story  back  into  Romish 
times ;  and  you  will  allow  that  the  beauty  of  the  situation  de 
serves  it,  if  you  recollect  the  view  from  and  near  the  bridge 
between  me  and  Barnard  Castle.  Coningsburgh  Castle,  a 
noble  building  as  you  say,  stands  between  Doncaster  and 
Rotherham.  I  think  it  belongs  to  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  but  am 
not  sure.  You  may  easily  find  the  account  of  it  in  Grose,  or 
any  of  the  other  antiquarians.  The  building  is  a  noble  cir 
cular  tower,  buttressed  all  round,  and  with  walls  of  immoder 
ate  thickness.  It  is  of  a  very  early  era,  but  I  do  not  know  its 
date. 

"  I  have  almost  filled  my  letter  with  antiquarianism ;  but 
will  not  conclude  without  repeating  how  much  your  intention 
has  charmed  us.  The  scenery  of  our  rivers  deserves  to  become 
classic  ground,  and  I  hope  the  scheme  will  induce  you  to  visit 
and  revisit  it  often.  I  will  contrive  to  ride  with  you  to  Wens- 
lydale  and  the  Caves  at  least,  and  the  border  of  Lancashire, 
&c.  if  I  can ;  and  to  facilitate  that  trip,  I  hope  you  will  bring 
Mrs.  Scott  here,  that  our  dames  may  not  be  impatient  of  our 
absence.  '  I  know  each  dale,  and  every  alley  green/  between 
Rokeby  and  the  Lakes  and  Caves,  and  have  no  scruple  in 
recommending  my  own  guidance,  under  which  you  will  be 
far  more  likely  to  make  discoveries  than  by  yourself;  for  the 
people  have  many  of  them  no  knowledge  of  their  own  country. 
Should  I,  in  consequence  of  your  celebrity,  be  obliged  to  leave 
Rokeby  from  the  influx  of  coc&ney  romancers,  artists,  illustra- 


194  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

tors,  and  sentimental  tourists,  I  shall  retreat  to  Ashestiel,  or  to 
your  new  cottage,  and  thus  visit  on  you  the  sins  of  your  writ 
ings.  At  all  events,  however,  I  shall  raise  the  rent  of  my  inn 
at  Greta-Bridge  on  the  first  notice  of  your  book,  as  I  hear  the 
people  at  Callander  have  made  a  fortune  by  you.  Pray  give 
our  kindest  and  best  regards  to  Mrs.  Scott,  and  believe  me 
ever,  Dear  Scott,  yours  very  truly,  J.  B.  S.  MORRITT." 

In  January  1812,  Scott  entered  upon  the  enjoyment 
of  his  proper  salary  as  a  Clerk  of  Session,  which,  with 
his  sheriffdom,  gave  him  from  this  time  till  very  near  the 
close  of  his  life,  a  professional  income  of  £1600  a-year. 
On  the  llth  of  the  same  month  he  lost  his  kind  friend 
and  first  patron,  Henry,  third  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  and 
fifth  of  Queensberry.  Both  these  events  are  mentioned 
in  the  following  letter  to  Joanna  Baillie,  who,  among 
other  things,  had  told  Scott  that  the  materials  for  his 
purse  were  now  on  her  table,  and  expressed  her  anxiety 
to  know  who  was  the  author  of  some  beautiful  lines  on 
the  recent  death  of  their  friend,  James  Grahame,  the 
poet  of  the  Sabbath.  These  verses  had,  it  appears, 
found  their  way  anonymously  into  the  newspapers. 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

"  January  17th,  1812. 

**  My  Dear  Friend,  —  The  promise  of  the  purse  has  flattered 
my  imagination  so  very  agreeably,  that  I  cannot  help  sending 
you  an  ancient  silver  mouth-piece,  to  which,  if  it  pleases  your 
taste,  you  may  adapt  your  intended  labours  :  this,  besides,  is  a 
genteel  way  of  tying  you  down  to  your  promise  ;  and  to  bribe 
you  still  farther,  I  assure  you  it  shall  not  be  put  to  the  pur 
pose  of  holding  bank-notes  or  vulgar  bullion,  but  reserved  as  9 
place  of  deposit  for  some  of  my  pretty  little  medals  and  nick- 
uackatories.  When  I  do  make  another  poetical  effort,  I  shall 
eertainly  expect  the  sum  you  mention  from  the  booksellera 


LETTER   TO    MISS    BAILLIE — JAN.    1812.  195 

for  they  have  had  too  good  bargains  of  me  hitherto,  and  I  fear 
I  shall  want  a  great  deal  of  money  to  make  my  cottage  exactly 
what  I  should  like  it.  Meanwhile,  between  ourselves,  my  income 
has  been  very  much  increased  since  I  wrote  to  you,  in  a  dif 
ferent  way.  My  predecessor  in  the  office  of  Clerk  of  Session 
retired  to  make  room  for  me,  on  the  amiable  condition  of  re 
taining  all  the  emoluments  during  his  life,  which,  from  my 
wish  to  retire  from  the  Bar  and  secure  a  certain  though  dis 
tant  income,  I  was  induced  to  consent  to ;  and  considering  his 
advanced  age  and  uncertain  health,  the  bargain  was  really 
not  a  bad  one.  But  alas !  like  Sinbad's  old  man  of  the  sea, 
my  coadjutor's  strength  increased  prodigiously  after  he  had 
fairly  settled  himself  on  my  shoulders,  so  that  after  five  years' 
gratuitous  labour  I  began  to  tire  of  my  burden.  Fortunately, 
Mr.  Bankes'  late  superannuation  act  provides  a  rateable  pen 
sion  for  office-holders  obliged  to  retire  after  long  and  faithful 
services ;  and  my  old  friend  very  handsomely  consented  to  be 
transferred  from  my  galled  shoulders  to  the  broad  back  of  the 
public,  although  he  is  likely  to  sustain  a  considerable  diminu 
tion  of  income  by  the  exchange,  to  which  he  has  declared  him 
self  willing  to  submit  as  a  penalty  for  having  lived  longer  than 
he  or  I  expected.  To  me  it  will  make  a  difference  of  £1300 
a-year,  no  trifle  to  us  who  have  no  wish  to  increase  our  expense 
in  a  single  particular,  and  who  could  support  it  on  our  former 
income  without  inconvenience.  This  I  tell  you  in  confidence, 
because  I  know  you  will  be  very  well  pleased  with  any  good 
fortune  which  comes  in  my  way.  —  Everybody  who  cares  a  far 
thing  for  poetry  is  delighted  with  your  volume,  and  well  they 
may.  You  will  neither  be  shocked  nor  surprised  at  hearing 
that  Mr.  Jeffrey  has  announced  himself  of  a  contrary  opinion. 
So,  at  least,  I  understand,  for  our  very  ideas  of  what  is  poetry 
diffsr  so  widely,  that  we  rarely  talk  upon  these  subjects. 
There  is  something  in  his  mode  of  reasoning  that  leads  me 
greatly  to  doubt  whether,  notwithstanding  the  vivacity  of  his 
imagination,  he  really  has  any  feeling  of  poetical  genius,  or 
whether  he  has  worn  it  all  off  by  perpetually  sharpening  his 
wit  on  the  grindstone  of  criticism. 


196  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  I  am  very  glad  that  you  met  my  dear  friend,  George 
Ellis,  —  a  wonderful  man,  who,  through  the  life  of  a  statesman 
and  politician,  conversing  with  princes,  wits,  fine  ladies,  and 
fine  gentlemen,  and  acquainted  with  all  the  intrigues  and  tra- 
casseries  of  the  cabinets  and  ruelles  of  foreign  courts,  has  yet 
retained  all  warm  and  kindly  feelings  which  render  a  man 
amiable  in  society,  and  the  darling  of  his  friends. 

"  The  author  of  the  elegy  upon  poor  Grahame,  is  John  Wil- 
gon,  a  young  man  of  very  considerable  poetical  powers.  He 
is  now  engaged  in  a  poem  called  the  Isle  of  Palms,  something 
in  the  style  of  Southey.  He  is  an  eccentric  genius,  and  has 
fixed  himself  upon  the  banks  of  Windermere,  but  occasion 
ally  resides  in  Edinburgh,  where  he  now  is.  Perhaps  you 
have  seen  him ;  —  his  father  was  a  wealthy  Paisley  manufac 
turer  —  his  mother  a  sister  of  Robert  Sym.  He  seems  an 
excellent,  warm-hearted,  and  enthusiastic  young  man ;  some 
thing  too  much,  perhaps,  of  the  latter  quality,  places  him 
among  the  list  of  originals. 

"  Our  streets  in  Edinburgh  are  become  as  insecure  as 
your  houses  in  Wapping.  Only  think  of  a  formal  association 
among  nearly  fifty  apprentices,  aged  from  twelve  to  twenty,  to 
scour  the  streets  and  knock  down  and  rob  all  whom  they  found 
in  their  way.  This  they  executed  on  the  last  night  of  the 
year  with  such  spirit,  that  two  men  have  died,  and  several 
others  are  dangerously  ill,  from  the  wanton  treatment  they 
received.  The  watchword  of  these  young  heroes  when  they 
met  with  resistance  was  —  Mar  him,  a  word  of  dire  import ; 
and  which,  as  they  were  all  armed  with  bludgeons  loaded  with 
lead,  and  were  very  savage,  they  certainly  used  in  the  sense  of 
RatclifFe  Highway.  The  worst  of  all  this  is  not  so  much  the 
immediate  evil,  which  a  severe  example  will  probably  check 
for  the  present,  as  that  the  formation  and  existence  of  such  au 
association,  holding  regular  meetings  and  keeping  regular  min 
utes,  argues  a  woful  negligence  in  the  masters  of  these  boys, 
the  tradesmen  and  citizens  of  Edinburgh,  of  that  wholesome 
domeBtic  discipline  which  they  ought,  in  justice  to  God  and  to 
man,  to  exercise  over  the  youth  intrusted  to  their  charge ;  a 


LETTER    TO    MISS    BAILLIE  —  1812.  197 

negligence  which  cannot  fail  to  be  productive  of  every  sort  of 
vice,  crime,  and  folly,  among  boys  of  that  age.* 

"  Yesterday  I  had  the  melancholy  task  of  attending  the  fu 
neral  of  the  good  old  Duke  of  Buccleuch.  It  was,  by  his  own 
direction,  very  private  ;  but  scarce  a  dry  eye  among  the  assist 
ants  —  a  rare  tribute  to  a  person  whose  high  rank  and  large 
possessions  removed  him  so  far  out  of  the  social  sphere  of  pri 
vate  friendship.  But  the  Duke's  mind  was  moulded  upon  the 
kindliest  and  most  single-hearted  model,  and  arrested  the 
affections  of  all  who  had  any  connexion  with  him.  He  is  truly 
a  great  loss  to  Scotland,  and  will  be  long  missed  and  lamented, 
though  the  successor  to  his  rank  is  heir  also  to  his  generous 
spirit  and  affections.  He  was  my  kind  friend.  Ever  yours, 

"W.  SCOTT." 

The  next  of  his  letters  to  Joanna  Baillie  is  curious,  as 
giving  his  first  impressions  on  reading  Childe  Harold. 
It  contains  also  a  striking  sketch  of  the  feelings  he 
throughout  life  expressed,  as  to  what  he  had  observed 
of  society  in  London  —  with  a  not  less  characteristic 
display  of  some  of  his  own  minor  amusements. 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 

"  Ashestiel,  April  4th,  1812. 

"I  ought  not,  even  in  modern  gratitude,  which  may  be 
moved  by  the  gift  of  a  purse,  much  less  in  minstrel  sympathy, 
which  values  it  more  as  your  work  than  if  it  were  stuffed  with 
guineas,  to  have  delayed  thanking  you,  my  kind  friend,  for 
such  an  elegant  and  acceptable  token  of  your  regard.  My 
kindest  and  best  thanks  also  attend  the  young  lady  who  would 
not  permit  the  purse  to  travel  untenanted.f  I  shall  be  truly 

*  Three  of  these  lads,  all  urder  eighteen  years  of  age,  were  execut 
ed  on  the  scene  of  one  of  the  murders  here  alluded  to,  April  the  22d, 
1812.  Their  youth  and  penitence  excited  the  deepest  compassion;  but 
never  certainly  was  a  severe  example  oaore  necessary. 

t  The  purse  contained  an  old  coin  ^rom  Joanna  Baillie' s  niece,  th« 
laughter  of  the  Doctor. 


193  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

glad  when  I  can  offer  them  in  person,  but  of  that  there  is  no 
speedy  prospect.  I  don't  believe  I  shall  see  London  this  great 
while  again,  which  I  do  not  very  much  regret,  were  it  not  that 
it  postpones  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  and  about  half-a-dozen 
other  friends.  Without  having  any  of  the  cant  of  loving  re 
tirement,  and  solitude,  and  rural  pleasures,  and  so  forth,  1 
really  have  no  great  pleasure  in  the  general  society  of  London ; 
I  have  never  been  there  long  enough  to  attempt  anything  like 
living  in  my  own  way,  and  the  immense  length  of  the  streets 
separates  the  objects  you  are  interested  in  so  widely  from  each 
other,  that  three  parts  of  your  time  are  past  in  endeavouring 
to  dispose  of  the  fourth  to  some  advantage.  At  Edinburgh, 
although  in  general  society  we  are  absolute  mimics  of  London, 
and  imitate  them  equally  in  late  hours,  and  in  the  strange  pre 
cipitation  with  which  we  hurry  from  one  place  to  another,  in 
search  of  the  society  which  we  never  sit  still  to  enjoy,  yet  still 
people  may  manage  their  own  parties  and  motions  their  own 
way.  But  all  this  is  limited  to  my  own  particular  circum 
stances,  —  for  in  a  city  like  London,  the  constant  resident  has 
beyond  all  other  places  the  power  of  conducting  himself  ex 
actly  as  he  likes.  Whether  this  is  entirely  to  be  wished  or 
not,  may  indeed  be  doubted.  I  have  seldom  felt  myself  so 
fastidious  about  books  as  in  the  midst  of  a  large  library,  where 
one  is  naturally  tempted  to  imitate  the  egregious  epicure  who 
condescended  to  take  only  one  bite  out  of  the  sunny  side  of 
a  peach.  I  suspect  something  of  scarcity  is  necessary  to  make 
you  devour  the  intellectual  banquet  with  a  good  relish  and  di 
gestion,  as  we  know  to  be  the  case  with  respect  to  corporeal 
sustenance.  But  to  quit  all  this  egotism,  which  is  as  little  as 
possible  to  the  purpose,  you  must  be  informed  that  Erskine 
has  enshrined  your  letter  among  his  household  papers  of  the 
snost  precious  kind.  Among  your  thousand  admirers  you 
have  not  a  warmer  or  more  kindly  heart;  he  tells  me  Jeffrey 
ta'ks  very  favourably  of  this  volume.  I  should  be  glad,  for  his 
own  sake,  that  he  took  some  opportunity  to  retrace  the  paths 
of  his  criticism ;  but  after  pledging  himself  so  deeply  as  he  has 
tone,  I  doubt  much  his  giving  way  even  unto  conviction  As 


CHILDE    HAROLD.  199 

to  my  own  share,  I  am  labouring  sure  enough,  but  I  have  not 
yet  got  on  the  right  path  where  I  can  satisfy  myself  I  shall  go 
on  with  courage,  for  diffidence  does  not  easily  beset  me  —  and 
the  public,  still  more  than  the  ladies,  *  stoop  to  the  forward 
and  the  bold ' ;  but  then  in  either  case,  I  fancy,  the  suitor  for 
favour  must  be  buoyed  up  by  some  sense  of  deserving  it, 
whether  real  or  supposed.  The  celebrated  apology  of  Dryden 
for  a  passage  which  he  could  not  defend,  '  that  he  knew  when 
he  wrote  it,  it  was  bad  enough  to  succeed,'  was,  with  all  defer 
ence  to  his  memory,  certainly  invented  to  justify  the  fact  after 
it  was  committed. 

"  Have  you  seen  the  Pilgrimage  of  Childe  Harold,  by  Lord 
Byron  ?  It  is,  I  think,  a  very  clever  poem,  but  gives  no  good 
symptom  of  the  writer's  heart  or  morals.  His  hero,  notwith 
standing  the  affected  antiquity  of  the  style  in  some  parts,  is  a 
modern  man  of  fashion  and  fortune,  worn  out  and  satiated 
with  the  pursuits  of  dissipation,  and  although  there  is  a  cau 
tion  against  it  in  the  preface,  you  cannot  for  your  soul  avoid 
concluding  that  the  author,  as  he  gives  an  account  of  his  own 
travels,  is  also  doing  so  in  his  own  character.  Now  really  this 
is  too  bad ;  vice  ought  to  be  a  little  more  modest,  and  it  must 
require  impudence  at  least  equal  to  the  noble  Lord's  other 
powers,  to  claim  sympathy  gravely  for  the  ennui  arising  from 
his  being  tired  of  his  wassailers  and  his  paramours.  There  is 
a  monstrous  deal  of  conceit  in  it  too,  for  it  is  informing  the 
inferior  part  of  the  world  that  their  little  old-fashioned  scruples 
of  limitation  are  not  worthy  of  his  regard,  while  his  fortune 
nd  possessions  are  such  as  have  put  all  sorts  of  gratifications 
too  much  in  his  power  to  afford  him  any  pleasure.  Yet  with 
all  this  conceit  and  assurance,  there  is  much  poetical  merit  in 
the  book,  and  I  wish  you  would  read  it. 

"  I  have  got  Rob  Roy's  gun,  a  long  Spanish-barrelled  piece, 
with  his  initials,  R.  M.  C.,  for  Robert  Macgregor  Campbell, 
which  latter  name  he  assumed  in  compliment  to  the  Argyle 
tamily  who  afforded  him  a  good  deal  of  private  support,  be 
cause  he  was  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  their  old  rival  house  of 
Montrose.  I  have,  moreover,  a  relic  of  a  more  heroic  charac- 


200  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ter ;  it  is  a  sword  which  was  given  to  the  great  Marquis  of 
Montrose  by  Charles  I.,  and  appears  to  have  belonged  to  hia 
father,  our  gentle  King  Jamie.  It  had  been  preserved  for  a 
long  time  at  Gartmore,  but  the  present  proprietor  was  selling 
his  library,  or  great  part  of  it,  and  John  Baliantyne,  the  pur 
chaser,  wishing  to  oblige  me,  would  not  conclude  a  bargain, 
which  the  gentleman's  necessity  made  him  anxious  about,  till 
he  flung  the  sword  into  the  scale ;  it  is,  independent  of  its 
other  merits,  a  most  beautiful  blade.  I  think  a  dialogue  be 
tween  this  same  sword  and  Rob  Roy's  gun  might  be  composed 
with  good  effect. 

"  We  are  here  in  a  most  extraordinary  pickle  —  considering 
that  we  have  just  entered  upon  April,  when,  according  to  the 
poet,  'primroses  paint  the  sweet  plain,'*  instead  of  which, 
both  hill  and  valley  are  doing  penance  in  a  sheet  of  snow  of 
very  respectable  depth.  Mail-coaches  have  been  stopt  —  shep 
herds,  I  grieve  to  say,  lost  in  the  snow ;  in  short,  we  experi 
ence  all  the  hardships  of  a  January  storm  at  this  late  period 
of  the  spring ;  the  snow  has  been  near  a  fortnight,  and  if  it 
departs  with  dry  weather,  we  may  do  well  enough,  but  if  wet 
weather  should  ensue,  the  wheat  crop  through  Scotland  will 
be  totally  lost. — My  thoughts  are  anxiously  turned  to  the 
Peninsula,  though  I  think  the  Spaniards  have  but  one  choice, 
and  that  is  to  choose  Lord  Wellington  dictator ;  I  have  no 
doubt  he  could  put  things  right  yet.  As  for  domestic  politics, 
I  really  give  them  very  little  consideration.  Your  friends,  the 
Whigs,  are  angry  enough,  I  suppose,  with  the  Prince  Regent, 
but  those  who  were  most  apt  to  flatter  his  follies,  have  little 
reason  to  complain  of  the  usage  they  have  met  with  —  and  he 
may  probaWy  think  that  those  who  were  true  to  the  father  in 
his  hour  of  calamity,  may  have  the  best  title  to  the  confidence 
of  the  son.  The  excellent  private  character  of  the  old  King 
gave  him  great  advantages  as  the  head  of  a  free  government. 
I  fear  the  Prince  will  long  experience  the  inconveniences  of  not 
having  attended  to  his  own.  —  Mrs.  Siddons,  as  fame  reports 
has  taken  another  engagement  at  Covent  Garden :  surely  she 

*  Allan  Ramsay's  song  of  "The  Yellow-hair' d  Laddie." 


EDINBURGH    REVIEW — CHILDE    HAROLD.         201 

b  wrong ;  she  should  have  no  twilight,  but  set  in  the  full  pos 
session  of  her  powers.* 

"  I  hope  Campbell's  plan  of  lectures  will  answer.f  I  think 
the  brogue  may  be  got  over,  if  he  will  not  trouble  himself  by 
attempting  to  correct  it,  but  read  with  fire  and  feeling ;  he  ia 
an  animated  reciter,  but  I  never  heard  him  read. 

"  I  have  a  great  mind,  before  sealing  this  long  scrawl,  to 
send  you  a  list  of  the  contents  of  the  purse  as  they  at  present 
stand :  — 

"  1st,  Miss  Elizabeth  Baillie's  purse-penny,  called  by  the 
learned  a  denarius  of  the  Empress  Faustina. 

"2d,  A  gold  brooch,  found  in  a  bog  in  Ireland,  which,  for 
aught  I  know,  fastened  the  mantle  of  an  Irish  Princess  in  the 
days  of  Cuthullin,  or  Neal  of  the  Nine  Hostages. 

"  3d,  A  toadstone  —  a  celebrated  amulet,  which  was  never 
lent  to  any  one  unless  upon  a  bond  for  a  thousand  merks  for 
its  being  safely  restored.  It  was  sovereign  for  protecting  new 
born  children  and  their  mothers  from  the  power  of  the  fairies, 
and  has  been  repeatedly  borrowed  from  my  mother,  on  account 
of  this  virtue. 

"4th,  A  coin  of  Edward  I,  found  in  Dryburgh  Abbey. 

"  5th,  A  funeral  ring,  with  Dean  Swift's  hair. 

"  So  you  see  my  nicknackatory  is  well  supplied,  though  the 
purse  is  more  valuable  than  all  its  contents. 

"  Adieu,  my  dear  friend.  Mrs.  Scott  joins  in  kind  respects 
to  your  sister,  the  Doctor,  and  Mrs.  Baillie. 

"  WALTER  SCOTT.** 

A  month  later,  the  Edinburgh  Review  on  Lord  By 
ron's  Romaunt  having  just  appeared,  Scott  says  to  Mr. 
Morritt  (May  12)  — "I  agree  very  much  in  what  you 

*  Mrs.  Siddons  made  her  farewell  appearance  at  Covent  Garden,  aa 
Lady  Macbeth,  on  the  29th  of  June  1812 ;  but  she  afterwards  resumed 
her  profession  for  short  intervals  more  than  once,  and  did  not  finally 
bid  adieu  to  the  stage  until  the  9th  of  June  1819. 

t  Mr.  Thomas  Campbell  had  announced  his  first  course  of  Lectures 
Vi  English  Poetry  about  this  time. 


202  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

say  of  Childe  Harold.  Though  there  is  something  pro 
voking  and  insulting  to  morality  and  to  feeling  in  hia 
misanthropical  ennui,  it  gives,  nevertheless,  an  odd  piq 
uancy  to  his  descriptions  and  reflections.  This  is  upon 
the  whole  a  piece  of  most  extraordinary  power,  and  may 
rank  its  author  with  our  first  poets.  I  see  the  Edinburgh 
Review  has  hauled  its  wind." 

Lord  Byron  was,  I  need  not  say,  the  prime  object  of 
interest  this  season  in  the  fashionable  world  of  London  ; 
nor  did  the  Prince  Regent  owe  the  subsequent  hostilities 
of  the  uoble  Poet  to  any  neglect  on  his  part  of  the  brill 
iant  genius  which  had  just  been  fully  revealed  in  the 
Childe  Harold.  Mr.  Murray,  the  publisher  of  the  Ro- 
maunt,  on  hearing,  on  the  29th  of  June,  Lord  Byron's 
account  of  his  introduction  to  his  Royal  Highness,  con 
ceived  that,  by  communicating  it  to  Scott,  he  might  afford 
the  opportunity  of  such  a  personal  explanation  between 
his  two  poetical  friends,  as  should  obliterate  on  both  sides 
whatever  painful  feelings  had  survived  the  offensive  allu 
sions  to  Marmion  in  the  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Re 
viewers  ;  and  this  good-natured  step  had  the  desired 
consequences.  Mr.  Moore  says  that  the  correspondence 
"  begun  in  some  inquiries  which  Mr.  Scott  addressed  to 
Lord  Byron  on  the  subject  of  his  interview  with  Roy 
alty;"*  but  he  would  not  have  used  that  expression, 
had  he  seen  the  following  letter:  — 

"  To  the  Right  Honourable  Lord  Byron,  frc.  fyc. 

Care  of  John  Murray,  Esq.,  Fleet  Street,  London. 

"  Edinburgh,  July  3d,  1812. 

"My  Lord,  —  I  am  uncertain  if  I  ought  to  profit  by  the 
tpology  which  is  afforded  me,  by  a  very  obliging  communic* 

*  Life  and  Works  of  Lord  Byron,  vol.  ii.  p.  155. 


LETTER    TO    LORD    BYRON JULY    1812.  203 

tion  from  our  acquaintance,  John  Murray  of  Fleet  Street,  to 
give  your  Lordship  the  present  trouble.  But  my  intrusion 
concerns  a  large  debt  of  gratitude  due  to  your  Lordship,  and 
a  much  less  important  one  of  explanation,  which  I  think  I  owe 
to  myself,  as  I  dislike  standing  low  in  the  opinion  of  any  per 
son  whose  talents  rank  so  highly  in  my  own,  as  your  Lordship's 
most  deservedly  do. 

"  The  first  count,  as  our  technical  language  expresses  it, 
relates  to  the  high  pleasure  I  have  received  from  the  Pilgrim 
age  of  Childe  Harold,  and  from  its  precursors ;  the  former, 
with  all  its  classical  associations,  some  of  which  are  lost  oil  so 
poor  a  scholar  as  I  am,  possesses  the  additional  charm  of  vivid 
and  animated  description,  mingled  with  original  sentiment ;  — 
but  besides  this  debt,  which  I  owe  your  Lordship  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  reading  public,  I  have  to  acknowledge  my 
particular  thanks  for  your  having  distinguished  by  praise,  in 
the  work  which  your  Lordship  rather  dedicated  in  general  to 
satire,  some  of  my  own  literary  attempts.  And  this  leads  me 
to  put  your  Lordship  right  in  the  circumstances  respecting  the 
sale  of  Marmion,  which  had  reached  you  in  a  distorted  and 
misrepresented  form,  and  which,  perhaps,  I  have  some  reason 
to  complain,  were  given  to  the  public  without  more  particular 
inquiry.  The  poem,  my  Lord,  was  not  written  upon  contract 
for  a  sum  of  money  —  though  it  is  too  true  that  it  was  sold  and 
published  in  a  very  unfinished  state  (which  I  have  since  re 
gretted),  to  enable  me  to  extricate  myself  from  some  engage 
ments  which  fell  suddenly  upon  me,  by  the  unexpected  mis 
fortunes  of  a  very  near  relation.  So  that,  to  quote  statute  and 
precedent,  I  really  come  under  the  case  cited  by  Juvenal, 
though  not  quite  in  the  extremity  of  the  classic  author  — 

Esurit,  intactam  Paridi  nisi  vendit  Agaven. 

And  so  much  for  a  mistake,  into  which  your  Lordship  might 
Easily  fall,  especially  as  I  generally  find  it  the  easiest  way  of 
stopping  sentimental  compliments  on  the  beauty,  &c.  of  certain 
poetry,  and  the  delights  which  the  author  must  have  taken  in 
lke  composition,  by  assigning  the  readiest  reason  that  will  cut 


204  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  discourse  short,  upon  a  subject  where  one  must  appear 
either  conceited,  or  aflectedly  rude  and  cynical. 

"As  for  my  attachment  to  literature,  I  sacrificed  for  the 
pleasure  of  pursuing  it  very  fair  chances  of  opulence  and  pro 
fessional  honours,  at  a  time  of  life  when  I  fully  knew  their 
value ;  and  I  am  not  ashamed  to  say,  that  in  deriving  advan 
tages  in  compensation  from  the  partial  favour  of  the  public,  1 
have  added  some  comforts  and  elegancies  to  a  bare  indepen 
dence.  I  am  sure  your  Lordship's  good  sense  will  easily  put 
this  unimportant  egotism  to  the  right  account,  for  —  though  I 
do  not  know  the  motive  would  make  me  enter  into  controversy 
with  a  fair  or  an  unfair  literary  critic  —  I  may  be  well  ex 
cused  for  a  wish  to  clear  my  personal  character  from  any  tinge 
of  mercenary  or  sordid  feeling  in  the  eyes  of  a  contemporary 
of  genius.  Your  Lordship  will  likewise  permit  me  to  add,  that 
you  would  have  escaped  the  trouble  of  this  explanation,  had  I 
not  understood  that  the  satire  alluded  to  had  been  suppressed, 
not  to  be  reprinted.  For  in  removing  a  prejudice  on  your 
Lordship's  own  mind,  I  had  no  intention  of  making  any  appeal 
by  or  through  you  to  the  public,  since  my  own  habits  of  life 
have  rendered  my  defence  as  to  avarice  or  rapacity  rather  too 
easy. 

"  Leaving  this  foolish  matter  where  it  lies,  I  have  to  request 
your  Lordship's  acceptance  of  my  best  thanks  for  the  flatter 
ing  communication  which  you  took  the  trouble  to  make  Mr. 
Murray  on  my  behalf,  and  which  could  not  fail  to  give  me  the 
gratification  which  I  am  sure  you  intended.  I  dare  say  our 
worthy  bibliopolist  overcoloured  his  report  of  your  Lordship's 
conversation  with  the  Prince  Regent,  but  I  owe  my  thanks  to 
him  nevertheless,  for  the  excuse  he  has  given  me  for  intruding 
these  pages  on  your  Lordship.  Wishing  you  health,  spirit, 
and  perseverance,  to  continue  your  pilgrimage  through  the 
interesting  countries  which  you  have  still  to  pass  with  Childe 
Harold,  I  have  the  honour  to  be,  my  Lord,  your  Lordship's 
obedient  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  P.  S.  —  Will  your  Lordship  permit  me  a  verbal  criticisn: 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  LORD  BYRON.     205 

on  Childe  Harold,  were  it  only  to  show  I  have  read  his  Pil 
grimage  with  attention  ?  *  Nuestra  Dama  de  la  Pena '  means, 
I  suspect,  not  our  Lady  of  Crime  or  Punishment,  but  our  Lady 
of  the  Cliff;  the  difference  is,  I  believe,  merely  in  the  accentuar 
tion  of  « pena.' " 

Lord  Byron's  answer  was  in  these  terms  :  — 

«  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  St.  James's  Street,  July  6, 1813. 

**  Sir,  —  I  have  just  been  honoured  with  your  letter.  —  I  feel 
sorry  that  you  should  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  notice  the 
evil  works  of  my  nonage,  as  the  thing  is  suppressed  voluntanly, 
and  your  explanation  is  too  kind  not  to  give  me  pain.  The 
Satire  was  written  when  I  was  very  young  and  very  angry, 
and  fully  bent  on  displaying  my  wrath  and  my  wit,  and  now  I 
am  haunted  by  the  ghosts  of  my  wholesale  assertions.  I  can 
not  sufficiently  thank  you  for  your  praise ;  and  now,  waiving 
myself,  let  me  talk  to  you  of  the  Prince  Regent.  He  ordered 
me  to  be  presented  to  him  at  a  ball :  and  after  some  sayings, 
peculiarly  pleasing  from  royal  lips,  as  to  my  own  attempts,  he 
talked  to  me  of  you  and  your  immortalities ;  he  preferred  you 
to  every  bard  past  and  present,  and  asked  which  of  your  works 
pleased  me  most.  It  was  a  difficult  question.  I  answered,  I 
thought  the  Lay.  He  said  his  own  opinion  was  nearly  similar. 
In  speaking  of  the  others,  I  told  him  that  I  thought  you  more 
particularly  the  poet  of  Princes,  as  they  never  appeared  more 
fascinating  than  in  Marmion  and  the  Lady  of  the  Lake.  He 
was  pleased  to  coincide,  and  to  dwell  on  the  description  of  your 
Jameses  as  no  less  royal  than  poetical.  He  spoke  alternately 
of  Homer  and  yourself,  and  seemed  well  acquainted  with  both ; 
so  that  (with  the  exception  of  the  Turks  *  and  your  humble 
servant)  you  were  in  very  good  company  I  defy  Murray  to 
have  exaggerated  his  Royal  Highness's  opinion  of  your  powers, 
aor  can  I  pretend  to  enumerate  all  ne  said  on  the  subject ;  but 

*  A  Turkish  ambassador  and  his  suite  figured  at  the  ball. 


206          LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

it  may  give  you  pleasure  to  hear  that  it  was  conveyed  in  l»*v 
guage  which  would  only  suffer  by  my  attempting  to  transcribe 
it ;  and  with  a  tone  and  taste  which  gave  me  a  very  high  idea 
of  his  abilities  and  accomplishments,  which  I  had  hitherto  con 
sidered  as  confined  to  manners,  certainly  superior  to  those  of 
any  living  gentleman. 

"  This  interview  was  accidental.  I  never  went  to  the  levee  j 
for  having  seen  the  courts  of  Mussulman  and  Catholic  sov 
ereigns,  my  curiosity  was  sufficiently  allayed :  and  my  politics 
being  as  perverse  as  my  rhymes,  I  had,  in  fact,  no  business 
there.  To  be  thus  praised  by  your  Sovereign  must  be  gratify 
ing  to  you ;  and  if  that  gratification  is  not  alloyed  by  the  com 
munication  being  made  through  me,  the  bearer  of  it  will  con 
sider  himself  very  fortunately,  and  sincerely,  your  obliged  and 
obedient  servant,  BYRON." 

"  P.  S.  —  Excuse  this  scrawl,  scratched  in  a  great  hurry, 
and  just  after  a  journey." 

Scott  immediately  replied  as  follows  :  — 

"  To  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Byron,  &c.  &c.  frc. 

"  Abbotsford  near  Melrose,  16th  July  1812. 

"My  Lord,  —  I  am  much  indebted  to  your  Lordship  for 
your  kind  and  friendly  letter :  and  much  gratified  by  the 
Prince  Regent's  good  opinion  of  my  literary  attempts.  I  know 
so  little  of  courts  or  princes,  that  any  success  I  may  have  had 
in  hitting  off  the  Stuarts  is,  I  am  afraid,  owing  to  a  little  old 
Jacobite  leaven  which  I  sucked  in  with  the  numerous  tradition 
ary  tales  that  amused  my  infancy.  It  is  a  fortunate  thing  for 
the  Prince  himself  that  he  has  a  literary  turn,  since  nothing 
can  so  effectually  relieve  the  ennui  of  state,  and  the  anxieties 
of  power. 

"  I  hope  your  Lordship  intends  to  give  us  more  of  Childe 
Harold.  I  was  delighted  that  my  friend  Jeffrey  —  for  such,  in 
despite  of  many  a  feud,  literary  and  political,  I  always  esteem 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  LORD  BYRON.     207 

him  —  has  made  so  handsomely  the  amende  honorable  for  not 
having  discovered  in  the  bud  the  merits  of  the  flower ;  and  I 
am  happy  to  understand  that  the  retractation  so  handsomely 
made  was  received  with  equal  liberality.  These  circumstances 
may  perhaps  some  day  lead  you  to  revisit  Scotland,  which  haa 
a  maternal  claim  upon  you,  and  I  need  not  say  what  pleasure 
I  should  have  in  returning  my  personal  thanks  for  the  honour 
you  have  done  me.  I  am  labouring  here  to  contradict  an  old 
proverb,  and  make  a  silk  purse  out  of  a  sow's  ear,  namely,  to 
convert  a  bare  haugh  and  brae,  of  about  100  acres,  into  a  com 
fortable  farm.  Now,  although  I  am  living  in  a  gardener's  hut, 
and  although  the  adjacent  ruins  of  Melrose  have  little  to  tempt 
one  who  has  seen  those  of  Athens,  yet,  should  you  take  a  tour 
•which  is  so  fashionable  at  this  season,  I  should  be  very  happy 
to  have  an  opportunity  of  introducing  you  to  anything  remark 
able  in  my  fatherland.  My  neighbour,  Lord  Somerville,  would, 
I  am  sure,  readily  supply  the  accommodations  which  I  want, 
unless  you  prefer  a  couch  in  a  closet,  which  is  the  utmost  hos 
pitality  I  have  at  present  to  oifer.  The  fair,  or  shall  I  say  the 
sage,  Apreece  that  was,  Lady  Davy  that  is,  is  soon  to  show  us 
how  much  science  she  leads  captive  in  Sir  Humphrey  ;  so  your 
Lordship  sees,  as  the  citizen's  wife  says  in  the  farce  — '  Thread- 
needle  Street  has  some  charms,'  since  they  procure  us  such  cel 
ebrated  visitants.  As  for  me,  I  would  rather  cross-question 
your  Lordship  about  the  outside  of  Parnassus,  than  learn  the 
nature  of  the  contents  of  all  the  other  mountains  in  the  world, 
^ray,  when  under  '  its  cloudy  canopy '  did  you  hear  anything 
^f  the  celebrated  Pegasus  ?  Some  say  he  has  been  brought 
off  with  other  curiosities  to  Britain,  and  now  covers  at  Tatter- 
gal's.  I  would  fain  have  a  cross  from  him  out  of  my  little  moss 
trooper's  Galloway,  and  I  think  your  Lordship  can  tell  me  how 
to  set  about  it,  as  I  recognise  his  true  paces  in  the  high-mettled 
description  of  Ali  Pacha's  military  court. 

"  A  wise  man  said  —  or,  if  not,  I,  who  am  no  wise  man,  now 
pay  —  that  there  ii  no  surer  mark  of  regard  than  when  your 
correspondent  ventures  to  write  nonsense  to  you.  Having, 
therefore,  like  Dogberry,  bestowed  all  my  tediousness  upon 

VOL.  m.  14 


/0&  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

your  Lordship,  you  are  to  conclude  that  I  have  given  you  a 
convincing  proof  that  I  am  very  much  your  Lordship's  obliged 
and  very  faithful  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

From  this  time  the  epistolary  intercourse  between 
Scott  and  Byron  continued  to  be  kept  up  ;  and  it  erelong 
assumed  a  tone  of  friendly  confidence  equally  honourable 
to  both  these  great  competitors,  without  rivalry,  for  the 
favour  of  the  literary  world. 

The  date  of  the  letter  last  quoted  immediately  pre 
ceded  that  of  Scott's  second  meeting  with  another  of  the 
most  illustrious  of  his  contemporaries.  He  had  met 
Davy  at  Mr.  Wordsworth's  when  in  the  first  flush  of 
his  celebrity  in  1804,  and  been,  as  one  of  his  letters 
states,  much  delighted  with  "  the  simple  and  unaffected 
style  of  his  bearing  —  the  most  agreeable  characteristic 
of  high  genius."  Sir  Humphrey,  now  at  the  summit  of 
his  fame,  had  come,  by  his  marriage  with  Scott's  accom 
plished  relation,  into  possession  of  an  ample  fortune  ;  and 
he  and  his  bride  were  among  the  first  of  the  poet's  vis 
itants  in  the  original  cabin  at  Abbotsford. 

The  following  letter  is  an  answer  to  one  in  which  Mr. 
Southey  had  besought  Scott's  good  offices  in  behalf  of  an 
application  which  he  thought  of  making  to  be  appointed 
Historiographer- Royal,  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Dutens,  just 
dead.  It  will  be  seen  that  both  poets  regarded  with 
much  alarm  the  symptoms  of  popular  discontent  which 
appeared  in  various  districts,  particularly  among  the 
Luddites,  as  they  were  called,  of  Yorkshire,  during  the 
uncertain  condition  of  public  affairs  consequent  on  the 
assassination  of  the  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Percival,  by 
Bellinghain,  in  the  lobby  of  the  House  of  Commons,  on 
me  llth  of  May  1812  ;  and  that  Scott  had,  in  his  capac 
ity  of  Sheriff,  had  his  own  share  in  suppressing  the  tu 


LETTER    TO    MR.    SOUTHEY JUNE    1812.  209 

mults  of  the  only  manufacturing  town  of  Selkirkshire. 
The  last  sentence  of  the  letter  alludes  to  a  hint  dropped 
in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  that  the  author  of  the  histori 
cal  department  of  the  Edinburgh  Annual  Register  ought 
to  be  called  to  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  con 
sequence  of  the  bold  language  in  which  he  had  criticized 
the  parliamentary  hostility  of  the  Whigs  to  the  cause  of 
Spain. 

"  To  Robert  Souihey,  Esq.,  Keswick. 

"  Edinburgh,  4th  June  1812. 

"  My  Dear  Southey,  —  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that 
the  instant  I  had  your  letter  I  wrote  to  the  only  friend  I  have 
in  power,  Lord  Melville  (if  indeed  he  be  now  in  power),  beg 
ging  him  for  the  sake  of  his  own  character,  for  the  remem 
brance  of  his  father  who  wished  you  sincerely  well,  and  by 
every  other  objuration  I  could  think  of,  to  back  your  applica 
tion.  All  I  fear,  if  Administration  remain,  is  the  influence  of 
the  clergy,  who  have  a  strange  disposition  to  job  away  among 
themselves  the  rewards  of  literature.  But  I  fear  they  are  all 
to  pieces  above  stairs,  and  much  owing  to  rashness  and  mis 
management  ;  for  if  they  could  not  go  on  without  Canning  and 
Wellesley,  they  certainly  should  from  the  beginning  have  in 
vited  them  in  as  companions,  and  not  mere  retainers.  On  the 
whole>  that  cursed  compound  of  madness  and  villany  has  con 
trived  to  do  his  country  more  mischief  at  one  blow  than  all  her 
sages  and  statesmen  will  be  able  to  repair  perhaps  in  our  day 
You  are  quite  right  in  apprehending  a  Jacquerie ;  the  country 
is  mined  below  our  feet.  Last  week,  learning  that  a  meeting 
was  to  be  held  among  the  weavers  of  the  large  manufacturing 
village  of  Galashiels,  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  a  man's  web 
from  his  loom,  I  apprehended  the  ringleaders  and  disconcerted 
the  whole  project ;  but  in  the  course  of  my  inquiries,  imagine 
my  surprise  at  discovering  a  bundle  of  letters  and  printed  man 
ifestoes,  from  which  it  appeared  that  the  Manchester  Weavers' 
Committee  corresponds  with  every  manufacturing  town  in  the 


210  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

South  and  West  of  Scotland,  and  levies  a  subsidy  of  2s.  6d. 
per  man  —  (an  immense  sum)  —  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of 
petitioning  Parliament  for  redress  of  grievances,  but  doubtless 
to  sustain  them  in  their  revolutionary  movements.  An  ener 
getic  administration,  which  had  the  confidence  of  the  country, 
•would  soon  check  all  this ;  but  it  is  our  misfortune  to  lose  the 
pilot  when  the  ship  is  on  the  breakers.  But  it  is  sickening  to 
think  of  our  situation. 

"  I  can  hardly  think  there  could  have  been  any  serious 
intention  of  taking  the  hint  of  the  Review,  and  yet  liberty 
has  so  often  been  made  the  pretext  of  crushing  its  own  best 
supporters,  that  I  am  always  prepared  to  expect  the  most  ty 
rannical  proceedings  from  professed  demagogues. 

"  I  am  uncertain  whether  the  Chamberlain  will  be  liable  to 
removal  —  if  not,  I  should  hope  you  may  be  pretty  sure  of 
your  object.  Believe  me  ever  yours  faithfully, 

"WALTER  SCOTT. 

"  4:th  June.  —  What  a  different  birthday  from  those  I  have 
Been !  It  is  likely  I  shall  go  to  Rokeby  for  a  few  days  this 
summer ;  and  if  so,  I  will  certainly  diverge  to  spend  a  day  at 
Keswick." 

Mr.  Southey's  application  was  unsuccessful  — the  office 
he  wished  for  having  been  bestowed,  as  soon  as  it  fell 
vacant,  on  a  person  certainly  of  vastly  inferior  literary 
pretensions  —  the  late  Rev.  J.  S.  Clarke,  D.  D.,  private 
'ibrarian  to  the  Regent. 


"FLITTING"  TO  ABBOTSFORD.  211 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  "Flitting"  to  Abbotsford — Plantations  —  George  Thom 
son —  Rokeby  and  Triermain  in  progress  —  Excursion  to 
Flodden — Bishop  Auckland,  and  Rokeby  Park  —  Corre 
spondence  with  Crabbe  —  Life  of  Patrick  Carey,  fyc.  —  Pub 
lication  of  Rokeby —  and  of  the  Bridal  of  Triermain. 

1812-1813. 

TOWARDS  the  end  of  May  1812,  the  Sheriff  finally 
removed  from  Ashestiel  to  Abbotsford.  The  day  when 
this  occurred  was  a  sad  one  for  many  a  poor  neighbour 
—  for  they  lost,  both  in  him  and  his  wife,  very  gen 
erous  protectors.  In  such  a  place,  among  the  few  evils 
which  counterbalance  so  many  good  things  in  the  condi 
tion  of  the  peasantry,  the  most  afflicting  is  the  want  of 
access  to  medical  advice.  As  far  as  their  means  and 
skill  would  go,  they  had  both  done  their  utmost  to  supply 
this  want ;  and  Mrs.  Scott,  in  particular,  had  made  it  so 
much  her  business  to  visit  the  sick  in  their  scattered  cot 
tages,  and  bestowed  on  them  the  contents  of  her  medi 
cine-chest  as  well  as  of  the  larder  and  cellar,  with  such 
unwearied  kindness,  that  her  name  is  never  mentioned 
there  to  this  day  without  some  expression  of  tenderness. 
Scott's  children  remember  the  parting  scene  as  one  of 
unmixed  affliction  —  but  it  had  had,  as  we  shall  see,  its 
nghter  features. 


212  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Among  the  many  amiable  English  friends  whom  he 
owed  to  his  frequent  visits  at  Rokeby  Park,  there  was,  I 
believe,  none  that  had  a  higher  place  in  his  regard  than 
the  late  Anne  Lady  Alvanley,  the  widow  of  the  cele 
brated  Chief  Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas.  He 
was  fond  of  female  society  in  general ;  but  her  ladyship 
was  a  woman  after  his  heart ;  well  born,  and  highly  bred, 
^ui  without  the  sligh]e~st  tinge  of  the  frivolities  of  modern 
fashion ;  soundly  informed,  and  a  warm  lover  of  litera 
ture  and  the  arts,  but  holding  in  as  great  horror  as  him 
self  the  imbecile  chatter  and  affected  ecstasies  of  the 
bluestocking  generation.  Her  ladyship  had  written  to 
him  early  in  May,  by  Miss  Sarah  Smith  (now  Mrs, 
Bartley),  whom  I  have  already  mentioned  as  one  of  his 
theatrical  favourites ;  and  his  answer  contains,  among 
other  matters,  a  sketch  of  the  "  Forest  Flitting." 

"  To  the  Right  Honourable  Lady  Alvanley. 

"  Ashestiel,  25th  May  1812. 

"I  was  honoured,  my  dear  Lady  Alvanley,  by  the  kind 
letter  which  you  sent  me  with  our  friend  Miss  Smith,  whose 
talents  are,  I  hope,  receiving  at  Edinburgh  the  full  meed  of 
honourable  applause  which  they  so  highly  merit.  It  is  very 
much  against  my  will  that  I  am  forced  to  speak  of  them  by 
report  alone,  for  this  being  the  term  of  removing,  I  am  under 
the  necessity  of  being  at  this  farm  to  superintend  the  transfer 
ence  of  my  goods  and  chattels,  a  most  miscellaneous  collection, 
to  a  small  property,  about  five  miles  down  the  Tweed,  which  I 
purchased  last  year.  The  neighbours  have  been  much  de 
lighted  with  the  procession  of  my  furniture,  in  which  old 
swords,  bows,  targets,  and  lances,  made  a  very  conspicuous  show. 
A  family  of  turkeys  was  accommodated  within  the  helmet  of 
gome  preux  chevalier  of  ancient  Border  fame ;  and  the  very 
sows,  for  aught  I  know,  were  bearing  banners  and  muskets.  1 


"FLITTING"  TO  ABBOTSFORD.  213 

assure  your  ladyship  that  this  caravan,  attended  by  a  dozen  of 
ragged  rosy  peasant  children,  carrying  fishing-rods  and  spears, 
and  leading  poneys,  greyhounds,  and  spaniels,  would,  as  it 
crossed  the  Tweed,  have  furnished  no  bad  subject  for  the  pen 
cil,  and  really  reminded  me  of  one  of  the  gypsey  groupes  of 
Callot  upon  their  march. 

"  Edinburgh,  28th  May. 

"  I  have  got  here  at  length,  and  had  the  pleasure  to  hear 
Miss  Smith  speak  the  Ode  on  the  Passions  charmingly  last 
night.  It  was  her  benefit,  and  the  house  was  tolerable,  though 
not  so  good  as  she  deserves,  being  a  very  good  girl,  as  well  as 
an  excellent  performer. 

"  I  have  read  Lord  Byron  with  great  pleasure,  though  pleas 
ure  is  not  quite  the  appropriate  word.  I  should  say  admira 
tion  —  mixed  with  regret,  that  the  author  should  have  adopted 
such  an  unamiable  misanthropical  tone.  —  The  reconciliation 
with  Holland-House  is  extremely  edifying,  and  may  teach 
young  authors  to  be  in  no  hurry  to  exercise  their  satirical  vein. 
I  remember  an  honest  old  Presbyterian,  who  thought  it  right 
to  speak  with  respect  even  of  the  devil  himself,  since  no  one 
knew  in  what  corner  he  might  one  day  want  a  friend.  But 
Lord  Byron  is  young,  and  certainly  has  great  genius,  and  has 
both  time  and  capacity  to  make  amends  for  his  errors.  I  won 
der  if  he  will  pardon  the  Edinburgh  reviewers,  who  have  read 
their  recantation  of  their  former  strictures. 

"  Mrs.  Scott  begs  to  offer  her  kindest  and  most  respectful 
compliments  to  your  ladyship  and  the  young  ladies.  I  hope 
we  shall  get  into  Yorkshire  this  season  to  see  Morritt :  he  and 
his  lady  are  really  delightful  persons.  Believe  me,  with  great 
respect,  dear  Lady  Alvanley,  your  much  honoured  and  obliged 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

A  week  later,  in  answer  to  a  letter,  mentioning  the 
approach  of  the  celebrated  sale  of  books  in  which  the 
Roxburghe  Club  originated,  Scott  says  to  his  trusty  ally 
Daniel  Terry :  — 


£14  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  Edinburgh,  9th  June  1812. 

"  My  Dear  Terry,  —  I  wish  you  joy  of  your  success,  which 
although  all  reports  state  it  as  most  highly  flattering,  does  not 
exceed  what  I  had  hoped  for  you.  I  think  I  shall  do  you  a 
sensible  pleasure  in  requesting  that  you  will  take  a  walk  over 
the  fields  to  Hampstead  one  of  these  fine  days,  and  deliver  the 
enclosed  to  my  friend  Miss  Baillie,  with  whom,  I  flatter  myself, 
you  will  be  much  pleased,  as  she  has  all  the  simplicity  of  real 
genius.  I  mentioned  to  her  some  time  ago,  that  I  wished  to 
make  you  acquainted,  so  that  the  sooner  you  can  call  upon 
her,  the  compliment  will  be  the  more  gracious.  As  I  suppose 
you  will  sometimes  look  in  at  the  Roxburghe  sale,  a  nemoran- 
dum  respecting  any  remarkable  articles  will  be  a  great  favour. 

"  Abbotsford  was  looking  charming,  when  I  was  obliged  to 
mount  my  wheel  in  this  court,  too  fortunate  that  I  have  at 
length  some  share  in  the  roast  meat  I  am  daily  engaged  in 
turning.  Our  flitting  and  removal  from  Ashestiel  baffled  all 
description  ;  we  had  twenty-four  cart-loads  of  the  veriest  trash 
^n  nature,  besides  dogs,  pigs,  poneys,  poultry,  cows,  calves, 
bare-headed  wenches,  and  bare-breeched  boys.  In  other  re- 
epects  we  are  going  on  in  the  old  way,  only  poor  Percy  is  dead. 
I  intend  to  have  an  old  stone  set  up  by  his  grave,  with  '  Cy 
gist  li  preux  Percie,'  and  I  hope  future  antiquaries  will  debate 
which  hero  of  the  house  of  Northumberland  has  left  his  bones 
m  Teviotdale.*  Believe  me  yours  very  truly, 

"WALTER  SCOTT." 

This  was  one  of  the  busiest  summers  of  Scott's  busy 
life.  Till  the  12th  of  July  he  was  at  his  post  in  the 
Court  of  Session  five  days  every  week ;  but  every  Sat 
urday  evening  found  him  at  Abbotsford,  to  observe  the 
progress  his  labourers  had  made  within  doors  and  with 
out  in  his  absence;  and  on  Monday  night  he  returned 
to  Edinburgh.  Even  before  the  Summer  Session  com 

*  The  epitaph  of  this  favourite  greyhound  may  be  seen  on  the  edg« 
if  the  bank,  a  little  way  below  the  house  of  Abbotsford. 


ROKEBY    BEGUN  —  MAY   1812.  215 

menced,  he  appears  to  have  made  some  advance  in  his 
Rokeby,  for  he  writes  to  Mr.  Morritt,  from  Abbotsford, 
on  the  4th  of  May  —  "  As  for  the  house  and  the  poem, 
there  are  twelve  masons  hammering  at  the  one,  and  one 
poor  noddle  at  the  other  —  so  they  are  both  in  progress  " ; 
—  and  his  literary  labours  throughout  the  long  vacatior 
were  continued  under  the  same  sort  of  disadvantage, 
That  autumn  he  had,  in  fact,  no  room  at  all  for  himself. 
The  only  parlour  which  had  been  hammered  into  any 
thing  like  habitable  condition,  served  at  once  for  dining- 
room,  drawing-room,  school-room,  and  study.  A  window 
looking  to  the  river  was  kept  sacred  to  his  desk ;  an  old 
bed-curtain  was  nailed  up  across  the  room  close  behind 
his  chair,  and  there,  whenever  the  spade,  the  dibble,  or 
the  chisel  (for  he  took  his  full  share  in  all  the  work  on 
hand)  was  laid  aside,  he  pursued  his  poetical  tasks,  ap 
parently  undisturbed  and  unannoyed  by  the  surrounding 
confusion  of  masons  and  carpenters,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
lady's  small  talk,  the  children's  babble  among  themselves, 
or  their  repetition  of  their  lessons.  The  truth  no  doubt 
was,  that  when  at  his  desk  he  did  little  more,  as  far  as 
regarded  poetry,  than  write  down  the  lines  which  he  had 
fashioned  in  his  mind  while  pursuing  his  vocation  i*s  a 
planter,  upon  that  bank  which  received  originally,  by 
way  of  joke,  the  title  of  the  thicket.  "  I  am  now,"  he 
says  to  Ellis  (Oct.  17),  "  adorning  a  patch  of  naked  land 
with  trees  facturis  nepotibus  umbram,  for  I  shall  never 
live  to  enjoy  their  shade  myself  otherwise  than  in  the  re 
cumbent  posture  of  Tityrus  and  Menalcas."  But  he  did 
live  to  see  the  thicket  deserve  not  only  that  name,  but  a 
nobler  one ;  and  to  fell  wUh  his  own  hand  many  a  well- 
grown  tree  that  he  had  planted  there. 

Another  plantation  of  the  same  date,  by  his  eastern 


216  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

boundary,  was  less  successful.  For  this  he  had  asked 
and  received  from  his  early  friend,  the  Marchioness  of 
Stafford,  a  supply  of  acorns  from  Trentham,  and  it  was 
named  in  consequence  Sutherland  bower;  but  the  field- 
mice,  in  the  course  of  the  ensuing  winter,  contrived  to 
root  up  and  devour  the  whole  of  her  ladyship's  goodly 
benefaction.  A  third  space  had  been  set  apart,  and  duly 
enclosed,  for  the  reception  of  some  Spanish  chestnuts- 
offered  to  him  by  an  admirer  established  in  merchandise 
at  Seville ;  but  that  gentleman  had  not  been  a  very  know 
ing  ally  as  to  such  matters,  for  when  the  chestnuts  ar 
rived,  it  turned  out  that  they  had  been  boiled. 

Scott  writes  thus  to  Terry,  in  September,  while  the 
Roxburghe  sale  was  still  going  on :  — 

"  I  have  lacked  your  assistance,  my  dear  sir,  for  twenty 
whimsicalities  this  autumn.  Abbotsford,  as  you  will  readily 
conceive,  has  considerably  changed  its  face  since  the  auspicea 
of  Mother  Retford  were  exchanged  for  ours.  We  have  got  up 
a  good  garden  wall,  complete  stables  in  the  haugh^  according 
to  Stark's  plan,  and  the  old  farm-yard  being  enclosed  with  a 
wall,  with  some  little  picturesque  additions  in  front,  has  much 
relieved  the  stupendous  height  of  the  Doctor's  barn.  The  new 
plantations  have  thriven  amazingly  well,  the  acorns  are  coming 
up  fast,  and  Tom  Purdie  is  the  happiest  and  most  consequen 
tial  person  in  the  world.  My  present  work  is  building  up  the 
well  with  some  debris  from  the  Abbey.  O  for  your  assistance, 
for  I  am  afraid  we  shall  make  but  a  botched  job  of  it,  espe 
cially  as  our  materials  are  of  a  very  miscellaneous  complexion. 
The  worst  of  all  is,  that  while  my  trees  grow  and  my  fountain 
fills,  my  purse,  in  an  inverse  ratio,  sinks  to  zero.  This  last  cir 
cumstance  will,  I  fear,  make  me  a  very  poor  guest  at  the  liter 
ary  entertainment  your  researches  hold  out  for  me.  I  should, 
however,  like  much  to  have  the  Treatise  on  Dreams,  by  the 
author  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  which,  as  John  CuthbertsoD  tht 


GEORGE    THOMSON.  217 

Hnith  said  of  the  minister's  sermon,  must  be  neat  work.  The 
Loyal  Poems,  by  N.  T.,*  are  probably  by  poor  Nahum  Tate, 
who  associated  with  Brady  in  versifying  the  Psalms,  and  more 
honourably  with  Dryden  in  the  second  part  of  Absalom  and 
Achitophel.  I  never  saw  them,  however,  but  would  give  a 
guinea  or  thirty  shillings  for  the  collection.  Our  friend  John 
Ballantyne  has,  I  learn,  made  a  sudden  sally  to  London,  and 
doubtless  you  will  crush  a  quart  with  him  or  a  pottle  pot ;  he 
will  satisfy  your  bookseller  for  '  The  Dreamer,'  or  any  other 
little  purchase  you  may  recommend  for  me.  You  have  pleased 
Miss  Baillie  very  much  both  in  public  and  in  society,  and 
though  not  fastidious,  she  is  not,  I  think,  particularly  lavish  of 
applause  either  way.  A  most  valuable  person  is  she,  and  as 
warm-hearted  as  she  is  brilliant.  —  Mrs.  Scott  and  all  our  little 
folks  are  well.  I  am  relieved  of  the  labour  of  hearing  Walter's 
lesson  by  a  gallant  son  of  the  church,  who  with  one  leg  of1 
wood,  and  another  of  oak,  walks  to  and  fro  from  Melrose  every 
day  for  that  purpose.  Pray  stick  to  the  dramatic  work,f  and 
never  suppose  either  that  you  can  be  intrusive,  or  that  I  can 
be  uninterested  in  whatever  concerns  you.  Yours, 

"  W.  S." 

The  tutor  alluded  to  at  the  close  of  this  letter  was  Mr. 
George  Thomson,  son  of  the  minister  of  Melrose,  who, 
when  the  house  afforded  better  accommodation,  was  and 
continued  for  many  years  to  be  domesticated  at  Abbots- 
ford.  Scott  had  always  a  particular  tenderness  towards 
persons  afflicted  with  any  bodily  misfortune ;  and  Thom 
son,  whose  leg  had  been  amputated  in  consequence  of  a 
rough  casualty  of  his  boyhood,  had  a  special  share  in  his 
favour  from  the  high  spirit  with  which  he  refused  at  the 

*  The  Reverend  Alexander  Dyce  says,  "  N".  T.  stands  for  Naihanie» 
Thomson,  the  Tory  bookseller,  who  published  these  Loyal  Poems." 
[1839.] 

t  An  edition  of  the  British  Dramatists  had,  I  believe,  been  projected 
by  Mr.  Terry. 


218  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SGOTT. 

time  to  betray  the  name  of  the  companion  that  had 
occasioned  his  mishap,  and  continued  ever  afterwards  to 
struggle  against  its  disadvantages.  Tall,  vigorous,  ath 
letic,  a  dauntless  horseman,  and  expert  at  the  singlestick 
George  formed  a  valuable  as  well  as  picturesque  addition 
to  the  tail  of  the  new  laird,  who  often  said,  "In  the 
Dominie,  like  myself,  accident  has  spoiled  a  capital  life- 
guardsman."  His  many  oddities  and  eccentricities  in  no 
degree  interfered  with  the  respect  due  to  his  amiable 
feelings,  upright  principles,  and  sound  learning ;  nor  did 
Dominie  Thamson  at  all  quarrel  in  after  times  with  the 
universal  credence  of  the  neighbourhood  that  he  had 
furnished  many  features  for  the  inimitable  personage 
whose  designation  so  nearly  resembled  his  own ;  and  if 
he  has  not  yet  "  wagged  his  head "  in  a  "  pulpit  o'  his 
ain,"  he  well  knows  it  has  not  been  so  for  want  of  earnest 
and  long-continued  intercession  on  the  part  of  the  author 
of  Guy  Mannering.* 

For  many  years  Scott  had  accustomed  himself  to  pro 
ceed  in  the  composition  of  poetry  along  with  that  of  prose 
essays  of  various  descriptions ;  but  it  is  a  remarkable  fact 
that  he  chose  this  period  of  perpetual  noise  and  bustle, 
when  he  had  not  even  a  summer-house  to  himself,  for  the 
new  experiment  of  carrying  on  two  poems  at  the  same 
time  —  and  this  too  without  suspending  the  heavy  labour 
of  his  edition  of  Swift,  to  say  nothing  of  the  various  lesser 
matters  in  which  the  Ballantynes  were,  from  day  to  day, 
calling  for  the  assistance  of  his  judgment  and  his  pen. 
In  the  same  letter  in  which  William  Erskine  acknowl 
edges  the  receipt  of  the  first  four  pages  of  Rokeby,  he 
adverts  also  to  the  Bridal  of  Triermain  as  being  already 

*  Mr.-  Thomson  died  8th  January  1838,  before  the  publication  of  the 
Srst  edition  of  these  Memoirs  had  been  completed.  —  [1839.] 


ROKEBY   AND    TRIERMAIN.  219 

in  ra^id  progress.  The  fragments  of  this  second  poem, 
inserted  in  the  Register  gf  the  preceding  year,  had  at 
tracted  considerable  notice  ;  the  secret  of  their  authorship 
had  been  well  kept;  and  by  some  means,  even  in  the 
dhrewdest  circles  of  Edinburgh,  the  belief  had  become 
prevalent  that  they  proceeded  not  from  Scott  but  from 
Erskine.  Scott  had  no  sooner  completed  his  bargain  as 
to  the  copyright  of  the  unwritten  Rokeby,  than  he  re 
solved  to  pause  from  time  to  time  in  its  composition,  and 
weave  those  fragments  into  a  shorter  and  lighter  romance, 
executed  in  a  different  metre,  and  to  be  published  anony 
mously,  in  a  small  pocket  volume,  as  nearly  as  possible 
on  the  same  day  with  the  avowed  quarto.  He  expected 
great  amusement  from  the  comparisons  which  the  critics 
would  no  doubt  indulge  themselves  in  drawing  between 
himself  and  this  humble  candidate ;  and  Erskine  good- 
humouredly  entered  into  the  scheme,  undertaking  to  do 
nothing  which  should  effectually  suppress  the  notion  of 
his  having  set  himself  up  as  a  modest  rival  to  his  friend. 
Nay,  he  suggested  a  further  refinement,  which  in  the 
sequel  had  no  small  share  in  the  success  of  this  little  plot 
upon  the  sagacity  of  the  reviewers.  Having  said  that  he 
much  admired  the  opening  of  the  first  canto  of  Rokeby, 
Erskine  adds,  "  I  shall  request  your  accoucheur  to  send 
me  your  little  Dugald  too  as  he  gradually  makes  his  prog 
ress.  What  I  have  seen  is  delightful.  You  are  aware 
how  difficult  it  is  to  form  any  opinion  of  a  work,  the 
general  plan  of  which  is  unknown,  transmitted  merely  in 
legs  and  wings  as  they  are  formed  and  feathered.  Any 
remarks  must  be  of  the  most  minute  and  superficial  kind, 
confined  chiefly  to  the  language,  and  other  such  subordi 
nate  matters.  I  shall  be  very  much  amused  if  the  secret 
is  kept  and  the  knowing  ones  taken  in.  To  prevent  any 


220  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

discovery  from  your  prose,  what  think  you  of  putting 
down  your  ideas  of  what  the  preface  ought  to  contain, 
and  allowing  me  to  write  it  over  ?  And  perhaps  a  quiz 
zing  review  might  be  concocted." 

This  last  hint  was  welcome ;  and  among  other  parts 
of  the  preface  to  Triermain  which  threw  out  "  the  know 
ing  ones,"  certain  Greek  quotations  interspersed  in  it  are 
now  accounted  for.  Scott,  on  his  part,  appears  to  have' 
studiously  interwoven  into  the  piece  allusions  to  personal 
feelings  and  experiences  more  akin  to  his  friend's  history 
and  character  than  to  his  own  ;  and  he  did  so  still  more 
largely,  when  repeating  this  experiment,  in  the  introduc 
tory  parts  of  Harold  the  Dauntless. 

The  same  post  which  conveyed  William  Erskine's  let 
ter  above  quoted,  brought  him  an  equally  wise  and  kind 
one  from  Mr.  Morritt,  in  answer  to  a  fresh  application  for 
some  minute  details  about  the  scenery  and  local  traditions 
of  the  Valley  of  the  Tees.  Scott  had  promised  to  spend 
part  of  this  autumn  at  Rokeby  Park  himself;  but  now, 
busied  as  he  was  with  his  planting  operations  at  home, 
and  continually  urged  by  Ballantyne  to  have  the  poem 
ready  for  publication  by  Christmas,  he  would  willingly 
have  trusted  his  friend's  knowledge  in  place  of  his  own 
observation  and  research.  Mr.  Morritt  gave  him  in  reply 
various  particulars,  which  I  need  not  here  repeat,  but 
added  —  "I  am  really  sorry,  my  dear  Scott,  at  your 
abandonment  of  your  kind  intention  of  visiting  Rokeby 
—  and  my  sorrow  is  not  quite  selfish  —  for  seriously,  I 
wish  you  could  have  come,  if  but  for  a  few  days,  in  order, 
on  the  spot,  to  settle  accurately  in  your  mind  the  locali 
ties  of  the  new  poem,  and  all  their  petty  circumstances, 
of  which  there  are  many  that  would  give  interest  and 
ornament  to  your  descriptions.  I  am  too  m  ach  nattered 


LETTER    PROM   MR.    MORRITT.  221 

by  your  proposal  of  inscribing  the  poem  to  me,  not  to  ac 
cept  it  with  gratitude  and  pleasure.  I  shall  always  feel 
your  friendship  as  an  honour  —  we  all  wish  our  honours 
to  be  permanent  —  and  yours  promises  mine  at  least  a 
fair  chance  of  immortality.  I  hope,  however,  you  will 
not  be  obliged  to  write  in  a  hurry  on  account  of  the  im 
patience  of  your  booksellers.  They  are,  I  think,  ill  ad 
vised  in  their  proceeding,  for  surely  the  book  will  be  the 
more  likely  to  succeed  from  not  being  forced  prematurely 
into  this  critical  world.  Do  not  be  persuaded  to  risk 
your  established  fame  on  this  hazardous  experiment.  If 
you  want  a  few  hundreds  independent  of  these  booksell 
ers,  your  credit  is  so  very  good,  now  that  you  have  got 
rid  of  your  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  that  it  is  no  great  merit 
to  trust  you,  and  I  happen  at  this  moment  to  have  five  or 
six  for  which  I  have  no  sort  of  demand  —  so  rather  than 
be  obliged  to  spur  Pegasus  beyond  the  power  of  pulling 
him  up  when  he  is  going  too  fast,  do  consult  your  own 
judgment  and  set  the  midwives  of  the  trade  at  defiance. 
Don't  be  scrupulous  to  the  disadvantage  of  your  muse, 
and  above  all  be  not  offended  at  me  for  a  proposition 
which  is  meant  in  the  true  spirit  of  friendship.  I  am 
more  than  ever  anxious  for  your  success  —  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake  more  than  succeeded  —  I  think  Don  Roderick 
is  less  popular  —  I  want  this  work  to  be  another  Lady  at 
the  least.  Surely  it  would  be  worth  your  while  for  such 
an  object  to  spend  a  week  of  your  time,  and  a  portion  of 
your  Old  Man's  salary,  in  a  mail-coach  flight  hither,  were 
it  merely  to  renew  your  acquaintance  with  the  country, 
and  to  rectify  the  little  misconceptions  of  a  cursory  view. 
Ever  affectionately  yours,  J.  B.  S.  M.'? 

This  appeal  was  not  to  be  resisted.     Scott,  I  believe, 
Accepted  Mr.  Morritt's  friendly  offer  so  far  as  to  ask  his 


222  LIFE    OP    S1A    WALTER    SCOTT. 

assistance  in  having  some  of  Ballantyne's  bills  discounted  • 
and  he  proceeded  the  week  after  to  Rokeby,  by  the  way 
of  Flodden  and  Hexham,  travelling  on  horseback,  his 
eldest  boy  and  girl  on  their  poneys,  while  Mrs.  Scott  fol 
lowed  them  in  the  carriage.  Two  little  incidents  that 
diversified  this  ride  through  Northumberland  have  found 
their  way  into  print  already  ;  but,  as  he  was  fond  of  tell 
ing  them  both  down  to  the  end  of  his  days,  I  must  give 
them  a  place  here  also.  Halting  at  Flodden  to  expound 
the  field  of  battle  to  his  young  folks,  he  found  that  Mar- 
mion  had,  as  might  have  been  expected,  benefited  the 
keeper  of  the  public  house  there  very  largely  ;  and  the 
village  Boniface,  overflowing  with  gratitude,  expressed 
his  anxiety  to  have  a  Scott's  Head  for  his  sign-post.  The 
poet  demurred  to  this  proposal,  and  assured  mine  host 
that  nothing  could  be  more  appropriate  than  the  portrai 
ture  of  a  foaming  tankard,  which  already  surmounted  his 
door-way.  "  Why,  the  painter-man  has  not  made  an  ill 
job,"  said  the  landlord,  "  but  I  would  fain  have  something 
more  connected  with  the  book  that  has  brought  me  so 
much  good  custom."  He  produced  a  well-thumbed  copy, 
and  handing  it  to  the  author,  begged  he  would  at  least 
suggest  a  motto  from  the  tale  of  Flodden  Field.  Scott 
opened  the  book  at  the  death  scene  of  the  hero,  and  his 
eye  was  immediately  caught  by  the  "  inscription "  in 
black  letter  — 

"  Drink,  weary  pilgrim,  drink,  and  pray 
For  the  kind  soul  of  Sibyl  Grey,"  &c. 

u  Well,  my  friend,"  said  he,  "  what  more  would  you  have  ? 
You  need  but  strike  out  one  letter  in  the  first  of  these 
lines,  and  make  your  painter-man,  the  next  time  he  cornea 
this  way,  print  between  the  jolly  tankard  and  your  OWE 
name  — 

"Drink,  weary  pilgrim,  drink  and  PAY." 


FLODDEN  —  1812.  223 

Scott  was  delighted  to  find,  on  his  return,  that  this 
suggestion  had  been  adopted,  and  for  aught  I  know,  the 
romantic  legend  may  still  be  visible. 

The  other  story  I  shall  give  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Gil 
lies.  "  It  happened  at  a  small  country  town  that  Scott 
suddenly  required  medical  advice  for  one  of  his  servants, 
and,  on  inquiring  if  there  was  any  doctor  at  the  place, 
was  told  that  there  was  two  —  one  long  established,  and 
the  other  a  new  comer.  The  latter  gentleman,  being 
luckily  found  at  home,  soon  made  his  appearance;  —  a 
grave,  sagacious-looking  personage,  attired  in  black,  with 
a  shovel  hat,  in  whom,  to  his  utter  astonishment,  Sir  Wal 
ter  recognised  a  Scotch  blacksmith,  who  had  formerly 
practised,  with  tolerable  success,  as  a  veterinary  operator 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  Ashestiel.  — '  How,  in  all  the 
world  ! '  exclaimed  he,  '  can  it  be  possible  that  this  is 
John  Lundie  ? '  —  'In  troth  is  it,  your  honour — just  a' 
that 's  for  him.'  —  *  Well,  but  let  us  hear ;  you  were  a 
horse-doctor  before ;  now,  it  seems,  you  are  a  mem-doc 
tor  ;  how  do  you  get  on  ? '  —  '  Ou,  just  extraordinar  weel ; 
for  your  honour  maun  ken  my  practice  is  vera  sure  and 
orthodox.  I  depend  entirely  upon  twa  simples.'  —  *  And 
what  may  their  names  be  ?  Perhaps  it  is  a  secret  ?  '  — 
*  111  tell  your  honoui*,'  in  a  low  tone ;  '  my  twa  simple? 
are  just  laudamy  and  calamy ! '  —  '  Simples  with  a  ven 
geance  ! '  replied  Scott.  '  But  John,  do  you  never  hap 
pen  to  kill  any  of  your  patients  ? '  — '  Kill  ?  Ou  ay, 
may  be  sae  !  Whiles  they  die,  and  whiles  no  ;  —  but  it's 
the  will  o'  Providence.  Ony  how,  your  honour,  it  wad  be 
\ang  before  it  makes  up  for  Flvdden  !  '  "  * 

It  was  also  in  the  course  of  this  expedition  that  Scotl 
first  made  acquaintance  with  the  late  excellent  and  ven 

*  Reminiscences  of  Sir  Walter  Scott   p.  56. 
«TOL.  in.  15 


224  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

erable  Shute  Barrington,  Bishop  of  Durham.  The  trav 
ellers  having  reached  Auckland  over  night,  were  seeing 
the  public  rooms  of  the  Castle  at  an  early  hour  next 
morning,  when  the  Bishop  happened,  in  passing  through 
one  of  them,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  Scott's  person,  and 
immediately  recognising  him,  from  the  likeness  of  the 
engravings  by  this  time  multiplied,  introduced  himself  to 
the  party,  and  insisted  upon  acting  as  cicerone.  After 
showing  them  the  picture-gallery  and  so  forth,  his  Lord 
ship  invited  them  to  join  the  morning  service  of  the 
chapel,  and  when  that  was  over,  insisted  on  their  remain 
ing  to  breakfast.  But  Scott  and  his  Lordship  were  by 
this  time  so  much  pleased  with  each  other  that  they  could 
not  part  so  easily.  The  good  Bishop  ordered  his  horse, 
nor  did  Scott  observe  without  admiration  the  proud  cur 
vetting  of  the  animal  on  which  his  Lordship  proposed  to 
accompany  him  during  the  next  stage  of  his  progress. 
"  Why,  yes,  Mr.  Scott,"  said  the  gentle  but  high-spirited 
old  man,  "  I  still  like  to  feel  my  horse  under  me."  He 
was  then  in  his  79th  year,  and  survived  to  the  age  of 
ninety-two,  the  model  in  all  things  of  a  real  prince  of  the 
Church.  They  parted  after  a  ride  of  ten  miles,  with  mu 
tual  regret ;  and  on  all  subsequent  rides  in  that  direction, 
Bishop-Auckland  was  one  of  the  poet's  regular  halting 
places. 

At  Rokeby,  on  this  occasion,  Scott  remained  about  a 
week  ;  and  I  transcribe  the  following  brief  account  of  his 
proceedings  while  there  from  Mr.  Morritt's  Memoran 
dum: —  "I  had,  of  course,"  he  says,  "had  many  previous 
opportunities  of  testing  the  almost  conscientious  fidelity 
t»f  his  local  descriptions ;  but  I  could  not  help  being 
singularly  struck  with  the  lights  which  this  visit  threw 
on  that  characteristic  of  his  compositions.  The  morning 


ROKEBT.  225 

nfter  he  arrived  he  said,  '  You  have  often  given  me  ma 
terials  for  romance  —  now  I  want  a  good  robber's  cave, 
and  an  old  church  of  the  right  sort.'  We  rode  out,  and 
he  found  what  he  wanted  in  the  ancient  slate  quarries  of 
Brignal  and  the  ruined  Abbey  of  Eggleston.  I  observed 
him  noting  down  even  the  peculiar  little  wild  flowers  and 
herbs  that  accidentally  grew  round  and  on  the  side  of  a 
bold  crag  near  his  intended  cave  of  Guy  Denzil ;  and 
could  not  help  saying,  that  as  he  was  not  to  be  upon  oath 
in  his  work,  daisies,  violets,  and  primroses  would  be  as 
poetical  as  any  of  the  humble  plants  he  was  examining. 
I  laughed,  in  short,  at  his  scrupulousness  ;  but  I  under 
stood  him  when  he  replied,  *  that  in  nature  herself  no 
two  scenes  were  exactly  alike,  and  that  whoever  copied 
truly  what  was  before  his  eyes,  would  possess  the  same 
variety  in  his  descriptions,  and  exhibit  apparently  an 
imagination  as  boundless  as  the  range  of  nature  in  the 
scenes  he  recorded ;  whereas  —  whoever  trusted  to  imagi 
nation,  would  soon  find  his  own  mind  circumscribed,  and 
contracted  to  a  few  favourite  images,  and  the  repeti 
tion  of  these  would  sooner  or  later  produce  that  very 
monotony  and  barrenness  which  had  always  haunted 
descriptive  poetry  in  the  hands  of  any  but  the  patient 
worshippers  of  truth.  Besides  which,'  he  said,  '  local 
names  and  peculiarities  make  a  fictitious  story  look  so 
much  better  in  the  face.'  In  fact,  from  his  boyish  habits, 
he  was  but  half  satisfied  with  the  most  beautiful  scenery 
ivhen  he  could  not  connect  with  it  some  local  legend,  and 
when  I  was  forced  sometimes  to  confess  with  the  Knife- 
grinder,  '  Story !  God  bless  you  !  I  have  none  to  tell,  sir  ' 
—  he  would  laugh  and  say,  '  then  let  us  make  one  — 
nothing  so  easy  as  to  make  a  tradition.' "  Mr.  Morritt 
udds,  that  he  had  brought  with  him  about  half  the  bridal 


226  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  Triermain  —  told  him  that  he  meant  to  bring  it  out 
the  same  week  with  Rokeby  —  and  promised  himself 
particular  satisfaction  in  laying  a  trap  for  Jeffrey  ;  who, 
however,  as  we  shall  see,  escaped  the  snare. 

Some  of  the  following  letters  will  show  with  what 
rapidity,  after  having  refreshed  and  stored  his  memory 
with  the  localities  of  Rokeby,  he  proceeded  in  the  com 
position  of  the  romance  :  — 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq. 

"  Abbotsford,  12th  October  1812. 

"  My  Dear  Morritt,  —  I  have  this  morning  returned  from 
Dalkeith  House,  to  which  I  was  whisked  amid  the  fury  of  an 
election  tempest,  and  I  found  your  letter  on  my  table.  More 
on  such  a  subject  cannot  be  said  among  friends  who  give  each 
other  credit  for  feeling  as  they  ought. 

"  We  peregrinated  over  Stanmore,  and  visited  the  Castles 
of  Bowes,  Brough,  Appleby,  and  Brougham  with  great  interest. 
Le«?t  our  spirit  of  chivalry  thus  excited  should  lack  employment, 
we  found  ourselves,  that  is,  /  did,  at  Carlisle,  engaged  in  the 
service  of  two  distressed  ladies,  being  no  other  than  our  friends 
Lady  Douglas  and  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  who  overtook  us  there, 
and  who  would  have  had  great  trouble  in  finding  quarters,  the 
election  being  in  full  vigour,  if  we  had  not  anticipated  their 
puzzle,  and  secured  a  private  house  capable  of  holding  us  all. 
Some  distress  occurred,  I  believe,  among  the  waiting  damsels, 
whose  case  I  had  not  so  carefully  considered,  for  I  heard  a 
sentimental  exclamation  — *  Am  I  to  sleep  with  the  grey 
hounds  ? '  which  I  conceived  to  proceed  from  Lady  Douglas's 
vuivante,  from  the  exquisite  sensibility  of  tone  with  which  it 
was  uttered,  especially  as  I  beheld  the  fair  one  descend  from 
the  carriage  with  three  half-bound  volumes  of  a  novel  in  her 
hand.  Not  having  it  in  my  power  to  alleviate  her  woes,  bj 
Hfering  her  either  a  part  or  the  whole  of  my  own  couch  — 
'  Vranseat,'  quoth  I,  '  cum  cceteris  erroribus.' 


LETTER    TO    MR.    MORRITT.  227 

"  I  am  delighted  with  your  Cumberland  admirer,*  and  give 
him  credit  for  his  visit  to  the  vindicator  of  Homer;  but  you 
missed  one  of  another  description,  who  passed  Rokeby  with 
great  regret,  I  mean  General  John  Malcolm,  the  Persian 
envoy,  the  Delhi  resident,  the  poet,  the  warrior,  the  polite 
man,  and  the  Borderer.  He  is  really  a  fine  fellow.  I  met  him 
at  Dalkeith,  and  we  returned  together ;  —  he  has  just  left  me, 
after  drinking  his  coffee.  A  fine  time  we  had  of  it,  talking 
of  Troy  town,  and  Babel,  and  Persepolis,  and  Delhi,  and 
Langholm,  and  Burnfoot ;  f  with  all  manner  of  episodes  about 
Iskendiar,  Rustan,  and  Johnnie  Armstrong.  Do  you  know, 
that  poem  of  Ferdusi's  must  be  beautiful.  He  read  me  some 
very  splendid  extracts  which  he  had  himself  translated.  Should 
you  meet  him  in  London,  I  have  given  him  charge  to  be  ac 
quainted  with  you,  for  I  am  sure  you  will  like  each  other.  To 
be  sure,  I  know  him  little,  but  I  like  his  frankness  and  his 
sound  ideas  of  morality  and  policy ;  and  I  have  observed,  that 
when  I  have  had  no  great  liking  to  persons  at  the  beginning, 
it  has  usually  pleased  Heaven,  as  Slender  says,  to  decrease  it 
on  further  Acquaintance.  Adieu,  I  must  mount  my  horse. 
Our  last  journey  was  so  delightful  that  we  have  every  tempta 
tion  to  repeat  it.  Pray  give  our  kind  love  to  the  lady,  and 
believe  me  ever  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  To  the  Same. 

"  Edinburgh,  29th  November  1812. 

"  My  Dear  Morritt,  —  I  have  been,  and  still  am,  working 
very  hard,  in  hopes  to  face  the  public  by  Christmas,  and  I 

*  This  alluded  to  a  ridiculous  hunter  of  lions,  who  being  met  by  Mr. 
Rlorritt  in  the  grounds  at  Rokeby,  disclaimed  all  taste  for  picturesque 
beauties,  but  overwhelmed  their  owner  with  Homeric  Greek ;  of  which 
he  had  told  Scott. 

f  Burnfoot  is  the  name  of  a  farm-house  on  the  Buccleuch  estate,  not 
far  from  Langholm,  where  the  late  Sir  John  Malcolm  and  his  distin 
guished  brothers  were  born.  Their  grandfather  had,  I  believe,  found 
refuge  there  after  forfeiting  a  good  estate  and  an  ancient  baronetcy  in 
the  affair  of  1715.  A  monument  to  the.  gallant  General's  memory  ha« 
•ecently  been  erected  near  the  spot  of  his  birth. 


228  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

think  I  have  hitherto  succeeded  in  throwing  some  interest  into 
the  piece.  It  is,  however,  a  darker  and  more  gloomy  interest 
than  I  intended ;  but  involving  one's  self  with  bad  company, 
whether  in  fiction  or  in  reality,  is  the  way  not  to  get  out  of 
it  easily ;  so  I  have  been  obliged  to  bestow  more  pains  and 
trouble  upon  Bertram,  and  one  or  two  blackguards  whom  he 
picks  up  in  the  slate  quarries,  than  what  I  originally  designed 
I  am  very  desirous  to  have  your  opinion  of  the  three  first 
Cantos,  for  which  purpose,  so  soon  as  I  can  get  them  collected, 
I  will  send  the  sheets  under  cover  to  Mr.  Freeling,  whose 
omnipotent  frank  will  transmit  them  to  Rokeby,  where,  I  pre 
sume,  you  have  been  long  since  comfortably  settled  — 

'  So  York  may  overlook  the  town  of  York.' 

3d  King  Henry  VI.  Act  I.   Scene  4. 

"  I  trust  you  will  read  it  with  some  partiality,  because,  if  1 
have  not  been  so  successful  as  I  could  wish  in  describing  your 
lovely  and  romantic  glens,  it  has  partly  arisen  from  my  great 
anxiety  to  do  it  well,  which  is  often  attended  with  the  very 
contrary  effect.  There  are  two  or  three  songs,  and  particu 
larly  one  in  praise  of  Brignal  Banks,  which  I  trust  you  will 
like  —  because,  entre  nous,  I  like  them  myself.  One  of  them 
is  a  little  dashing  banditti  song,  called  and  entitled  Allen-a- 
Dale.  I  think  you  will  be  able  to  judge  for  yourself  in  about 
a  week.  Pray,  how  shall  I  send  you  the  entire  goose,  which 
will  be  too  heavy  to  travel  the  same  way  with  its  giblets  —  for 
the  Carlisle  coach  is  terribly  inaccurate  about  parcels  ?  I  fear 
I  have  made  one  blunder  in  mentioning  the  brooks  which  flow 
into  the  Tees.  I  have  made  the  Balder  distinct  from  that 
which  comes  down  Thorsgill — I  hope  I  am  not- mistake  a. 
You  will  see  the  passage ;  and  if  they  are  the  same  rivulet, 
the  leaf  must  be  cancelled. 

"  I  trust  this  will  find  Mrs.  Morritt  pretty  well ;  and  I  am 
glad  to  find  she  has  been  better  for  her  little  tour.  We  werfe 
delighted  with  ours,  except  in  respect  of  its  short  duration 
and  Sophia  and  Walter  hold  their  heads  very  high  among 
their  untravelled  companions,  from  the  predominance  acquired 


ROKEBT DECEMBER   1812.  22ii 

by  their  visit  to  England.  You  are  not  perhaps  aware  of  the 
polish  wliich  is  supposed  to  be  acquired  by  the  most  transitory 
intercourse  with  your  more  refined  side  of  the  Tweed.  There 
was  an  honest  carter  who  once  applied  to  me  respecting  a 
plan  which  he  had  formed  of  breeding  his  son,  a  great  booby 
of  twenty,  to  the  Church.  As  the  best  way  of  evading  the 
scrape,  I  asked  him  whether  he  thought  his  son's  language  was 
quite  adapted  for  the  use  of  a  public  speaker  ?  —  to  which  he 
answered,  with  great  readiness,  that  he  could  knap  English 
with  any  one,  having  twice  driven  his  father's  cart  to  Etal 
coal-hill. 

"  I  have  called  my  heroine  Matilda.  1  don't  much  like 
Agnes,  though  I  can't  tell  why,  unless  it  is  because  it  begins 
like  Agag.  Matilda  is  a  name  of  unmanageable  length  ;  but, 
after  all,  is  better  than  none,  and  my  poor  damsel  was  likely 
to  go  without  one  in  my  indecision. 

"  We  are  all  hungering  and  thirsting  for  news  from  Russia. 
If  Boney's  devil  does  not  help  him,  he  is  in  a  poor  way.  The 
Leith  letters  talk  of  the  unanimity  of  the  Russians  as  being 
most  exemplary ;  and  troops  pour  in  from  all  quarters  of  their 
immense  empire.  Their  commissariat  is  well  managed  under 
the  Prince  Duke  of  Oldenburgh.  This  was  their  weak  point 
in  former  wars. 

"  Adieu !  Mrs.  Scott  and  the  little  people  send  love  to  Mrs. 
Morritt  and  you.  Ever  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 


"  To  the  Same. 
"  Edinburgh,  Thursday,  10th  December  1812. 

"My  Dear  Morritt, — I  have  just  time  to  say  that  I  have 
received  your  letters,  and  am  delighted  that  Rokeby  pleases 
the  owner.  As  I  hope  the  whole  will  be  printed  off  before 
Christmas,  it  will  scarce  be  worth  while  to  send  you  the  other 
jheets  till  it  reaches  you  altogether.  Your  criticisms  are  the 
best  proof  of  your  kind  attention  to  the  poem.  I  need  not  say 
\  will  pay  them  every  attention  in  the  next  edition.  But  some 


230  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

of  the  faults  are  so  interwoven  with  the  story,  that  they  must 
itand.  Denzil,  for  instance,  is  essential  to  me,  though,  as  you 
say,  not  very  interesting;  and  I  assure  you  that,  generally 
speaking,  the  poeta  loquitur  has  a  bad  effect  in  narrative ;  and 
when  you  have  twenty  things  to  tell,  it  is  better  to  be  slatternly 
than  tedious.  The  fact  is,  that  the  tediousuess  of  many  really 
good  poems  arises  from  an  attempt  to  support  the  same  tone 
throughout,  which  often  occasions  periphrasis,  and  always  stiff 
ness.  I  am  quite  sensible  that  I  have  often  carried  the  oppo 
site  custom  too  far ;  but  I  am  apt  to  impute  it  partly  to  not 
being  able  to  bring  out  my  own  ideas  well,  and  partly  to  haste 
—  not  to  error  in  the  system.  This  would,  however,  lead  to  a 
long  discussion,  more  fit  for  the  fireside  than  for  a  letter.  I 
need  not  say  that,  the  poem  being  in  fact  your  own,  you  are  at 
perfect  liberty  to  dispose  of  the  sheets  as  you  please.  I  am 
glad  my  geography  is  pretty  correct.  It  is  too  late  to  inquire 
if  Rokeby  is  insured,  for  I  have  burned  it  down  in  Canto  V. ; 
but  I  suspect  you  will  bear  me  no  greater  grudge  than  at  the 
noble  Russian  who  burned  Moscow.  Glorious  news  to-day 
from  the  north  — pereat  iste  I  Mrs.  Scott,  Sophia,  and  Walter, 
join  in  best  compliments  to  Mrs.  Morritt ;  and  I  am,  in  great 
haste,  ever  faithfully  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT. 

"P.  S.  —  I  have  heard  of  Lady  Hood  by  a  letter  from  her 
self.  She  is  well,  and  in  high  spirits,  and  sends  me  a  pretty 
topaz  seal,  with  a  talisman  which  secures  this  letter,  and  signi* 
fies  (it  seems),  which  one  would  scarce  have  expected  from  its 
appearance,  my  name." 

We  are  now  close  upon  the  end  of  this  busy  twelve 
month;  but  I  must  not  turn  the  leaf  to  1813,  without 
noticing  one  of  its  miscellaneous  incidents  —  his  first  in 
tercourse  by  letter  with  the  poet  Crabbe.  Mr.  Hatchard, 
the  publisher  of  his  "Tales,"  forwarded  a  copy  of  the 
book  to  Scott  as  soon  as  it  was  ready ;  and,  the  bookseller 
Having  communicated  to  his  author  some  flattering  ex 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  CRABBE.       23J 

prestions  in  Scott's  letter  of  acknowledgment,  Mr.  Crabbe 
addressed  him  as  follows :  — 

«  To  Waiter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  Merston,  Grantham,  13th  October  1812. 

"  Sir, — Mr.  Hatchard,  judging  rightly  of  the  satisfaction  it 
would  afford  me,  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  communicate  your 
two  letters,  in  one  of  which  you  desire  my  '  Tales '  to  be  sent ; 
in  the  other,  you  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  them ;  and  in 
both  you  mention  my  verses  in  such  terms,  that  it  would  be 
affected  in  me  were  I  to  deny,  and  I  think  unjust  if  I  were  to 
conceal,  the  pleasure  you  give  me.  I  am  indeed  highly  grat 
ified. 

"  I  have  long  entertained  a  hearty  wish  to  be  made  known 
to  a  poet  whose  works  are  so  greatly  and  so  universally  ad 
mired  ;  and  I  continued  to  hope  that  I  might  at  some  time  find 
a  common  friend,  by  whose  intervention  I  might  obtain  that 
honour ;  but  I  am  confined  by  duties  near  my  home,  and  by 
sickness  in  it.  It  may  be  long  before  I  be  in  town,  and  then 
no  such  opportunity  might  offer.  Excuse  me,  then,  sir,  if  I 
gladly  seize  this  which  now  occurs  to  express  my  thanks  for 
the  politeness  of  your  expressions,  as  well  as  my  desire  of  being 
known  to  a  gentleman  who  has  delighted  and  affected  me,  and 
moved  all  the  passions  and  feelings  in  turn,  I  believe  —  Envy 
surely  excepted  —  certainly,  if  I  know  myself,  but  in  a  moder 
ate  degree.  I  truly  rejoice  in  your  success ;  and  while  I  am 
entertaining,  in  my  way,  a  certain  set  of  readers,  for  the  most 
part,  probably,  of  peculiar  turn  and  habit,  I  can  with  pleasure 
see  the  effect  you  produce  on  all.  Mr.  Hatchard  tells  me  that 
he  hopes  or  expects  that  thousands  will  read  my  '  Tales,'  and 
I  am  convinced  that  your  publisher  might,  in  like  manner,  so 
speak  of  your  ten  thousands ;  but  this,  though  it  calls  to  mind 
the  passage,  is  no  true  comparison  with  the  related  prowess  of 
David  and  Saul,  because  I  have  no  evil  spirit  to  arise  and 
trouble  me  on  the  occasion ;  though,  if  I  had,  I  know  no  David 
whose  skill  is  so  likely  to  allay  it.  Once  more,  sir,  accept  my 


232  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

best  thanks,  with  my  hearty  wishes  for  your  health  and  happi« 
ness,  who  am,  with  great  esteem,  and  true  respect, 

"  Dear  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

"  GEORGE  CRABBE." 

I  cannot  produce  Scott's  reply  to  this  communication, 
Mr.  Crabbe  appears  to  have,  in  the  course  of  the  year 
sent  him  a  copy  of  all  his  works,  "  ex  dono  auctoris,"  and 
there  passed  between  them  several  letters,  one  or  two  of 
which  I  must  quote. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"Know  you,  sir,  a  gentleman  in  Edinburgh,  A.  Brunton 
(the  Rev.)  who  dates  St.  John  Street,  and  who  asks  my  assist 
ance  in  furnishing  hymns  which  have  relation  to  the  Old  or 
New  Testament  —  anything  which  might  suit  the  purpose  of 
those  who  are  cooking  up  a  book  of  Scotch  Psalmody  ?  Who 
is  Mr.  Brunton  ?  What  is  his  situation  ?  If  I  could  help  one 
who  needed  help,  I  would  do  it  cheerfully  —  but  have  no  great 
opinion  of  this  undertaking 

"  With  every  good  wish,  yours  sincerely, 

"  GEO.  CRABBE  " 

Scott's  answer  to  this  letter  expresses  the  opinions  he 
always  held  in  conversation  on  the  important  subject  to 
which  it  refers ;  and  acting  upon  which,  he  himself  at 
various  times  declined  taking  any  part  in  the  business 
advocated  by  Dr.  Brunton :  — 

"  To  the  Rev.  George  Crabbe,  Merston,  Grantham. 

"My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  was  favoured  with  your  kind  letter 
•ome  time  ago.  Of  all  people  in  the  world,  I  am  least  entitled 
to  demand  regularity  of  correspondence ;  for  being,  one  way 
and  another,  doomed  to  a  great  deal  more  writing  than  suits 
my  indolence,  I  am  sometimes  tempted  to  envy  the  reverend 
hermit  of  Prague,  confessor  to  the  niece  of  Queen  Gorboduc, 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  CRABBE.       233 

who  never  saw  either  pen  or  ink.  Mr.  Brunton  is  a  very  re 
spectable  clergyman  of  Edinburgh,  and  I  believe  the  work  in 
which  he  has  solicited  your  assistance  is  one  adopted  by  the 
General  Assembly,  or  Convocation  of  the  Kirk.  I  have  no 
notion  that  he  has  any  individual  interest  in  it ;  he  is  a  well- 
educated  and  liberal-minded  man,  and  generally  esteemed.  I 
have  no  particular  acquaintance  with  him  myself,  though  we 
speak  together.  He  is  at  this  very  moment  sitting  on  the  out 
side  of  the  bar  of  our  Supreme  Court,  within  which  I  am  fag 
ging  as  a  Clerk ;  but  as  he  is  hearing  the  opinion  of  the  Judges 
upon  an  action  for  augmentation  of  stipend  to  him  and  to  his 
brethren,  it  would  not,  I  conceive,  be  a  very  favourable  time 
to  canvass  a  literary  topic.  But  you  are  quite  safe  with  him ; 
and  having  so  much  command  of  scriptural  language,  which 
appears  to  me  essential  to  the  devotional  poetry  of  Christians,  I 
am  sure  you  can  assist  his  purpose  much  more  than  any  man 
alive. 

"  I  think  those  hymns  which  do  not  immediately  recall  the 
warm  and  exalted  language  of  the  Bible  are  apt  to  be,  how 
ever  elegant,  rather  cold  and  flat  for  the  purposes  of  devotion. 
You  will  readily  believe  that  I  do  not  approve  of  the  vague 
and  indiscriminate  Scripture  language  which  the  fanatics  of 
old,  and  the  modern  Methodists,  have  adopted,  but  merely  that 
solemnity  and  peculiarity  of  diction,  which  at  once  puts  the 
reader  and  hearer  upon  his  guard  as  to  the  purpose  of  the 
poetry.  To  my  Gothic  ear,  indeed,  the  Stabat  Mater,  the  Dies 
Irce,  and  some  of  the  other  hymns  of  the  Catholic  Church,  are 
more  solemn  and  affecting  than  the  fine  classical  poetry  of 
Buchanan ;  the  one  has  the  gloomy  dignity  of  a  Gothic  church, 
and  reminds  us  instantly  of  the  worship  to  which  it  is  dedi 
cated  ;  the  other  is  more  like  a  Pagan  temple,  recalling  to  our 
memory  the  classical  and  fabulous  deities.*  This  is,  probably, 
all  referable  to  the  association  of  ideas  —  that  is,  if  the  '  asso 
ciation  of  ideas '  continues  to  be  the  universal  pick-lock  of  all 
metaphysical  difficulties,  as  it  was  when  I  studied  moral  phi- 

*  See  Life  of  Dryden,  Scott's  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  (edit 
1841)  p.  61. 


234:  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

losophy  —  or  to  any  other  more  fashionable  universal  solvent 
which  may  have  succeeded  to  it  in  reputation.  Adieu,  my 
dear  sir,  —  I  hope  you  and  your  family  will  long  enjoy  all 
happiness  and  prosperity.  Never  be  discouraged  from  the 
constant  use  of  your  charming  talent.  The  opinions  of  re 
viewers  are  really  too  contradictory  to  found  anything  upon 
them,  whether  they  are  favourable  or  otherwise;  for  it  is 
usually  their  principal  object  to  display  the  abilities  of  the 
writers  of  the  critical  lucubrations  themselves.  Your  '  Tales' 
are  universally  admired  here.  I  go  but  little  out,  but  the  few 
judges  whose  opinions  I  have  been  accustomed  to  look  up  to, 
are  unanimous.  Ever  yours,  most  truly, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  Law.  then,  is  your  profession  —  I  mean  a 
profession  you  give  your  mind  and  time  to  —  but  how  '  fag  as 
a  clerk  ? '  Clerk  is  a  name  for  a  learned  person,  I  know,  in  our 
Church  ;  but  how  the  same  hand  which  held  the  pen  of  Mar- 
mion,  holds  that  with  which  a  clerk  fags,  unless  a  clerk  means 
something  vastly  more  than  I  understand  —  is  not  to  be  com 
prehended.  I  wait  for  elucidation.  Know  you,  dear  sir,  I 
have  often  thought  I  should  love  to  read  reports  —  that  is, 
brief  histories  of  extraordinary  cases,  with  the  judgments.  If 
that  is  what  is  meant  by  reports,  such  reading  must  be  pleas 
ant  ;  but,  probably,  I  entertain  wrong  ideas,  and  could  not 
understand  the  books  I  think  so  engaging.  Yet  I  conclude 
there  are  histories  of  cases,  and  have  often  thought  of  consult 
ing  Hatchard  whether  he  knew  of  such  kind  of  reading,  but 

hitherto  I  have  rested  in  ignorance Yours 

truly,  GEORGE  CRABBE." 

"  To  the  Rev.  George  Crdbbe. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  too  long  delayed  to  thank  you  for 
the  most  kind  and  acceptable  present  of  your  three  volumea 
Now  am  I  doubly  armed,  since  I  have  a  set  for  my  cabin  aJ 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    CRABBE.  233 

AJobotsford  as  well  as  in  town  ;  and,  to  say  truth,  the  auxiliary 
copy  arrived  in  good  time,  for  my  original  one  suffers  as  much 
by  its  general  popularity  among  my  young  people,  as  a  popular 
candidate  from  the  hugs  and  embraces  of  his  democratical  ad 
mirers.  The  clearness  and  accuracy  of  your  painting,  whether 
natural  or  moral,  renders,  I  have  often  remarked,  your  works 
generally  delightful  to  those  whose  youth  might  render  them 
insensible  to  the  other  beauties  with  which  they  abound- 
There  are  a  sort  of  pictures  —  surely  the  most  valuable,  were 
it  but  for  that  reason  —  which  strike  the  uninitiated  as  much 
as  they  do  the  connoisseur,  though  the  last  alone  can  render 
reason  for  his  admiration.  Indeed  our  old  friend  Horace  knew 
what  he  was  saying  when  he  chose  to  address  his  ode,  '  Fir- 
ginibus  puerisque'  and  so  did  Pope  when  he  told  somebody  he 
had  the  mob  on  the  side  of  his  version  of  Homer,  and  did  not 
mind  the  high-flying  critics  at  Button's.  After  all,  if  a  fault 
less  poem  could  be  produced,  I  am  satisfied  it  would  tire  the 
critics  themselves,  and  annoy  the  whole  reading  world  with  the 
spleen. 

"  You  must  be  delightfully  situated  in  the  Vale  of  Belvoir  — 
a  part  of  England  for  which  I  entertain  a  special  kindness,  for 
the  sake  of  the  gallant  hero,  Robin  Hood,  who,  as  probably 
you  will  readily  guess,  is  no  small  favourite  of  mine  ;  his  indis 
tinct  ideas  concerning  the  doctrine  of  mewn  and  tuum  being 
no  great  objection  to  an  outriding  Borderer.  I  am  happy  to 
think  that  your  station  is  under  the  protection  of  the  Rutland 
family,  of  whom  fame  speaks  highly.  Our  lord  of  the  '  cairn 
and  the  scaur,'  waste  wilderness  and  hungry  hills,  for  many  a 
league  around,  is  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  the  head  of  my  clan ; 
a  kind  and  benevolent  landlord,  a  warm  and  zealous  friend, 
and  the  husband  of  a  lady  —  comme  il  y  en  a  pen.  They  are 
both  great  admirers  of  Mr.  Crabbe's  poetry,  and  would  be 
happy  to  know  him,  should  he  ever  come  to  Scotland,  and 
venture  into  the  Gothic  halls  of  a  Border  chief.  The  early 
jind  uniform  kindness  of  this  family,  with  the  friendship  of  the 
Sate  and  present  Lord  Melville,  enabled  me,  some  years  ago,  to 
exchange  my  toils  as  a  barrister,  for  the  lucrative  and  respect- 


JJ36  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

able  situation  of  one  of  the  Clerks  of  our  Supreme  Court 
which  only  requires  a  certain  routine  of  official  duty,  neithei 
laborious  nor  calling  for  any  exertion  of  the  mind  ;  so  that  my 
time  is  entirely  at  my  own  command,  except  when  I  am  at 
tending  the  Court,  which  seldom  occupies  more  than  two  hours 
of  the  morning  during  sitting.  I  besides  hold  in  commendam 
the  Sheriffdom  of  Ettrick  Forest,  which  is  now  no  forest ;  so 
that  J  am  a  pluralist  as  to  law  appointments,  and  have,  as  Dog- . 
berry  says,  '  two  gowns  and  every  thing  handsome  alwut  me.'  * 
"  I  have  often  thought  it  is  the  most  fortunate  thing  for 
bards  like  you  and  me  to  have  an  established  profession,  and 
professional  character,  to  render  us  independent  of  those  wor 
thy  gentlemen,  the  retailers,  or,  as  some  have  called  them,  the 
midw;ves  of  literature,  who  are  so  much  taken  up  with  the 
abortions  they  bring  into  the  world,  that  they  are  scarcely  able 
l  >  bestow  the  proper  care  upon  young  and  nourishing  babes 
like  ours.  That,  however,  is  only  a  mercantile  way  of  looking 
ctt  the  matter ;  but  did  any  of  my  sons  show  poetical  talent,  of 
which,  to  my  great  satisfaction,  there  are  no  appearances,  the 
first  thing  I  should  do  would  be  to  inculcate  upon  him  the  duty 
of  cultivating  some  honourable  profession,  and  qualifying  him 
self  to  play  a  more  respectable  part  in  society  than  the  mere 
poet.  And  as  the  best  corollary  of  my  doctrine,  I  would  make 
him  get  your  tale  of  '  The  Patron '  by  heart  from  beginning 
to  end.  It  is  curious  enough  that  you  should  have  republished 
the  « Village '  for  the  purpose  of  sending  your  young  men  to 
college,  and  I  should  have  written  the  Lay  of  the  Last  Min 
strel  for  the  purpose  of  buying  a  new  horse  for  the  Volunteer 
Cavalry.  I  must  now  send  this  scrawl  into  town  to  get  a 
frank,  for,  God  knows,  it  is  not  worthy  of  postage.  With  the 
warmest  wishes  for  your  health,  prosperity,  and  increase  of 
frame  —  though  it  needs  not  —  I  remain  most  sincerely  and 
affectionately  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT."  f 

*  Much  ado  about  Nothing,  Act  IV.  Sc^ne  2. 

t  Several  of  these  letters  having  been  enclosed  in  franked  covers 
Which  have  perished,  I  am  unable  to  affix  the  exact  dates  to  them 


EDINBURGH    ANNUAL    REGISTER 1812.  237 

The  contrast  of  the  two  poets'  epistolary  styles  is 
nighly  amusing ;  but  I  have  introduced  these  specimens 
less  on  that  account,  than  as  marking  the  cordial  confi 
dence  which  a  very  little  intercourse  was  sufficient  to  es 
tablish  between  men  so  different  from  each  other  in  most 
of  the  habits  of  life.  It  will  always  be  considered  as 
one  of  the  most  pleasing  peculiarities  in  Scott's  history, 
that  he  was  the  friend  of  every  great  contemporary  poet : 
Crabbe,  as  we  shall  see  more  largely  in  the  sequel,  was 
no  exception  to  the  rule :  yet  I  could  hardly  name  one 
of  them  who,  manly  principles  and  the  cultivation  of 
literature  apart,  had  many  points  of  resemblance  to  him ; 
and  surely  not  one  who  had  fewer  than  Crabbe. 

Scott  continued,  this  year,  his  care  for  the  Edinburgh 
Annual  Register  —  the  historical  department  of  which 
was  again  supplied  by  Mr.  Southey.  The  poetical  mis 
cellany  owed  its  opening  piece,  the  Ballad  of  Polydore, 
to  the  readiness  with  which  Scott  entered  into  correspond 
ence  with  its  author,  who  sent  it  to  him  anonymously, 
with  a  letter  which,  like  the  verses,  might  well  have  ex 
cited  much  interest  in  his  mind,  even  had  it  not  concluded 
with  stating  the  writer's  age  to  be  fifteen.  Scott  invited 
the  youth  to  visit  him  in  the  country,  was  greatly  pleased 
with  the  modesty  of  his  manners  and  the  originality  of 
his  conversation,  and  wrote  to  Joanna  Baillie,  that, 
"  though  not  one  of  the  crimps  for  the  muses,"  he  thought 
he  could  hardly  be  mistaken  in  believing  that  in  the  boy 
ish  author  of  Polydore  he  had  discovered  a  true  genius. 
When  I  mention  the  name  of  my  friend  William  Howison 
of  Clydegrove,  it  will  be  allowed  that  he  prognosticated 
wisely.  He  continued  to  correspond  with  this  young  gen 
tleman  and  his  father,  and  gave  both  much  advice,  for 
which  both  were  most  grateful.  There  was  inserted  in 


238  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  same  volume  a  set  of  beautiful  stanzas,  inscribed 
to  Scott  by  Mr.  Wilson,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Magic 
Mirror,"  in  which  that  enthusiastic  young  poet  also  bears 
a  lofty  and  lasting  testimony  to  the  gentle  kindness  with 
which  his  earlier  efforts  had  been  encouraged  by  him 
whom  he  designates,  for  the  first  time,  by  what  afterwards 
became  one  of  his  standing  titles,  that  of  "  The  Great 
Magician." 

"  Onwards  a  figure  came,  with  stately  brow, 

Aoid,  as  he  glanced  upon  the  ruiri'd  pile 
A  look  of  regal  pride,  '  Say,  who  art  thou 

(His  countenance  bright' ning  with  a  scornful  smile, 
He  sternly  cried), '  whose  footsteps  rash  profane 
The  wild  romantic  realm  where  I  have  willed  to  reign  ? ' 

**  But  ere  to  these  proud  words  I  could  reply, 

How  changed  that  scornful  face  to  soft  and  mild ! 
A.  witching  frenzy  glitter' d  in  his  eye, 

Harmless,  withal,  as  that  of  playful  child. 
And  when  once  more  the  gracious  vision  spoke, 

I  felt  the  voice  familiar  to  mine  ear; 
While  many  a  faded  dream  of  earth  awoke, 

Connected  strangely  with  that  unknown  seer, 
Who  now  stretch' d  forth  his  arm,  and  on  the  sand 
A  circle  round  me  traced,  as  with  magician's  wand."  &c. 

Scott's  own  chief  contribution  to  this  volume  was  a 
brief  account  of  the  Life  and  Poems  (hitherto  unpub 
lished)  *  of  Patrick  Carey,  whom  he  pronounces  to  nave 
been  not  only  as  stout  a  cavalier,  but  almost  as  good  a 
poet  as  his  contemporary  Lovelace.  That  Essay  waa 
expanded,  and  prefixed  to  an  edition  of  Carey's  "  Trivial 

*  The  Rev.  Alexander  Dyce  informs  me,  that  nine  of  Carey's  piecea 
ivere  printed  in  1771,  for  J.  Murray  of  Fleet  Street,  in  a  quarto  of 
thirty-five  pages,  entitled  '•  Poems  from  a  MS.  written  in  the  time 
»f  Oliver  Cromwell."  This  rare  tract  had  never  fallen  into  Scott'i 
iands.  [1839.] 


CAREY'S  POEMS  — 1812.  239 

Poems  and  Triolets,"  which  Scott  published  in  1820; 
but  its  circulation  in  either  shape  has  been  limited  :  and 
I  believe  I  shall  be  gratifying  the  majority  of  my  readers 
by  here  transcribing  some  paragraphs  of  his  beautiful 
and  highly  characteristic  introduction  of  this  forgotten 
poet  of  the  17th  century. 

"  The  present  ag3  has  been  so  distinguished  for  research  into 
p-^etical  antiquities,  that  the  discovery  of  an  unknown  bard  is, 
in  certain  chosen  literary  circles,  held  as  curious  as  an  aug 
mentation  of  the  number  of  fixed  stars  would  be  esteemed  by 
astronomers.  It  is  true,  these  '  blessed  twinklers  of  the  night ' 
are  so  far  removed  from  us,  that  they  afford  no  more  light  than 
serves  barely  to  evince  their  existence  to  the  curious  investi 
gator  ;  and  in  like  manner  the  pleasure  derived  from  the  revi 
val  of  an  obscure  poet  is  rather  in  proportion  to  the  rarity  of 
his  volume  than  to  its  merit ;  yet  this  pleasure  is  not  inconsis 
tent  with  reason  and  principle.  We  know  by  every  day's  ex 
perience  the  peculiar  interest  which  the  lapse  of  ages  confers 
upon  works  of  human  art.  The  clumsy  strength  of  the  ancient 
castles,  which,  when  raw  from  the  hand  of  the  builder,  inferred 
only  the  oppressive  power  of  the  barons  who  reared  them,  is 
now  broken  by  partial  ruin  into  proper  subjects  for  the  poet 
or  the  painter;  and  as  Mason  has  beautifully  described  &he 
change, 

'  Time 

Has  mouldered  into  beauty  many  a  tower, 
Which,  when  it  frowned  with  all  its  battlements, 
Was  only  terrible.' 

"  The  monastery,  too,  which  was  at  first  but  a  fantastic  mon 
ument  of  the  superstitious  devotion  of  monarchs,  or  of  the  pur 
ple  pride  of  fattened  abbots,  has  gained  by  the  silent  influence 
of  antiquity,  the  power  of  impressing  awe  and  devotion.  Even 
the  stains  and  weather-taints  upon  the  battlements  of  such 
buildings  add,  like  the  scars  of  a  veteran,  to  the  affecting  im- 
Vression  : 

VOL.  in.  16 


24:0  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

*  For  time  has  softened  what  was  harsh  when  new, 
And  now  the  stains  are  all  of  sober  hue; 
The  living  stains  which  nature's  hand  alone, 
Profuse  of  life,  pours  forth  upon  the  stone.'  —  Crabbe. 

"  If  such  is  the  effect  of  Time  in  adding  interest  to  the  la» 
bours  of  the  architect,  if  partial  destruction  is  compensated 
by  the  additional  interest  of  that  which  remains,  can  we  denj 
his  exerting  a  similar  influence  upon  those  subjects  which  ara 
Bought  after  by  the  bibliographer  and  poetical  antiquary  ? 
The  obscure  poet,  who  is  detected  by  their  keen  research,  may 
indeed  have  possessed  but  a  slender  portion  of  that  spirit  which 
has  buoyed  up  the  works  of  distinguished  contemporaries  dur 
ing  the  course  of  centuries,  yet  still  his  verses  shall,  in  the  lapse 
of  time,  acquire  an  interest,  which  they  did  not  possess  in  the 
eyes  of  his  own  generation.  The  wrath  of  the  critic,  like  that 
of  the  son  of  Ossian,  flies  from  the  foe  that  is  low.  Envy,  base 
as  she  is,  has  one  property  of  the  lion,  and  cannot  prey  on  car 
casses  ;  she  must  drink  the  blood  of  a  sentient  victim,  and  tear 
the  limbs  that  are  yet  warm  with  vital  life.  Faction,  if  the 
ancient  has  suffered  her  persecution,  serves  only  to  endear  hin? 
to  the  recollection  of  posterity,  whose  generous  compassion 
overpays  him  for  the  injuries  he  sustained  while  in  life.  Ana 
thus  freed  from  the  operation  of  all  unfavourable  prepossessions, 
his  merit,  if  he  can  boast  any,  has  more  than  fair  credit  with 
his  readers.  This,  however,  is  but  part  of  his  advantages. 
The  mere  attribute  of  antiquity  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  inter 
est  the  fancy,  by  the  lively  and  powerful  train  of  associations 
which  it  awakens.  Had  the  pyramids  of  Egypt,  equally  disa 
greeable  in  form  and  senseless  as  to  utility,  been  the  work  of 
any  living  tyrant,  with  what  feelings,  save  those  of  scorn  and 
derision,  could  we  have  regarded  such  a  waste  of  labour  ?  But 
the  sight,  nay  the  very  mention  of  these  wonderful  monuments, 
is  associated  with  the  dark  and  sublime  ideas  which  vary  their 
tinge  according  to  the  favourite  hue  of  our  studies.  The 
Christian  divine  recollects  the  land  of  banishment  and  of  ref 
uge  ;  to  the  eyes  of  the  historian's  fancy,  they  excite  the  shades 
of  Pharaohs  and  of  Ptolemies,  of  Cheops  and  Merops,  and  Se- 


CAREY'S  POEMS  — 1812.  241 

sostris  drawn  in  triumph  by  his  sceptred  slaves ;  the  philoso 
pher  beholds  the  first  rays  of  moral  truth  as  they  dawned 
on  the  hieroglyphic  sculptures  of  Thebes  and  Memphis ;  and 
the  poet  sees  the  fires  of  magic  blazing  upon  the  mystic  al 
tars  of  a  land  of  incantation.  Nor  is  the  grandeur  of  size 
essential  to  such  feelings,  any  more  than  the  properties  of 
grace  and  utility.  Even  the  rudest  remnant  of  a  feudal 
towar,  even  the  obscure  and  almost  indistinguishable  vestige 
of  an  altogether  unknown  edifice,  has  power  to  awaken  such 
trains  of  fancy.  We  have  a  fellow  interest  with  the  '  son  of 
the  winged  days,'  over  whose  fallen  habitation  we  tread. 

'  The  massy  stones,  though  hewn  most  roughly,  show 
The  hand  of  man  had  once  at  least  been  there.'  —  Wordsworth. 

"  Similar  combinations  give  a  great  part  of  the  delight  wo 
receive  from  ancient  poetry.  In  the  rude  song  of  the  Scald, 
we  regard  less  the  strained  imagery  and  extravagance  of  epi 
thet,  than  the  wild  impressions  which  it  conveys  of  the  daunt 
less  resolution,  savage  superstition,  rude  festivity,  and  ceaseless 
depredation  of  the  ancient  Scandinavians.  In  the  metrical 
romance,  we  pardon  the  long,  tedious,  and  bald  enumeration 
of  trifling  particulars ;  the  reiterated  sameness  of  the  eternal 
combats  between  knights  and  giants;  the  overpowering  lan 
guor  of  the  love  speeches,  and  the  merciless  length  and  simi 
larity  of  description  —  when  Fancy  whispers  to  us,  that  such 
strains  may  have  cheered  the  sleepless  pillow  of  the  Black 
Prince  on  the  memorable  eves  of  Cressy  or  Poictiers.  There 
is  a  certain  romance  of  Ferumbras,  which  Robert  the  Bruce 
read  to  his  few  followers,  to  divert  their  thoughts  from  the  des 
perate  circumstances  in  which  they  were  placed,  after  an  un 
successful  attempt  to  rise  against  the  English.  Is  there  a  true 
Scotsman  who,  being  aware  of  this  anecdote,  would  fee  dis 
posed  to  yawn  over  the  romance  of  Ferumbras  ?  Or,  on  the 
contrary,  would  not  the  image  of  the  dauntless  hero,  inflexible 
in  defeat,  beguiling  the  anxiety  of  his  war-worn  attendants  by 
the  lays  of  the  minstrel,  give  to  these  rude  lays  themselves  an 
interest  beyond  Greek  and  Roman  fame  ?  " 


242  LIFE    OP    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

The  year  1812  had  the  usual  share  of  minor  literary 
labours  —  such  as  contributions  to  the  journals ;  and 
before  it  closed,  the  Romance  of  Rokeby  was  finished. 
Though  it  had  been  long  in  hand,  the  MS.  sent  to  the 
printer  bears  abundant  evidence  of  its  being  the  prima 
cura :  three  cantos  at  least  reached  Ballantyne  through 
the  Melrose  post  —  written  on  paper  of  various  sorts  and 
sizes  —  full  of  blots  and  interlineations  —  the  closing 
couplets  of  a  despatch  now  and  then  encircling  the  page, 
and  mutilated  by  the  breaking  of  the  seal. 

According  to  the  recollection  of  Mr.  Cadell,  though 
James  Ballantyne  read  the  poem,  as  the  sheets  were  ad 
vancing  through  the  press,  to  his  usual  circle  of  literary 
dilettanti,  their  whispers  were  far  from  exciting  in  Edin 
burgh  such  an  intensity  of  expectation  as  had  been  wit 
nessed  in  the  case  of  The  Lady  of  the  Lake.  He  adds, 
however,  that  it  was  looked  for  with  undiminished  anx 
iety  in  the  south.  "  Send  me  Rokeby"  Byron  writes  to 
Murray  on  seeing  it  advertised,  —  "  Who  the  devil  is  he  ? 
No  matter  —  he  has  good  connexions,  and  will  be  well 
introduced."  *  Such,  I  suppose,  was  the  general  feeling 
in  London.  I  well  remember,  being  in  those  days  a 
young  student  at  Oxford,  how  the  booksellers'  shops 
there  were  beleaguered  for  the  earliest  copies,  and  how 
he  that  had  been  so  fortunate  as  to  secure  one,  was  fol 
lowed  to  his  chambers  by  a  tribe  of  friends,  all  as  eager 
to  hear  it  read  as  ever  horse-jockeys  were  to  see  the  con 
clusion  of  a  match  at  Newmarket ;  and  indeed  not  a  few 
of  those  enthusiastic  academics  had  bets  depending  on 
the  issue  of  the  struggle,  which  they  considered  the  elder 
favourite  as  making,  to  keep  his  own  ground  against  th« 
fiery  rivalry  of  Childe  Harold. 

*  Byron's  Life  and  Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  169. 


PUBLICATION    OP    ROKEBY  —  JAN.  1813.  243 

The  poem  was  published  a  day  or  two  before  Scott 
returned  to  Edinburgh  from  Abbotsford,  between  which 
place  and  Mertoun  he  had  divided  his  Christmas  vaca 
tion.  On  the  9th  and  10th  of  January  1813,  he  thus 
addresses  his  friends  at  Sunninghill  and  Hampstead :  — 

"  To  George  Ellis,  Esq., 

^""^  REE1 

"  My  Dear  Ellis,  —  I  am  sure  you  will  place  it  to  anything 
rather  than  want  of  kindness  that  I  have  been  so  long  silent 
—  so  very  long,  indeed,  that  I  am  not  quite  sure  whether  the 
fault  is  on  my  side  or  yours  —  but,  be  it  what  it  may,  it  can 
never,  I  am  sure,  be  laid  to  forgetfulness  in  either.  This 
comes  to  train  you  on  to  the  merciful  reception  of  a  Tale  of 
the  Civil  Wars ;  not  political,  however,  but  merely  a  pseudo- 
romance  of  pseudo-chivalry.  I  have  converted  a  lusty  bucca- 
nier  into  a  hero  with  some  effect ;  but  the  worst  of  all  my 
undertakings  is,  that  my  rogue  always,  in  despite  of  me,  turns 
out  my  hero.  I  know  not  how  this  should  be.  I  am  myself, 
as  Hamlet  says,  4  indifferent  honest ; '  and  my  father,  though 
an  attorney  (as  you  will  call  him),  was  one  of  the  most  honest 
men,  as  well  as  gentlemanlike,  that  ever  breathed.  I  am  sure 
I  can  bear  witness  to  that  —  for  if  he  had  at  all  smacked,  or 
grown  to,  like  the  son  of  Lancelot  Gobbo,  he  might  have  left  us 
all  as  rich  as  Croesus,  besides  having  the  pleasure  of  taking  a 
fine  primrose  path  himself,  instead  of  squeezing  himself  through 
a  tight  gate  and  up  a  steep  ascent,  and  leaving  us  the  decent 
competence  of  an  honest  man's  children.  As  to  our  more 
ancient  pedigree,  I  should  be  loath  to  vouch  for  them.  My 
grandfather  was  a  horse-jockey  and  cattle-dealer,  and  made  a 
fortune ;  my  great-grandfather  a  Jacobite  and  traitor  (as  the 
times  called  him),  and  lost  one ;  and  after  him  intervened  one 
or  two  half-starved  lairds,  who  rode  a  lean  horse,  and  were 
followed  by  leaner  greyhounds;  gathered  with  difficulty  a 
hundred  pounds  from  a  hundred  tenants;  fought  duels; 
cocked  their  hats,  —  and  called  themselves  gentlemen.  Then 


244         LIFE  OF  SIR  WALTER  SCOTT. 

we  come  to  the  old  Border  times,  cattle-driving,  halters,  and 
BO  forth,  for  which,  in  the  matter  of  honesty,  very  little  I  sup 
pose  can  be  said  —  at  least  in  modern  acceptation  of  the  word. 
Upon  the  whole,  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  owing  to  the  ear 
lier  part  of  this  inauspicious  generation  that  I  uniformly  find 
myself  in  the  same  scrape  in  my  fables,  and  that,  in  spite  of 
the  most  obstinate  determination  to  the  contrary,  the  greatest 
rogue  in  my  canvass  always  stands  out  as  the  most  conspicuous 
and  prominent  figure.  All  this  will  be  a  riddle  to  you,  unless 
you  have  received  a  certain  packet,  which  the  Ballantynes 
were  to  have  sent  under  Freeling's  or  Croker's  cover,  so  soon 
as  they  could  get  a  copy  done  up. 

"  And  now  let  me  gratulate  you  upon  the  renovated  vigour 
of  your  fine  old  friends  the  Russians.  By  the  Lord,  sir !  it  is 
most  famous  this  campaign  of  theirs.  I  was  not  one  of  the 
very  sanguine  persons  who  anticipated  the  actual  capture  of 
Buonaparte  —  a  hope  which  rather  proceeded  from  the  ignor 
ance  of  those  who  cannot  conceive  that  military  movements, 
upon  a  large  scale,  admit  of  such  a  force  being  accumulated 
upon  any  particular  point  as  may,  by  abandonment  of  other 
considerations,  always  ensure  the  escape  of  an  individual. 
But  I  had  no  hope,  in  my  time,  of  seeing  the  dry  bones  of  the 
Continent  so  warm  with  life  again,  as  this  revivification  of  the 
Russians  proves  them  to  be.  I  look  anxiously  for  the  effect 
of  these  great  events  on  Prussia,  and  even  upon  Saxony ;  for 
1  think  Boney  will  hardly  trust  himself  again  in  Germany, 
now  that  he  has  been  plainly  shown,  both  in  Spain  and  Rus 
sia,  that  protracted  stubborn  unaccommodating  resistance  will 
foil  those  grand  exertions  in  the  long-run.  All  laud  be  to 
Lord  Wellington,  who  first  taught  that  great  lesson. 

"  Charlotte  is  with  me  just  now  at  this  little  scrub  habita 
tion,  where  we  weary  ourselves  all  day  in  looking  at  our  pro 
jected  improvements,  and  then  slumber  over  the  fire,  I  pre 
tending  to  read,  and  she  to  work  trout-nets,  or  cabbage-nets; 
or  some  such  article.  What  is  Canning  about  ?  Is  there  any 
chance  of  our  getting  him  in  ?  Surely  Ministers  cannot  hope 


PUBLICATION    OF   ROKEBT.  245 

lo  do  without  him.  Believe  me,  Dear  Ellis,  ever  truly 
yours,  W.  SCOTT." 

"  Abbotsford.  9th  January  1813." 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 

"  Abbotsford,  January  10, 1813. 

"  Your  kind  encouragement,  my  dear  friend,  has  given  me 
spirits  to  complete  the  lumbering  quarto,  which  I  hope  has 
reached  you  by  this  time.  I  have  gone  on  with  my  story 
forth  right,  without  troubling  myself  excessively  about  the 
development  of  the  plot  and  other  critical  matters  — 

'  But  shall  we  go  mourn  for  that,  my  dear? 

The  pale  moon  shines  by  night; 
And  when  we  wander  here  and  there, 
We  then  do  go  most  right.' 

I  hope  you  will  like  Bertram  to  the  end ;  he  is  a  Caravaggio 
sketch,  which,  I  may  acknowledge  to  you  —  but  tell  it  not  in 
Gath  —  I  rather  pique  myself  upon  ;  and  he  is  within  the 
keeping  of  Nature,  though  critics  will  say  to  the  contrary.  It 
may  be  difficult  to  fancy  that  any  one  should  take  a  sort  of 
pleasure  in  bringing  out  such  a  character,  but  I  suppose  it  is 
partly  owing  to  bad  reading,  and  ill-directed  reading,  when  I 
was  young.  No  sooner  had  I  corrected  the  last  sheet  of  Roke- 
by,  than  I  escaped  to  this  Patmos  as  blythe  as  bird  on  tree, 
and  have  been  ever  since  most  decidedly  idle  —  that  is  to  say, 
with  busy  idleness.  I  have  been  banking,  and  securing,  and 
dyking  against  the  river,  and  planting  willows,  and  aspens, 
and  weeping-birches,  around  my  new  old  well,  which  I  think  I 
void  you  I  had  constructed  last  summer.  I  have  now  laid  the 
foundations  of  a  famous  background  of  copse,  with  pendant 
trees  in  front ;  and  I  have  only  to  beg  a  few  years  to  see  how 
my  colours  will  come  Dut  of  the  canvass.  Alas!  who  can 
promise  that  ?  But  somebody  will  take  my  place  —  and  enjoy 
them,  whether  I  do  or  no.  My  old  friend,  and  pastor,  Princi 
pal  Robertson  (the  historian),  when  he  was  not  expected  to 
survive  many  weeks,  still  watched  the  setting  of  the  blossoni 


246  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

upon  some  fruit-trees  in  the  garden  with  as  much  interest  as 
if  it  was  possible  he  could  have  seen  the  fruit  come  to  maturity, 
and  moralized  on  his  own  conduct,  by  observing  that  we  act 
upon  the  same  inconsistent  motive  throughout  life.  It  is  well 
we  do  so  for  those  that  are  to  come  after  us.  I  could  almost 
dislike  the  man  who  refuses  to  plant  walnut-trees,  because  they 
do  not  bear  fruit  till  the  second  generation ;  and  so  —  many 
thanks  to  our  ancestors,  and  much  joy  to  our  successors,  and 
truce  to  my  fine  and  very  new  strain  of  morality.  Yours  ever, 

"  W.  S." 

The  following  letter  lets  us  completely  behind  the 
scenes  at  the  publication  of  Rokeby.  The  "  horrid 
story  "  it  alludes  to  was  that  of  a  young  woman  found 
murdered  on  New  Year's  Day  in  the  highway  between 
Greta  Bridge  and  Barnard  Castle  —  a  crime,  the  perpe 
trator  of  which  was  never  discovered.  The  account  of  a 
parallel  atrocity  in  Galloway,  and  the  mode  of  its  detec 
tion,  will  show  the  reader  from  what  source  Scott  drew 
one  of  the  most  striking  incidents  in  his  Guy  Manner- 
ing : — 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  RoTceby  Park. 

"  Edinburgh,  12th  January  1813. 

"  Dear  Morritt,  —  Yours  I  have  just  received  in  mine  office 
at  the  Register-House,  which  will  excuse  this  queer  sheet  of 
paper.  The  publication  of  Rokeby  was  delayed  till  Monday, 
to  give  tb3  London  publishers  a  fair  start.  My  copies,  that  is, 
my  friends',  were  all  to  be  got  off  about  Friday  or  Saturday ; 
but  yours  may  have  been  a  little  later,  as  it  was  to  be  what 
they  cal1  a  picked  one.  I  will  call  at  Ballantyne's  as  I  return 
from  this  place,  and  close  the  letter  with  such  news  as  I  can 
get  about  it  there.  The  book  has  gone  off  here  very  bobbishly, 
for  the  impression  of  3000  and  upwards  is  within  two  or  three 
score  of  being  exhausted,  and  the  demand  for  these  continuing 
faster  than  they  can  be  boarded.  I  am  heartily  glad  of  this,  for 


PUBLICATION    OF    ROKEBY.  247 

now  I  have  nothing  to  fear  but  a  bankruptcy  in  the  Gazette 
of  Parnassus ;  but  the  loss  of  five  or  six  thousand  pounds  to 
my  good  friends  and  school-companions  would  have  afflicted 
me  very  much.  I  wish  we  could  whistle  you  here  to-day. 
Ballantyne  always  gives  a  christening  dinner,  at  which  the 
Duke  of  Buccleuch,  and  a  great  many  of  my  friends,  are  for 
mally  feasted.  He  has  always  the  best  singing  that  can  be 
heard  in  Edinburgh,  and  we  have  usually  a  very  pleasant 
party,  at  which  your  health  as  patron  and  proprietor  of  Koke- 
by  will  be  faithfully  and  honourably  remembered. 

"  Your  horrid  story  reminds  me  of  one  in  Galloway,  where 
the  perpetrator  of  a  similar  enormity  on  a  poor  idiot  girl,  was 
discovered  by  means  of  the  print  of  his  foot  which  he  left  upon 
the  clay  floor  of  the  cottage  in  the  death-struggle.  It  pleased 
Heaven  (for  nothing  short  of  a  miracle  could  have  done  it)  to 
enlighten  the  understanding  of  an  old  ram-headed  sheriff,  who 
was  usually  nick-named  Leather-head.  The  steps  which  he 
took  to  discover  the  murderer  were  most  sagacious.  As  the 
poor  girl  was  pregnant  (for  it  was  not  a  case  of  violation),  it 
was  pretty  clear  that  her  paramour  had  done  the  deed,  and 
equally  so  that  he  must  be  a  native  of  the  district.  The  sheriff 
caused  the  minister  to  advertise  from  the  pulpit  that  the  girl 
would  be  buried  on  a  particular  day,  and  that  all  persons  in 
the  neighbourhood  were  invited  to  attend  the  funeral,  to  show 
their  detestation  of  such  an  enormous  crime,  as  well  as  to 
ivince  their  own  innocence.  This  was  sure  to  bring  the  mur 
derer  to  the  funeral.  When  the  people  were  assembled  in  the 
kirk,  the  doors  were  locked  by  the  sheriff's  order,  and  the 
shoes  of  all  the  men  were  examined ;  that  cf  the  murderer 
was  detected  by  the  measure  of  the  foot,  tread,  &c.,  and  a 
peculiarity  in  the  mode  in  which  the  sole  of  one  of  them  had 
been  patched.  The  remainder  of  the  curious  chain  of  evidence 
upon  which  he  was  convicted  will  suit  best  with  twilight,  or  a 
blinking  candle,  being  too  long  for  a  letter.  The  fellow  bore  a 
most  excellent  character,  and  had  committed  this  crime  for  no 
other  reason  that  could  be  alleged,  than  that,  having  been  led 
accidentally  into  an  intrigue  with  this  poor  wretch?  his  pride 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

i-evolted  at  the  ridicule  which  was  likely  to  attend  the  dis 
covery. 

"  On  calling  at  Ballantyne's,  I  find,  as  I  had  anticipated, 
that  your  copy,  being  of  royal  size,  requires  some  particular 
nicety  in  hot-pressing.  It  will  be  sent  by  the  Carlisle  mail 
quam  primum.  —  Ever  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  P.  S.  —  Love  to  Mrs.  Morritt.  John  Ballantyne  says  hi 
has  just  about  eighty  copies  left,  out  of  3250,  this  being  the 
second  day  of  publication,  and  the  book  a  two-guinea  one." 

It  will  surprise  no  one  to  hear  that  Mr.  Morritt  as 
sured  his  friend  he  considered  Rokeby  as  the  best  of  all 
his  poems.  The  admirable,  perhaps  the  unique  fidelity 
of  the  local  descriptions,  might  alone  have  swayed,  for  I 
will  not  say  it  perverted,  the  judgment  of  the  lord  of  that 
beautiful  and  thenceforth  classical  domain ;  and,  indeed, 
I  must  admit  that  I  never  understood  or  appreciated  half 
the  charm  of  this  poem  until  I  had  become  familiar  with 
its  scenery.  But  Scott  himself  had  not  designed  to  rest 
his  strength  on  these  descriptions.  He  said  to  James 
Ballantyne  while  the  work  was  in  progress  (September 
2),  "I  hope  the  thing  will  do,  chiefly  because  the  world 
will  not  expect  from  me  a  poem  of  which  the  interest 
turns  upon  character ;"  and  in  another  letter  (October 
28,  1812),  "  I  think  you  will  see  the  same  sort  of  differ- 
$nce  taken  in  all  my  former  poems,  —  of  which  I  would 
nay,  if  it  is  fair  for  me  to  say  anything,  that  the  force  in 
the  Lay  is  thrown  on  style  —  in  Marmion,  on  description 
—  and  in  the  Lady  of  the  Lake,  on  incident."  *  I  sus- 

*  Several  letters  to  Ballantyne  on  the  same  subject  are  quoted  in  the 
notes  to  the  last  edition  of  Rokeby.  See  Scott's  Poetical  Works,  1841, 
p.  285 ;  and  especially  the  note  on  p.  346,  from  which  it  appears  tba* 
the  closing  stanza  was  added,  in  deference  to  Ballantyne  and  Ers« 
kine,  though  the  author  retained  his  own  opinion  that  "  it  spoilec 
«ne  effect  without  producing  another." 


ROKEBY.  249 

pect  some  of  these  distinctions  may  have  been  matters  of 
after-thought ;  but  as  to  Rokeby  there  can  be  no  mistake. 
His  own  original  conceptions  of  some  of  its  principal  char 
acters  have  been  explained  in  letters  already  cited ;  and 
I  believe  no  one  who  compares  the  poem  with  his  novels 
will  doubt  that,  had  he  undertaken  their  portraiture  in 
prose,  they  would  have  come  forth  with  effect  hardly 
inferior  to  any  of  all  the  groups  he  ever  created.  As  it 
is,  I  question  whether  even  in  his  prose  there  is  anything 
more  exquisitely  wrought  out,  as  well  as  fancied,  than 
the  whole  contrast  of  the  two  rivals  for  the  love  of  the 
heroine  in  Rokeby  ;  and  that  heroine  herself,  too,  has  a 
very  particular  interest  attached  to  her.  Writing  to  Miss 
Edgeworth  five  years  after  this  time  (10th  March  1818), 
he  says,  "  I  have  not  read  one  of  my  poems  since  they 
were  printed,  excepting  last  year  the  Lady  of  the  Lake, 
which  I  liked  better  than  I  expected,  but  not  well  enough 
to  induce  me  to  go  through  the  rest  —  so  I  may  truly  say 
with  Macbeth  — 

'  I  am  afraid  to  think  of  what  I've  done  — 
Look  on't  again  I  dare  not.' 

"  This  much  of  Matilda  I  recollect  —  (for  that  is  not  so 
easily  forgotten)  —  that  she  was  attempted  for  the  exist 
ing  person  of  a  lady  who  is  now  no  more,  so  that  I  am 
particularly  flattered  with  your  distinguishing  it  from  the 
others,  which  are  in  general  mere  shadows."  I  can  have 
no  doubt  that  the  lady  he  here  alludes  to,  was  the  object 
of  his  own  unfortunate  first  love ;  and  as  little,  that  in 
the  romantic  generosity,  both  of  the  youthful  poet  who 
fails  to  win  her  higher  favour,  and  of  his  chivalrous  com 
petitor,  we  have  before  us  something  more  than  "  a  mere 
shadow." 


250  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

In  spite  of  these  graceful  characters,  the  inimitable 
scenery  on  which  they  are  presented,  and  the  splendid 
vivacity  and  thrilling  interest  of  several  chapters  in  the 
story  —  such  as  the  opening  interview  of  Bertram  and 
Wy cliff —  the  flight  up  the  cliff  on  the  Greta  —  the  first 
entrance  of  the  cave  at  Brignall  —  the  firing  of  Rokeby 
Castle  —  and  the  catastrophe  in  Eglistone  Abbey ;  —  in 
spite  certainly  of  exquisitely  happy  lines  profusely  scat 
tered  throughout  the  whole  composition,  and  of  some  de 
tached  images  —  that  of  the  setting  of  lie_lropical__sun^* 
for  example  —  which  were  never  surpassed  by  any  poet ; 
in  spite  of  all  these  merits,  the  immediate  success  of 
Rokeby  was  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  the  Lady  of  the 
Lake ;  nor  has  it  ever  since  been  so  much  a  favourite 
with  the  public  at  large  as  any  other  of  his  poetical  ro 
mances.  He  ascribes  this  failure,  in  his  Introduction  of 
1830,  partly  to  the  radically  unpoetical  character  of  the 
Round-heads ;  but  surely  their  character  has  its  poetical 
side  also,  had  his  prejudices  allowed  him  to  enter  upon  its 
study  with  impartial  sympathy ;  and  I  doubt  not,  Mr. 
Morritt  suggested  the  difficulty  on  this  score,  when  the 
outline  of  the  story  was  as  yet  undetermined,  from  con 
sideration  rather  of  the  poet's  peculiar  feelings,  and  pow- 

*  "My  noontide,  India  may  declare; 
Like  her  fierce  sun,  I  fired  the  air ! 
Like  him,  to  wood  and  cave  bid  fly 
Her  natives,  from  mine  angry  eye ; 
And  now,  my  race  of  terror  run, 
Mine  be  the  eve  of  tropic  sun ! 
No  pale  gradations  quench  his  ray, 
No  twilight  dews  his  wrath  allay ; 
With  disk  like  battle -target  red, 
He  rushes  to  his  burning  bed. 
Dyes  the  wide  wave  with  bloody  light, 
Then  sinks  at  once  —  and  all  is  night."  —  Canto  vi.  21. 


ROKEBY 1813.  251 

ers  as  hitherto  exhibited,  than  of  the  subject  absolutely, 
Partly  he  blames  the  satiety  of  the  public  ear,  which  had 
had  so  much  of  his  rhythm,  not  only  from  himself,  but 
from  dozens  of  mocking-birds,  male  and  female,  all  more 
or  less  applauded  in  their  day,  and  now  all  equally  for 
gotten.*  This  circumstance,  too,  had  probably  no  slen 
der  effect ;  the  more  that,  in  defiance  of  all  the  hints  of 
his  friends,  he  now,  in  his  narrative,  repeated  (with  more 
negligence)  the  uniform  octosyllabic  couplets  of  the  Lady 
of  the  Lake,  instead  of  recurring  to  the  more  varied  ca 
dence  of  the  Lay  or  Marmion.  It  is  fair  to  add  that, 
among  the  London  circles  at  least,  some  sarcastic  flings 
in  Mr.  Moore's  "  Twopenny  Post  Bag "  must  have  had 
an  unfavourable  influence  on  this  occasion.!  But  the 
cause  of  failure  which  the  poet  himself  places  last,  was 

*  "  Scott  found  peculiar  favour  and  imitation  among  the  fair  sex. 
There  was  Miss  Holford,  and  Miss  Mitford,  and  Miss  Francis;  but,  with 
the  greatest  respect  be  it  spoken,  none  of  his  imitators  did  much  hon 
our  to  the  original  except  Hogg,  the  Ettrick  Shepherd,  until  the  ap 
pearance  of  '  The  Bridal  of  Triermain  '  and  '  Harold  the  Dauntless,' 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  equalled  if  not  surpassed  him;  and,  lo! 
after  three  or  four  years  they  turned  out  to  be  the  master's  own  com 
position." —  BYRON,  vol.  xv.  p.  96. 

f  See,  for  instance,  the  Epistle  of  Lady  Corke  —  or  that  of  Messrs, 
w.ackington,  booksellers,  to  one  of  their  dandy  authors  — 

"  Should  you  feel  any  touch  of  poetical  glow, 
We've  a  scheme  to  suggest  —  Mr.  Scott,  you  must  know 
(Who,  we're  sorry  to  say  it,  now  works  for  the  Row), 
Having  quitted  the  Borders  to  seek  new  renown, 
Is  coming  by  long  Quarto  stages  to  town, 
And  beginning  with  Rokeby  (the  job's  sure  to  pay); 
Means  to  do  all  the  gentlemen's  seats  ou  the  way. 
Now  the  scheme  is,  though  none  of  our  hackneys  can  beat  him, 
To  start  a  new  Poet  through  Highgate  to  meet  him ; 
Who  by  means  of  quick  proofs  —  no  revises  —  long  coaches  — 
May  do  a  few  Villas  before  Scott  approaches  ; 
.  Indeed  if  our  Pegasus  be  not  curst  shabby, 
He'll  reach  without  foundering,  at  least  Woburn- Abbey,"  &e. 


252  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

unquestionably  the  main  one.  The  deeper  and  darke* 
passion  of  Childe  Harold,  the  audacity  of  its  morbid  vo 
luptuousness,  and  the  melancholy  majesty  of  the  numbers 
in  which  it  defied  the  world,  had  taken  the  general  imag 
ination  by  storm  ;  and  Rokeby,  with  many  beauties  and 
some  sublimities,  was  pitched,  as  a  whole,  on  a  key  which 
seemed  tame  in  the  comparison. 

I  have  already  adverted  to  the  fact  that  Scott  felt  it  a 
relief,  not  a  fatigue,  to  compose  the  Bridal  of  Triermain 
pari  passu  with  Rokeby.  In  answer,  for  example,  to 
one  of  James  Ballantyne's  letters,  urging  accelerated 
speed  with  the  weightier  romance,  he  says,  "  I  fully  share 
in  your  anxiety  to  get  forward  the  grand  work ;  but,  I 
assure  you,  I  feel  the  more  confidence  from  coquetting 
with  the  guerilla." 

The  quarto  of  Rokeby  was  followed,  within  two 
months,  by  the  small  volume  which  had  been  designed 
for  a  twin-birth  ;  —  the  MS.  had  been  transcribed  by  one 
of  the  Ballantynes  themselves,  in  order  to  guard  against 
any  indiscretion  of  the  press-people  ;  and  the  mystifica 
tion,  aided  and  abetted  by  Erskine,  in  no  small  degree 
heightened  the  interest  of  its  reception.  Except  Mr. 
Morritt,  Scott  had,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  no  English  con 
fidant  upon  this  occasion.  Whether  any  of  his  daily 
companions  in  the  Parliament  House  were  in  the  secret, 
I  have  never  heard;  but  I  can  scarcely  believe  that 
any  of  those  intimate  friends,  who  had  known  him  and 
Erskine  from  their  youth  upwards,  could  have  for  a 
moment  believed  the  latter  capable  either  of  the  inven 
tion  or  the  execution  of  this  airy  and  fascinating  romance 
in  little.  Mr.  Jeffrey,  for  whom  chiefly  "  the  trap  had 
been  set,"  was  fax  too  sagacious  to  be  caught  in  it ;  but, 
as  it  happened,  he  made  a  voyage  that  year  to  America, 


BRIDAL    OF   TRIERMAIN  —  MARCH    1813.  253 

and  thus  lost  the  opportunity  of  immediately  expressing 
his  opinion  either  of  Rokeby  or  of  the  Bridal  of  Trier- 
main.  The  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review  (July  1813) 
seems  to  have  been  completely  deceived.  "  We  have 
already  spoken  of  it,"  says  the  critic,  "  as  an  imitation  of 
Mr.  Scott's  style  of  composition  ;  and  if  we  are  compelled 
to  make  the  general  approbation  more  precise  and  spe 
cific,  we  would  say,  that  if  it  be  inferior  in  vigour  to 
some  of  his  productions,  it  equals  or  surpasses  them  in 
elegance  and  beauty ;  that  it  is  more  uniformly  tender, 
and  far  less  infected  with  the  unnatural  prodigies  and 
coarseness  of  the  earlier  romances.  In  estimating  its 
merits,  however,  we  should  forget  that  it  is  offered  as  an 
imitation.  The  diction  undoubtedly  reminds  us  of  a 
rhythm  and  cadence  we  have  heard  before ;  but  the  sen 
timents,  descriptions,  and  characters,  have  qualities  that 
are  native  and  unborrowed." 

If  this  writer  was,  as  I  suppose,  Ellis,  he  probably  con 
sidered  it  as  a  thing  impossible  that  Scott  should  have 
engaged  in  such  a  scheme  without  giving  him  a  hint  of 
it ;  but  to  have  admitted  into  the  secret  any  one  who  was 
likely  to  criticise  the  piece,  would  have  been  to  sacrifice 
the  very  object  of  the  device.  Erskine's  own  suggestion, 
that  "  perhaps  a  quizzical  review  might  be  got  up,"  led, 
I  believe,  to  nothing  more  important  than  a  paragraph 
in  one  of  the  Edinburgh  newspapers.  He  may  be  par 
doned  for  having  been  not  a  little  flattered  to  find  it  gen 
erally  considered  as  not  impossible  that  he  should  have 
written  such  a  poem ;  and  I  have  heard  James  Ballan- 
tyne  say,  that  nothing  could  be  more  amusing  than  the 
Btyle  of  his  coquetting  on  the  subject  while  it  was  yet 
fresh ;  but  when  this  first  excitement  was  over,  his  nat- 
aral  feeling  of  what  was  due  to  himself,  as  well  as  to  his 


LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

friend,  dictated  many  a  remonstrance ;  and,  though  he 
ultimately  acquiesced  in  permitting  another  minor  ro 
mance  to  be  put  forth  in  the  same  manner,  he  did  so 
reluctantly,  and  was  far  from  acting  his  part  so  well. 

Scott  says,  in  the  Introduction  to  the  Lord  of  the  Isles, 
**  As  Mr.  Erskine  was  more  than  suspected  of  a  taste  for 
poetry,  and  as  I  took  care,  in  several  places,  to  mix  some 
thing  that  might  resemble  (as  far  as  was  in  my  power) 
my  friend's  feeling  and  manner,  the  train  easily  caught, 
and  two  large  editions  were  sold."  Among  the  passages 
to  which  he  here  alludes,  are  no  doubt  those  in  which 
the  character  of  the  minstrel  Arthur  is  shaded  with  the 
colourings  of  an  almost  effeminate  gentleness.  Yet,  in 
the  midst  of  them,  the  "  mighty  minstrel "  himself,  from 
time  to  time,  escapes ;  as,  for  instance,  where  the  lover 
bids  Lucy,  in  that  exquisite  picture  of  crossing  a  moun 
tain  stream,  trust  to  his  "stalwart  arm"  — 

"  Which  could  yon  oak's  prone  trunk  uprear." 

Nor  can  I  pass  the  compliment  to  Scott's  own  fair  patron 
ess,  where  Lucy's  admirer  is  made  to  confess,  with  some 
momentary  lapse  of  gallantry,  that  he 

"  Ne'er  won  —  best  meed  to  minstrel  true  — 
One  favouring  smile  from  fair  Buccleuch, 

jor  the  burst  of  genuine  Borderism,  — 

"Bewcastle  now  must  keep  the  hold, 

Spier- Adam's  steeds  must  bide  in  stall; 
Of  Hartley-burn  the  bowmen  bold 

Must  only  shoot  from  battled  wall; 
And  Liddesdale  may  buckle  spur, 

And  Tevio^now  may  belt  the  brand, 
Tarras  and  Ewes  keep  nightly  stir, 

And  Eskdale  foray  Cumberland."  — 


BRIDAL    OF   TRIEBMAIN 1813.  255 

But,  above  all,  the  choice  of  the  scenery,  both  of  the  In 
troductions  and  of  the  story  itself,  reveals  the  early  and 
treasured  predilections  of  the  poet.  For  who  that  re 
members  the  circumstances  of  his  first  visit  to  the  vale  of 
St.  John,  but  must  see  throughout  the  impress  of  his  own 
real  romance  ?  I  own  I  am  not  without  a  suspicion  that, 
in  one  passage,  which  always  seemed  to  me  a  blot  upon 
the  composition  —  that  in  which  Arthur  derides  the  mili 
tary  coxcombries  of  his  rival  — 

"  Who  comes  in  foreign  trashery 

Of  tinkling  chain  and  spur, 
A  walking  haberdashery 

Of  feathers,  lace,  and  fur; 
In  Rowley's  antiquated  phrase, 
Horse-milliner  of  modern  days  "  — 

there  is  a  sly  reference  to  the  incidents  of  a  certain  ball, 
of  August  1797,  at  the  Gilsland  Spa.* 

Among  the  more  prominent  Erskinisms,  are  the  eulo 
gistic  mention  of  Glasgow,  the  scene  of  Erskine's  educa 
tion  ;  and  the  lines  on  Collins  —  a  supplement  to  whose 
Ode  on  the  Highland  Superstitions  is,  as  far  as  I  know, 
the  only  specimen  that  ever  was  published  of  Erskine's 
verse,  f 

As  a  whole,  the  Bridal  of  Triermain  appears  to  me  as 
characteristic  of  Scott  as  any  of  his  larger  poems.  His 
genius  pervades  and  animates  it  beneath  a  thin  and  play 
ful  veil,  which  perhaps  adds  as  much  of  grace  as  it  takes 
away  of  splendour.  As  Wordsworth  says  of  the  eclipse 
on  the  lake  of  Lugano  — 

"  'Tis  sunlight  sheathed  and  gently  charmed; " 

*  See  ante,  vol.  i.  p.  301. 

t  It  is  included  in  the  Border  Minstrelsy,  vol.  i.  p.  270. 
17 


256  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

and  I  think  there  is  at  once  a  lightness  and  a  polish  of 
versification  beyond  what  he  has  elsewhere  attained.  If 
it  be  a  miniature,  it  is  such  a  one  as  a  Cooper  might 
have  hung  fearlessly  beside  the  masterpieces  of  Van 
dyke. 

The  Introductions  contain  some  of  the  most  exquisite 
passages  he  ever  produced ;  but  their  general  effect  haa 
always  struck  me  as  unfortunate.  No  art  can  reconcile 
us  to  contemptuous  satire  of  the  merest  frivolities  of 
modern  life  —  some  of  them  already,  in  twenty  years, 
grown  obsolete  —  interlaid  between  such  bright  visions 
of  the  old  world  of  romance,  when 

"  Strength  was  gigantic,  valour  high, 
And  wisdom  soared  beyond  the  sky, 
And  beauty  had  such  matchless  beam 
As  lights  not  now  a  lover's  dream." 

The  fall  is  grievous,  from  the  hoary  minstrel  of  Newark, 
and  his  feverish  tears  on  Killiecrankie,  to  a  pathetic 
swain,  who  can  stoop  to  denounce  as  objects  of  his  jeal 
ousy — 

"  The  landaulet  and  four  blood  bays  — 
The  Hessian  boot  and  pantaloon." 

Before  Triermain  came  out,  Scott  had  taken  wing  for 
Abbotsford  ;  and  indeed  he  seems  to  have  so  contrived  it 
in  his  earlier  period,  that  he  should  not  be  in  Edinburgh 
when  any  unavowed  work  of  his  was  published ;  whereas, 
from  the  first,  in  the  case  of  books  that  bore  his  name  on 
the  title-page,  he  walked  as  usual  to  the  Parliament 
House,  and  bore  all  the  buzz  and  tattle  of  friends  and 
acquaintance  with  an  air  of  good-humoured  equanimity, 
or  rather  total  apparent  indifference.  The  following  let- 
ter,  which  contains  some  curious  matter  of  more  kinds 


LETTER    TO    JOANNA   BAILLIE 1813.  257 

than  one,  was  written  partly  in  town  and  partly  in  the 
country :  — 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

"  Edinburgh,  March  13,  1813. 

"My  Dearest  Friend,  —  The  pinasters  have  arrived  safe, 
and  I  can  hardly  regret,  while  1  am  so  much  flattered  by,  the 
trouble  you  have  had  in  collecting  them.  I  have  got  some 
wild  larch  trees  from  Loch  Katrine,  and  both  are  to  be  planted 
next  week,  when,  God  willing,  I  shall  be  at  Abbotsford  to 
superintend  the  operation.  I  have  got  a  little  corner  of  ground 
laid  out  for  a  nursery,  where  I  shall  rear  them  carefully  till 
they  are  old  enough  to  be  set  forth  to  push  their  fortune  on  the 
banks  of  Tweed.  —  What  I  shall  finally  make  of  this  villa-work 
I  don't  know,  but  in  the  meantime  it  is  very  entertaining.  I 
shall  have  to  resist  very  flattering  invitations  this  season ;  for  1 
have  received  hints,  from  more  quarters  than  one,  that  my  bow 
would  be  acceptable  at  Carlton  House  in  case  I  should  be  in 
London,  which  is  very  flattering,  especially  as  there  were  some 
prejudices  to  be  got  over  in  that  quarter.  I  should  be  in  some 
danger  of  giving  new  offence,  too ;  for,  although  I  utterly 
disapprove  of  the  present  rash  and  ill-advised  course  of  the 
princess,  yet,  as  she  always  was  most  kind  and  civil  to  me,  I 
certainly  could  not,  as  a  gentleman,  decline  obeying  any  com 
mands  she  might  give  me  to  wait  upon  her,  especially  in  her 
present  adversity.  So,  though  I  do  not  affect  to  say  I  should 
be  sorry  to  take  an  opportunity  of  peeping  at  the  splendours 
of  royalty,  prudence  and  economy  will  keep  me  quietly  at 
home  till  another  day.  My  great  amusement  here  this  some 
time  past  has  been  going  almost  nightly  to  see  John  Kemble, 
vho  certainly  is  a  great  artist.  It  is  a  pity  he  shows  too  much 
of  his  machinery.  I  wish  he  could  be  double-capped,  as  they 
say  of  watches  ;  —  but  the  fault  of  too  much  study  certainly 
does  not  belong  to  many  of  his  tribe.  He  is,  I  think,  very 
great  in  those  parts  especially  where  character  is  tinged  by 
*ome  acquired  and  systematic  habits,  like  those  of  the  Stoic 


258  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

philosophy  in  Cato  and  Brut  us,  or  of  misanthropy  in  Penrud- 
dock ;  but  sudden  turns  and  natural  bursts  of  passion  arc  not 
his  forte.  I  saw  him  play  Sir  Giles  Overreach  (the  Richard 
III.  of  middling  life)  last  night;  but  he  came  not  within  a 
hundred  miles  of  Cooke,  whose  terrible  visage,  and  short, 
abrupt,  and  savage  utterance,  gave  a  reality  almost  to  that  ex 
traordinary  scene  in  which  he  boasts  of  his  own  successful  vil- 
lany  to  a  nobleman  of  worth  and  honour,  of  whose  alliance  he 
is  ambitious.  Cooke  contrived  somehow  to  impress  upon  the 
audience  the  idea  of  such  a  monster  of  enormity  as  had  learned 
to  pique  himself  even  upon  his  own  atrocious  character.  But 
Kemble  was  too  handsome,  too  plausible,  and  too  smooth,  to 
admit  its  being  probable  that  he  should  be  blind  to  the  un 
favourable  impression  which  these  extraordinary  vaunts  are 
likely  to  make  on  the  person  whom  he  is  so  anxious  to  con 
ciliate. 

"  Abbotsford,  21st  March. 

"  This  letter,  begun  in  Edinburgh,  is  to  take  wing  from  Ab 
botsford.  John  Winnos  (now  John  Winnos  is  the  sub-oracle 
of  Abbotsford,  the  principal  being  Tom  Purdie)  —  John  Win 
nos  pronounces  that  the  pinaster  seed  ought  to  be  raised  at 
first  on  a  hot-bed,  and  thence  transplanted  to  a  nursery  ;  so  to 
a  hot-bed  they  have  been  carefully  consigned,  the  upper  oracle 
not  objecting,  in  respect  his  talent  lies  in  catching  a  salmon,  or 
finding  a  hare  sitting  —  on  which  occasions  (being  a  very  com 
plete  Scrub)  he  solemnly  exchanges  his  working  jacket  for  an 
old  green  one  of  mine,  and  takes  the  air  of  one  of  Robin 
Hood's  followers.  His  more  serious  employments  are  plough 
ing,  harrowing,  and  overseeing  all  my  premises ;  being  a  com 
plete  jack-of-all-trades,  from  the  carpenter  to  the  shepherd, 
nothing  comes  strange  to  him ;  and  being  extremely  honest, 
and  somewhat  of  a  humourist,  he  is  quite  my  right  hand.  I 
cannot  help  singing  his  praises  at  this  moment,  because  I  have 
BO  many  odd  and  out-of-the-way  things  to  do,  that  I  believe  the 
conscience  of  many  of  our  jog-trot  countrymen  would  revolt 
It  being  made  my  instrument  in  sacrificing  good  corn-laud  to 


LETTER    TO    LADY    LOUISA    STUART.  259 

the  visions  of  Mr.  Price's  theory.  Mr.  Pinkerton,  the  histo 
rian,  has  a  play  coming  out  at  Edinburgh ;  it  is  by  no  means 
bad  poetry,  yet  I  think  it  will  not  be  popular ;  the  people  come 
and  go,  and  speak  very  notable  things  in  good  blank  verse,  but 
there  is  no  very  strong  interest  excited  ;  the  plot  also  is  disa 
greeable,  and  liable  to  the  objections  (though  in  a  less  degree) 
which  have  been  urged  against  the  Mysterious  Mother ;  it  is 
to  be  acted  on  Wednesday ;  I  will  let  you  know  its  fate.  P., 
with  whom  I  am  in  good  habits,  showed  the  MS.,  but  I  re 
ferred  him,  with  such  praise  as  I  could  conscientiously  bestow, 
to  the  players  and  the  public.  I  don't  know  why  one  should 
take  the  task  of  damning  a  man's  play  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  proper  tribunal.  Adieu,  my  dear  friend.  I  have  scarce 
room  for  love  to  Miss,  Mrs.,  and  Dr.  B.  W.  SCOTT." 

To  this  I  add  a  letter  to  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  who  had 
sent  him  a  copy  of  these  lines,  found  by  Lady  Douglas 
on  the  back  of  a  tattered  bank-note  — 

"  Farewell,  my  note,  and  wheresoe'er  ye  wend, 
Shun  gaudy  scenes,  and  be  the  poor  man's  friend. 
You've  left  a  poor  one ;  go  to  one  as  poor, 
And  drive  despair  and  hunger  from  his  door." 

It  appears  that  these  noble  friends  had  adopted,  or 
feigned  to  adopt,  the  belief  that  the  Bridal  of  Triermain 
was  a  production  of  Mr.  R.  P.  Gillies  —  who  had  about 
this  time  published  an  imitation  of  Lord  Byron's  JKo- 
maunt,  under  the  title  of  "Childe  Alarique." 

"  To  the  Lady  Louisa  Stuart,  Bothwett  Castle. 

"  Abbotsford,  28th  April  1813. 

"  Dear  Lady  Louisa,  —  Nothing  can  give  me  more  pleasure 
than  to  hear  from  you,  because  it  is  both  a  most  acceptable 
favour  to  me,  and  also  a  sign  that  your  own  spirits  are  recov 
ering  their  tone.  Ladies  are,  I  think,  very  fortunate  in  having 
%  resource  in  work  at  a  time  when  the  mind  rejects  intellectual 


260  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

amusement.  Men  have  no  resource  but  striding  up 
the  room,  like  a  bird  that  beats  itself  to  pieces  against  the  bars 
of  its  cage ;  whereas  needle-work  is  a  sort  of  sedative,  too  me 
chanical  to  worry  the  mind  by  distracting  it  from  the  points  on 
which  its  musings  turn,  yet  gradually  assisting  it  in  regaining 
steadiness  and  composure ;  for  so  curiously  are  our  bodies  and 
minds  linked  together,  that  the  regular  and  cctistant  employ 
ment  of  the  former  on  any  process,  however  dull  and  uniform, 
has  the  effect  of  tranquillizing,  where  it  cannot  disarm,  the  feel 
ings  of  the  other.  I  am  very  much  pleased  with  the  lines  on  the 
guinea  note,  and  if  Lady  Douglas  does  not  object,  I  would  wil 
lingly  mention  the  circumstance  in  the  Edinburgh  Annual  Reg 
ister.  I  think  it  will  give  the  author  great  delight  to  know  that 
his  lines  had  attracted  attention,  and  had  sent  the  paper  on 
which  they  were  recorded,  '  heaven-directed,  to  the  poor.'  Of 
course  I  would  mention  no  names.  There  was,  as  your  Lady 
ship  may  remember,  some  years  since,  a  most  audacious  and 
determined  murder  committed  on  a  porter  belonging  to  the 
British  Linen  Company's  Bank  at  Leith,  who  was  stabbed  to 
the  heart  in  broad  daylight,  and  robbed  of  a  large  sum  in 
notes.*  If  ever  this  crime  comes  to  light,  it  will  be  through 
the  circumstance  of  an  idle  young  fellow  having  written  part 
of  a  playhouse  song  on  one  of  the  notes,  which,  however,  has 
as  yet  never  appeared  in  circulation. 

"  I  am  very  glad  you  like  Rokeby,  which  is  nearly  out  of 
fashion  and  memory  with  me.  It  has  been  wonderfully  pop 
ular,  about  ten  thousand  copies  having  walked  off  already,  in 
about  three  months,  and  the  demand  continuing  faster  than  it 
can  be  supplied.  As  to  my  imitator,  the  Knight  of  Triermain, 
I  will  endeavour  to  convey  to  Mr.  Gillies  (puisque  Gillies  il 
esf)  your  Ladyship's  very  just  strictures  on  the  Introduction  to 
the  second  Canto.  But  if  he  takes  the  opinion  of  a  hacked 
old  author  like  myself,  he  will  content  himself  with  avoiding 
such  bevues  in  future,  without  attempting  to  mend  those  which 

*  This  murder,  perpetrated  in  November  1806,  remains  a  mystery 
in  1841.  The  porter's  name  was  Begbie. 


LETTER    TO    LADT    LOUISA    STUART.  261 

are  already  made.  There  is  an  ominous  old  proverb  which 
Bays,  confess  and  be  hanged ;  and  truly  if  an  author  acknowl 
edges  his  own  blunders,  I  do  not  know  who  he  can  expect  to 
stand  by  him ;  whereas,  let  him  confess  nothing,  and  he  will 
always  find  some  injudicious  admirers  to  vindicate  even  his 
faults.  So  that  I  think  after  publication  the  effect  of  criticism 
should  be  prospective,  in  which  point  of  view  I  dare  say  Mr. 
G.  will  take  your  friendly  hint,  especially  as  it  is  confirmed  by 
that  of  the  best  judges  who  have  read  the  poem.  —  Here  is 
beautiful  weather  for  April !  an  absolute  snow-storm  mortify 
ing  me  to  the  core  by  retarding  the  growth  of  all  my  young 
trees  and  shrubs.  —  Charlotte  begs  to  be  most  respectfully  re 
membered  to  your  Ladyship  and  Lady  D.  We  are  realizing 
the  nursery  tale  of  the  man  and  his  wife  who  lived  in  a  vine 
gar  bottle,  for  our  only  sitting-room  is  just  twelve  feet  square, 
and  my  Eve  alleges  that  I  am  too  big  for  our  paradise.  To 
make  amends,  I  have  created  a  tolerable  garden,  occupying 
about  an  English  acre,  which  I  begin  to  be  very  fond  of. 
When  one  passes  forty,  an  addition  to  the  quiet  occupations  of 
life  becomes  of  real  value,  for  I  do  not  hunt  and  fish  with  quite 
the  relish  I  did  ten  years  ago.  Adieu,  my  dear  Lady  Louisa, 
and  all  good  attend  you.  WALTER  SOOTT." 


262  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

Affairs  of  John  Ballantyne  and  Co.  —  Causes  of  their  Derange* 
ment — -Letters  of  Scott  to  his  Partners  —  Negotiation  for 
Relief  with  Messrs.  Constable  —  New  Purchase  of  Land  at 
Abbotsford  —  Embarrassments  continued  —  John  Ballan- 
tyne's  Expresses  —  Drumlanrig,  Penrith,  fyc.  —  Scott's 
Meeting  with  the  Marquis  of  Abercorn  at  Longtown — His 
Application  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  —  Offer  of  the  Poet- 
Laureateship  —  considered  —  and  declined —  Address  of  the 
City  of  Edinburgh  to  the  Prince-Regent  —  its  Reception  — 
Civic  Honours  conferred  on  Scott  —  Question  of  Taxation  on 
Literary  Income  —  Letters  to  Mr.  Morritt,  Mr.  Southey^ 
Mr.  Richardson,  Mr.  Crabbe,  Miss  Baillie,  and  Lord 
Byrun. 

1813. 

ABOUT  a  month  after  the  publication  of  the  Bridal  of 
Triermain,  the  affairs  of  Messrs.  Ballantyne,  which  had 
never  apparently  been  in  good  order  since  the  establish 
ment  of  the  bookselling  firm,  became  so  embarrassed  as 
to  call  for  Scott's  most  anxious  efforts  to  disentangle 
them.  Indeed,  it  is  clear  that  there  had  existed  some 
very  serious  perplexity  in  the  course  of  the  preceding 
autumn ;  for  Scott  writes  to  John  Ballantyne,  while 
Rokeby  was  in  progress  (August  11,  1812) — "I  have 
&  letter  from  James,  very  anxious  about  your  health  and 
state  of  spirits.  If  you  suffer  the  present  inconveniences 


JOHN    BALLANTYNE    AND    CO.  263 

to  depress  you  too  much,  you  are  wrong ;  and  if  you  con 
ceal  any  part  of  them,  are  very  unjust  to  us  all.  I  am 
always  ready  to  make  any  sacrifices  to  do  justice  to 
engagements,  and  would  rather  sell  anything,  or  every 
thing,  than  be  less  than  true  men  to  the  world." 

I  have  already,  perhaps,  said  enough  to  account  for 
the  general  want  of  success  in  this  publishing  adventure ; 
but  Mr.  James  Ballantyne  sums  up  the  case  so  briefly  in 
his  death-bed  paper,  that  I  may  here  quote  his  words. 
"  My  brother,"  he  says,  "  though  an  active  and  pushing, 
was  not  a  cautious  bookseller,  and  the  large  sums  re 
ceived  never  formed  an  addition  to  stock.     In  fact,  they 
were   all   expended  by  the   partners,  who,  being  then 
young  and   sanguine  men,  not  unwillingly  adopted   my 
brother's  hasty  results.     By  May  1813,  in  a  word,  the 
absolute  throwing  away  of  our  own  most  valuable  publi 
cations,  and  the  rash  adoption  of  some  injudicious  specu 
lations   of  Mr.    Scott,  had   introduced   such   losses  and 
embarrassments,  that  after  a  very  careful  consideration, 
Mr.  Scott  determined  to  dissolve  the  concern."     He  adds, 
—  "  This  became  a  matter  of  less  difficulty,  because  time 
had  in  a  great  measure  worn  away  the  differences  be 
tween  Mr.  Scott  and  Mr.  Constable,  and  Mr.  Hunter  was 
now  out  of  Constable's  concern.*     A  peace,  therefore, 
was  speedily  made  up,  and  the  old  habits  of  intercourse 
were  restored." 

How  reluctantly  Scott  had  made  up  his  mind  to  open 
such  a  negotiation  with  Constable,  as  involved  a  complete 
exposure  of  the  mismanagement  of  John  Ballantyne's  bus 
iness  as  a  publisher,  will  appear  from  a  letter  dated  about 
the  Christmas  of  1812,  in  which  he  says  to  James,  who 
had  proposed  asking  Constable  to  take  a  share  both  in 
*  Mr.  Hunter  died  in  March  1812. 


264  LIFE    OF    SIB   WALTER    SCOTT. 

Rokeby  and  in  the  Annual  Register,  "You  must  bo 
aware,  that  in  stating  the  objections  which  occur  to  me 
to  taking  in  Constable,  I  think  they  ought  to  give  way 
either  to  absolute  necessity  or  to  very  strong  grounds  of 
advantage.  But  I  am  persuaded  nothing  ultimately 
good  can  be  expected  from  any  connexion  with  that 
house,  unless  for  those  who  have  a  mind  to  be  hewers  of 
wood  and  drawers  of  water.  We  will  talk  the  matter 
coolly  over,  and  in  the  meanwhile,  perhaps  you  could 
see  W.  Erskine,  and  learn  what  impression  this  odd 
union  is  like  to  make  among  your  friends.  Erskine  is 
sound-headed,  and  quite  to  be  trusted  with  your  whole 
story.  I  must  own  I  can  hardly  think  the  purchase  of 
the  Register  is  equal  to  the  loss  of  credit  and  character 
which  your  surrender  will  be  conceived  to  infer."  At 
the  time  when  he  wrote  this,  Scott  no  doubt  anticipated 
that  Rokeby  would  have  success  not  less  decisive  than 
the  Lady  of  the  Lake ;  but  in  this  expectation  —  though 
10,000  copies  in  three  months  would  have  seemed  to 
any  other  author  a  triumphant  sale  —  he  had  been  dis 
appointed.  And  meanwhile  the  difficulties  of  the  firm 
accumulating  from  week  to  week,  had  reached,  by  the 
middle  of  May,  a  point  which  rendered  it  absolutely 
necessary  for  him  to  conquer  all  his  scruples. 

Mr.  Cadell,  then  Constable's  partner,  says  in  his  Mem' 
oranda,  — "  Prior  to  this  time  the  reputation  of  John 
Ballantyne  and  Co.  had  been  decidedly  on  the  decline. 
It  was2  notorious  in  the  trade  that  their  general  specu 
lations  had  been  unsuccessful ;  they  were  known  to  be 
grievously  in  want  of  money.  These  rumours  were 
realized  to  the  full  by  an  application  which  Messrs.  B. 
made  to  Mr.  Constable  in  May  1813,  for  pecuniary  aid, 
accompanied  by  an  offer  of  some  of  the  books  they  had 


JOHN    BALLANTTNE    A.ND    CO.  265 

published  since  1809,  as  a  purchase,  along  with  various 
shares  in  Mr.  Scott's  own  poems.  Their  difficulties 
were  admitted,  and  the  negotiation  was  pressed  urgent 
ly;  so  much  so,  that  a  pledge  was  given,  that  if  the 
terms  asked  were  acceded  to,  John  Ballantyne  and  Co. 
would  endeavour  to  wind  up  their  concerns,  and  cease  as 
soon  as  possible  to  be  publishers."  Mr.  Cadell  adds  — 
"I  need  hardly  remind  you  that  this  was  a  period  of 
very  great  general  difficulty  in  the  money  market.  It 
was  the  crisis  of  the  war.  The  public  expenditure  had 
reached  an  enormous  height ;  and  even  the  most  pros 
perous  mercantile  houses  were  often  pinched  to  sustain 
their  credit.  It  may  easily,  therefore,  be  supposed  that 
the  Messrs.  Ballantyne  had  during  many  months  besieged 
every  banker's  door  in  Edinburgh,  and  that  their  agents 
had  done  the  like  in  London." ' 

The  most  important  of  the  requests  which  the  labour 
ing  house  made  to  Constable  was,  that  he  should  forth 
with  take  ^entirely  to  himself  the  stock,  copyright,  and 
future  management  of  the  Edinburgh  Annual  Register. 
Upon  examining  the  state  of  this  book,  however,  Consta 
ble  found  that  the  loss  on  it  had  never  been  less  than 
£1000  per  annum,  and  he  therefore  declined  that  matter 
for  the  present.  He  promised,  however,  to  consider  seri 
ously  the  means  he  might  have  of  ultimately  relieving 
them  from  the  pressure  of  the  Register,  and,  in  the  mean 
time,  offered  to  take  300  sets  of  the  stock  on  hand.  The 
other  purchases  he  finally  made  on  the  18th  of  May, 
were  considerable  portions  of  Weber's  unhappy  Beau 
mont  and  Fletcher  —  of  an  edition  of  De  Foe's  novels 
in  twelve  volumes  —  of  a  collection  entitled  Tales  of  the 
East  in  three  large  volumes,  8vo,  double-columned  — 
and  of  another  in  on^  volume,  called  Popular  Tales  — 


266  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

about  800  copies  of  the  Vision  of  Don  Roderick  —  and 
a  fourth  of  the  remaining  copyright  of  Rokeby,  price 
£700.  The  immediate  accommodation  thus  received 
amounted  to  £2000  ;  and  Scott,  who  had  personally  con 
ducted  the  latter  part  of  the  negotiation,  writes  thus  to 
his  junior  partner,  who  had  gone  a  week  or  two  earlier 
to  London  in  quest  of  some  similar  assistance  there  :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne,  care  of  Messrs.  Longman  if  Co., 
London. 

"  Printing-Office,  May  18th,  1813. 

"  Dear  John,  —  After  many  offis  and  ons,  and  as  many  pro- 
jets  and  contre-projets  as  the  treaty  of  Amiens,  I  have  at 
length  concluded  a  treaty  with  Constable,  in  which  I  am  sensi 
ble  he  has  gained  a  great  advantage ;  *  but  what  could  I  do 
amidst  the  disorder  and  pressure  of  so  many  demands  ?  The 
arrival  of  your  long-dated  bills  decided  my  giving  in,  for  what 
could  James  or  I  do  with  them?  I  trust  this  sacrifice  has 
cleared  our  way,  but  many  rubs  remain ;  nor  am  I,  after  these 
hard  skirmishes,  so  able ..  to  meet  them  by  my  proper  credit. 
Constable,  however,  will  be  a  zealous  ally ;  and  for  the  first 
time  these  many  weeks  I  shall  lay  my  head  on  a  quiet  pillow, 
for  now  I  do  think  that,  by  our  joint  exertions,  we  shall  get 
well  through  the  storm,  save  Beaumont  from  depreciation,  get 
a  partner  in  our  heavy  concerns,  reef  our  topsails,  and  move 
on  securely  under  an  easy  sail.  And  if,  on  the  one  hand,  I 
have  sold  my  gold  too  cheap,  I  have,  on  the  other,  turned  my 
lead  to  gold.  Brewster  f  and  Singers  J  are  the  only  heavy 

*  "  These  and  after  purchases  of  books  from  the  stock  of  J.  Ballan 
tyne  and  Co.  were  resold  to  the  trade  by  Constable's  firm,  at  less  than 
<»ne  half  and  one  third  of  the  prices  at  which  they  were  thus  obtained." 
—  Note,  from  Mr.  R.  Cadell 

t  Dr.  Brewster's  edition  of  Ferguson's  Astronomy,  2  vols.  8vo,  witk 
plates,  4to,  Edin.  1811.  36s. 

J  Dr.  Singers'  General  View  of  the  County  of  Dumfries,  8vo,  Edia 
1812.  18s. 


JOHN    BALLANTYNE    AND    CO.  267 

things  to  which  I  have  not  given  a  blue  eye.  Had  your  news 
of  CadelFs  sale  *  reached  us  here,  I  could  not  have  harpooned 
my  grampus  so  deeply  as  I  have  done,  as  nothing  but  Rokeby 
would  have  barbed  the  hook. 

"  Adieu,  my  dear  John.  I  have  the  most  sincere  regard  for 
you,  and  you  may  depend  on  my  considering  your  interest 
with  quite  as  much  attention  as  my  own.  If  I  have  ever  ex 
pressed  myself  with  irritation  in  speaking  of  this  business,  you 
must  impute  it  to  the  sudden,  extensive,  and  unexpected  em 
barrassments  in  which  I  found  myself  involved  all  at  once.  If 
to  your  real  goodness  of  heart  and  integrity,  and  to  the  quick 
ness  and  acuteness  of  your  talents,  you  added  habits  of  more 
universal  circumspection,  and,  above  all,  the  courage  to  tell 
disagreeable  truths  to  those  whom  you  hold  in  regard,  I  pro 
nounce  that  the  world  never  held  such  a  man  of  business. 
These  it  must  be  your  study  to  add  to  your  other  good  quali 
ties.  Meantime,  as  some  one  says  to  Swift,  I  love  you  with 
all  your  failings.  Pray  make  an  effort  and  love  me  with  all 
mine.  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 

Three  days  afterwards,  Scott  resumes  the  subject  as 
follows :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne,  London. 

"  Edinburgh,  21st  May  1813. 

"  Dear  John,  —  Let  it  never  escape  your  recollection,  that 
shutting  your  own  eyes,  or  blinding  those  of  your  friends,  upon 
the  actual  state  of  business,  is  the  high  road  to  ruin.  Mean 
while,  we  have  recovered  our  legs  for  a  week  or  two.  Con 
stable  will,  I  think,  come  in  to  the  Register.  He  is  most  anx 
ious  to  maintain  the  printing-office ;  he  sees  most  truly  that  the 
more  we  print  the  less  we  publish  ;  and  for  the  same  reason  he 
will,  I  think,  help  us  off  with  our  heavy  quire-stock. 

u  I  was  aware  of  the  distinction  between  the  state  and  the 
calendar  as  to  the  latter  including  the  printing-office  bills,  and 

*  A  trade  sale  of  Messrs.  Cadell  and  Davies  in  the  Strand. 


208  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCO1T. 

I  summed  and  docked  them  (they  are  marked  with  red  ink), 
but  there  is  still  a  difference  of  £2000  and  upwards  on  the 
calendar  against  the  business.  I  sometimes  fear  that,  between 
the  long  dates  of  your  bills,  and  the  tardy  settlements  of  the 
Edinburgh  trade,  some  difficulties  will  occur  even  in  June; 
and  July  I  always  regard  with  deep  anxiety.  As  for  loss,  if  I 
get  out  without  public  exposure,  I  shall  not  greatly  regard  tLe 
rest.  Radcliffe  the  physician  said,  when  he  lost  £2000  on  the. 
South-Sea  scheme,  it  was  only  going  up  2000  pair  of  stairs ;  I 
say,  it  is  only  writing  2000  couplets,  and  the  account  is  bal 
anced.  More  of  this  hereafter.  Yours  truly,  W.  SCOTT. 

"  P.  S.  —  James  has  behaved  very  well  during  this  whole 
transaction,  and  has  been  most  steadily  attentive  to  business. 
I  am  convinced  that  the  more  he  works  the  better  his  health 
will  be.  One  or  other  of  you  will  need  to  be  constantly  in  the 
printing-office  henceforward  —  it  is  the  sheet-anchor." 

The  allusion  in  this  postscript  to  James  Ballantyne'j 
health  reminds  me  that  Scott's  letters  to  himself  are  full 
of  hints  on  that  subject,  even  from  a  very  early  period  of 
their  connexion  ;  and  these  hints  are  all  to  the  same 
effect.  James  was  a  man  of  lazy  habits,  and  not  a  little 
addicted  to  the  more  solid,  and  perhaps  more  dangerous, 
part  of  the  indulgencies  of  the  table.  One  letter  (dated 
Ashestiel,  1810)  will  be  a  sufficient  specimen  :  — 

"  To  Mr.  James  Ballantyne. 

"  My  Dear  James,  —  I  am  very  sorry  for  the  state  of  your 
health,  and  should  be  still  more  so,  were  I  not  certain  that  I 
can  prescribe  for  you  as  well  as  any  physician  in  Edinburgh. 
You  have  naturally  an  athletic  constitution  and  a  hearty 
stomach,  and  these  agree  very  ill  with  a  sedentary  life  and  the 
habits  of  indolence  which  it  brings  on.  Your  stomach  thus 
gets  weak ;  and  from  those  complaints  of  all  others  arise  most 
certainly  flatulence,  hypochondria,  and  all  the  train  of  un« 


JOHN    BALLANTYNE   AND    CO.  269 

pleasant  feelings  connected  with  indigestion.  We  all  know 
the  horrible  sensation  of  the  nightmare  arises  from  the  same 
cause  which  gives  those  waking  nightmares  commonly  called 
the  blue  devils.  You  must  positively  put  yourself  on  a  regi 
men  as  to  eating,  not  for  a  month  or  two,  but  for  a  year  at 
least,  and  take  regular  exercise  —  and  my  life  for  yours.  I 
know  this  by  myself,  for  if  I  were  to  eat  and  drink  in  town  as 
I  do  here,  it  would  soon  finish  me,  and  yet  I  am  sensible  I  live 
too  genially  in  Edinburgh  as  it  is.  Yours  very  truly, 

"  W.  SCOTT." 

Among  Scott's  early  pets  at  Abbotsford  there  was  a 
huge  raven,  whose  powers  of  speech  were  remarkable, 
far  beyond  any  parrot's  that  he  had  ever  met  with ;  and 
who  died  in  consequence  of  an  excess  of  the  kind  to 
which  James  Ballantyne  was  addicted.  Thenceforth 
Scott  often  repeated  to  his  old  friend,  and  occasionally 
scribbled  by  way  of  postscript  to  his  notes  on  business  — 

"  When  you  are  craving, 
Remember  the  Raven." 

Sometimes  the  formula  is  varied  to  — 

"  When  you've  dined  half, 
Think  on  poor  Ralph!  " 

His  preachments  of  regularity  in  book-keeping  to  John, 
and  of  abstinence  from  good  cheer  to  James  Ballantyne, 
were  equally  vain ;  but  on  the  other  hand  it  must  be 
allowed  that  they  had  some  reason  for  displeasure  —  (the 
more  felt,  because  they  durst  not,  like  him,  express  their 
feelings)*  —  when  they  found  that  scarcely  had  these 

*  Since  this  work  was  first  published,  I  have  been  compelled  to  ex- 
tmine  very  minutely  the  details  of  Scott's  connexion  with  the  Ballan- 
tynes,  and  one  result  is,  that  both  James  and  John  had  trespassed  so 
largely,  for  their  private  purposes,  on  the  funds  of  the  Companies,  that, 


270  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"hard  skirmishes"  terminated  in  the  bargain  of  May 
18th,  before  Scott  was  preparing  fresh  embarrassments 
for  himself,  by  commencing  a  negotiation  for  a  consider 
able  addition  to  his  property  at  Abbotsford.  As  early  as 
the  20th  of  June  he  writes  to  Constable  as  being  already 
aware  of  this  matter,  and  alleges  his  anxiety  "  to  close  at 
once  with  a  very  capricious  person,"  as  the  only  reason 
that  could  have  induced  him  to  make  up  his  mind  to  sell 
the  whole  copyright  of  an  as  yet  unwritten  poem,  to  be 
entitled  "  The  Nameless  Glen."  This  copyright  he  then 
offered  to  dispose  of  to  Constable  for  £5000 ;  adding, 
"this  is  considerably  less  in  proportion  than  I  have 
already  made  on  the  share  of  Rokeby  sold  to  yourself, 
and  surely  that  is  no  unfair  admeasurement."  A  long 
correspondence  ensued,  in  the  course  of  which  Scott 
mentions  "  the  Lord  of  the  Isles,"  as  a  title  which  had 
suggested  itself  to  him  in  place  of  "the  Nameless  Glen;'' 
but  as  the  negotiation  did  not  succeed,  I  may  pass  its  de 
tails.  The  new  property  which  Scott  was  so  eager  to 
acquire,  was  that  hilly  tract  stretching  from  the  old 
.Roman  road  near  Turn-again  towards  the  Cauidshiels 
Loch :  a  then  desolate  and  naked  mountain-mere,  which 
he  likens,  in  a  letter  of  this  summer  (to  Lady  Louisa 
Stuart),  to  the  Lake  of  the  Genie  and  the  Fisherman  in 
the  Arabian  Tale.  To  obtain  this  lake  at  one  extremity 
of  his  estate,  as  a  contrast  to  the  Tweed  at  the  other,  was 
a  prospect  for  which  hardly  any  sacrifice  would  have  ap- 
[.»eared  too  much ;  and  he  contrived  to  gratify  his  wishes 
in  the  course  of  that  July,  to  which  he  had  spoken  of 

Scott  being,  as  their  letters  distinctly  state,  the  only  "  monied  part* 
ner,"  and  his  over-advances  of  capital  having  been  very  extensive, 
any  inquiry  on  their  part  as  to  his  uncommercial  expenditure  musl 
have  been  entirely  out  of  the  question.  To  avoid  misrepresentatioa 
however,  I  leave  my  text  as  it  was.  —  [1839.] 


"  THE    NAMELESS    GLEN."  271 

himself  in  May  as  looking  forward   "with  the  deepest 
anxiety." 

Nor  was  he,  I  must  add,  more  able  to  control  some  of 
his  minor  tastes.  I  find  him  writing  to  Mr.  Terry,  on 
the  20th  of  June,  about  "that  splendid  lot  of  ancient 
armour,  advertised  by  Winstanley,"  a  celebrated  auction 
eer  in  London,  of  which  he  had  the  strongest  fancy  to 
make  his  spoil,  though  he  was  at  a  loss  to  know  where  it 
should  be  placed  when  it  reached  Abbotsford  ;  and  on  the 
2d  of  July,  this  acquisition  also  having  been  settled,  he 
says  to  the  same  correspondent  —  "I  have  written  to 
Mr.  Winstanley.  My  bargain  with  Constable  was  other 
wise  arranged,  but  Little  John  is  to  find  the  needful  arti 
cle,  and  I  shall  take  care  of  Mr.  Winstanley's  interest, 
who  has  behaved  too  handsomely  in  this  matter  to  be 
trusted  to  the  mercy  of  our  little  friend  the  Picaroon, 
who  is,  notwithstanding  his  many  excellent  qualities,  a 
little  on  the  score  of  old  Gobbo  —  doth  somewhat  smack 
—  somewhat  grow  to.*  We  shall  be  at  Abbotsford  on 
the  12th,  and  hope  soon  to  see  you  there.  I  am  fitting 
up  a  small  room  above  Peter-house,  where  an  unceremo 
nious  bachelor  may  consent  to  do  penance,  though  the 
place  is  a  cock-loft,  and  the  access  that  which  leads  many 
a  bold  fellow  to  his  last  nap  —  a  ladder."  f  And  a  few 
weeks  later,  he  says,  in  the  same  sort,  to  his  sister-in-law, 
Mrs.  Thomas  Scott  —  "  In  despite  of  these  hard  times, 
affect  my  patrons  the  booksellers  very  much,  I  am 


*  Merchant  of  Vemce,  Act  II.  Scene  2. 

+  The  court  of  offices,  built  on  the  haugh  at  Abbotsford  in  1812,  in 
cluded  a  house  for  the  faithful  coachman,  Peter  Mathieson.  One  of 
Scott's  Cantabrigian  friends,  Mr.  W.  S.  Rose,  gave  the  whole  pile  soon 
afterwards  the  name,  which  it  retained  to  the  end,  of  Peter-House. 
The  loft  at  Peter-House  continued  to  be  occupied  by  occasional  bach* 
«lor  guests  until  the  existing  mansion  was  completed. 

VOL.  m.  18 


272  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

buying  old  books  and  old  armour  as  usual,  and  adding  to 
what  your  old  friend  Burns  *  calls  — 

4  A  fouth  of  auld  nick-nackets, 
Rusty  aim  caps  and  jingling  jackets, 
Wad  baud  the  Lothians  three  in  tackete 

A  towmont  gude, 
And  parritch-pats  and  auld  saut-backets, 

Before  the  nude.' " 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  it  must  have  been  with  a 
most  uneasy  mind  that  he  left  Edinburgh  to  establish 
himself  at  Abbotsford  that  July.  The  assistance  of  Con 
stable  had  not  been  granted,  indeed  it  had  not  been  asked, 
to  an  extent  at  all  adequate  for  the  difficulties  of  the  case ; 
and  I  have  now  to  transcribe,  with  pain  and  reluctance, 
some  extracts  from  Scott's  letters,  during  the  ensuing  au 
tumn,  which  speak  the  language  of  anxious,  and  indeed 
humiliating  distress  ;  and  give  a  most  lively  notion  of  the 
incurable  recklessness  of  his  younger  partner. 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne. 

u  Abbotsford,  Saturday,  24th  July. 

"  Dear  John,  —  I  sent  you  the  order,  and  have  only  to  hope 
it  arrived  safe  and  in  good  time.  I  waked  the  boy  at  three 
o'clock  myself,  having  slept  little,  less  on  account  of  the  money 
than  of  the  time.  Surely  you  should  have  written,  three  or 
four  days  before,  the  probable  amount  of  the  deficit,  and,  as  on 
former  occasions,  I  would  have  furnished  you  with  means  of 
meeting  it.  These  expresses,  besides  every  other  inconven 
ience,  excite  surprise  in  my  family  and  in  the  neighbourhood. 
I  know  no  justifiable  occasion  for  them  but  the  unexpected 
return  of  a  bill.  I  do  not  consider  you  as  answerable  for  the 

*  Mrs.  Thomas  Scott  had  met  Burns  frequenth'-  in  early  life  at  Dum 
fries.  Her  brother,  the  late  Mr.  David  MacCulloch,  was  a  great  favour' 
ite  with  the  poet,  and  the  best  singer  of  his  songs  that  I  ever  heard. 


LETTER    TO    JOHN    BALLANTYNE.  272 

success  of  plans,  but  I  do  and  must  hold  you  responsible  for 
giving  me,  in  distinct  and  plain  terms,  your  opinion  as  to  any 
difficulties  which  may  occur,  and  that  in  such  time  that  I  may 
make  arrangements  to  obviate  them  if  possible. 

"  Of  course  if  anything  has  gone  wrong  you  will  come  out 
here  to-morrow.  But  if,  as  I  hope  and  trust,  the  cash  arrived 
safe,  you  will  write  to  me,  under  cover  to  the  Duke  of  Buc- 
cleuch,  Drumlanrig  Castle,  Dumfries-shire.  I  shall  set  out  for 
that  place  on  Monday  morning  early.  W.  S.'* 


"  To  Mr,  James  Ballantyne. 

"  Abbotsford,  25th  July  1813. 

"  Dear  James,  —  I  address  the  following  jobation  for  John 
to  you,  that  you  may  see  whether  I  do  not  well  to  be  an- 
~gry,  and  enforce  upon  him  the  necessity  of  constantly  writing 
his  fears  as  well  as  his  hopes.  You  should  rub  him  often  on 
this  point,  for  his  recollection  becomes  rusty  the  instant  I  leave 
town  and  am  not  in  the  way  to  rack  him  with  constant  ques 
tions.  I  hope  the  presses  are  doing  well,  and  that  you  are 
quite  stout  again.  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 

(ENCLOSURE.) 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne. 

"My  Good  Friend  John,  —  The  post  brings  me  no  letter 
vrom  you,  which  I  am  much  surprised  at,  as  you  must  suppose 
me  anxious  to  learn  that  your  express  arrived.  I  think  he 
must  have  reached  you  before  post-hours,  and  James  or  you 
might  have  found  a  minute  to  say  so  in  a  single  line.  I  once 
more  request  that  you  will  be  a  business-like  correspondent, 
and  state  your  provisions  for  every  week  prospectively.  I  do 
not  expect  you  to  warrant  them,  which  you  rather  perversely 
teem  to  insist  is  my  wish,  but  I  do  want  to  be  aware  of  their 
vature  and  extent,  that  I  may  provide  against  the  possibility 
of  miscarriage.  The  calendar,  to  which  you  refer  me,  tells  me 
what  sums  are  due,  but  cannot  tell  your  shifts  to  pay  them, 


274  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

which  aie  naturally  altering  with  circumstances,  and  of  which 
alterations  I  request  to  have  due  notice.  You  say  you  could 
not  suppose  Sir  W.  Forbes  would  have  refused  the  long  dated 
bills ;  but  that  you  had  such  an  apprehension  is  clear,  both  be 
cause  in  the  calendar  these  bills  were  rated  two  months  lower, 
and  because,  three  days  before,  you  wrote  me  an  enigmatical 
expression  of  your  apprehensions,  instead  of  saying  plainly 
there  was  a  chance  of  your  wanting  £350,  when  I  would  have  . 
sent  you  an  order  to  be  used  conditionally. 

"  All  I  desire  is  unlimited  confidence  and  frequent  corre 
spondence,  and  that  you  will  give  me  weekly  at  least  the  full 
est  anticipation  of  your  resources,  and  the  probability  of  their 
being  effectual.  I  may  be  disappointed  in  my  own,  of  which 
you  shall  have  equally  timeous  notice.  Omit  no  exertions  to 
procure  the  use  of  money,  even  for  a  month  or  six  weeks,  for 
time  is  most  precious.  The  large  balance  due  in  January  from 
the  trade,  and  individuals,  which  I  cannot  reckon  at  less  than 
£4000,  will  put  us  finally  to  rights ;  and  it  will  be  a  shame  to 
founder  within  sight  of  harbour.  The  greatest  risk  we  run  is 
from  such  ill-considered  despatches  as  those  of  Friday.  Sup 
pose  that  I  had  gone  to  Drumlanrig  —  suppose  the  poney  had 
set  up  —  suppose  a  thousand  things  —  and  we  were  ruined  for 
want  of  your  telling  your  apprehensions  in  due  time.  Do  not 
plague  yourself  to  vindicate  this  sort  of  management ;  but  if 
you  have  escaped  the  consequences  (as  to  which  you  have  left 
me  uncertain),  thank  God,  and  act  more  cautiously  another 
time.  It  was  quite  the  same  to  me  on  what  day  I  sent  that 
draft ;  indeed  it  must  have  been  so  if  I  had  the  money  in  my 
cash  account,  and  if  I  had  not,  the  more  time  given  me  to 
provide  it  the  better.  • . 

"  Now,  do  not  affect  to  suppose  that  my  displeasure  arises 
\!rom  your  not  having  done  your  utmost  to  realize  funds,  and 
that  utmost  having  failed.  It  is  one  mode,  to  be  sure,  of  ex 
culpation,  to  suppose  one's  self  accused  of  something  they  are 
not  charged  with,  and  then  to  make  a  querulous  or  indignant 
defence,  and  complain  of  the  injustice  of  the  accuser.  The 
head  and  front  of  your  offending  is  precisely  your  not  writing 


LETTER  TO  JOHN  BALLANTYNE.         275 

explicitly,  and  I  request  this  may  not  happen  again.  It  ia 
your  fault,  and  I  believe  arises  either  from  an  ill-judged  idea 
of  smoothing  matters  to  me  —  as  if  I  were  not  behind  the  cur 
tain —  or  a  general  reluctance  to  allow  that  any  danger  is 
near,  until  it  is  almost  unparriable.  I  shall  be  very  sorry  if 
anything  I  have  said  gives  you  pain ;  but  the  matter  is  too 
serious  for  all  of  us,  to  be  passed  over  without  giving  you  my 
explicit  sentiments.  To-morrow  I  set  out  for  Drumlanrig,  and 
shall  not  hear  from  you  till  Tuesday  or  Wednesday.  Make 
yourself  master  of  the  post-town  —  Thornhill,  probably,  or 
Sanquhar.  As  Sir  W.  F.  &  Co.  have  cash  to  meet  my  order, 
nothing,  I  think,  can  have  gone  wrong,  unless  the  boy  per 
ished  by  the  way.  Therefore,  in  faith  and  hope,  and  —  that 
I  may  lack  none  of  the  Christian  virtues  —  in  charity  with 
your  dilatory  worship,  I  remain  very  truly  yours,  W.  S." 

Scott  proceeded,  accordingly,  to  join  a  gay  and  festive 
circle,  whom  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  had  assembled  about 
him  on  first  taking  possession  of  the  magnificent  Castle 
of  Drumlanrig,  in  Nithsdale,  the  principal  messuage  of 
the  dukedom  of  Queensberry,  which  had  recently  lapsed 
into  his  family.  But,  post  equitem  sedet  atra  cura  — 
another  of  John  Ballantyne's  unwelcome  missives,  ren 
dered  necessary  by  a  neglect  of  precisely  the  same  kind 
as  before,  reached  him  in  the  midst  of  this  scene  of  re 
joicing.  On  the  31st,  he  again  writes :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne,  Bookseller,  Edinburgh. 

"  Drumlanrig,  Friday. 

"Dear  John, — 1  enclose  the  order.  Unfortunately,  the 
Drumlanrig  post  only  goes  thrice  a-week ;  but  the  Marquis 
of  Queensberry,  who  carries  this  to  Dumfries,  has  promised 
that  the  guard  of  the  mail-coach  shall  deliver  it  by  five  to-mor 
row.  I  was  less  anxious,  as  your  note  said  you  could  clear  this 
month.  It  is  a  cruel  thing,  that  no  State  you  furnish  exc  hides 


276  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

the  arising  of  such  unexpected  claims  as  this  for  the  taxes  on 
the  printing-office.  What  unhappy  management,  to  suffer  them 
to  run  ahead  in  such  a  manner ! — but  it  is  in  vain  to  complain. 
Were  it  not  for  your  strange  concealments,  I  should  anticipate 
no  difficulty  in  winding  up  these  matters.  But  who  can  reckon 
upon  a  State  where  claims  are  kept  out  of  view  until  they  are 
in  the  hands  of  a  loriter  ?  If  you  have  no  time  to  say  that  this 
comes  safe  to  hand,  I  suppose  James  may  favour  me  so  far. 
Yours  truly,  W.  S. 

"  Let  the  guard  be  rewarded. 

"  Let  me  know  exactly  what  you  can  do  and  hope  to  do  for 
next  month ;  for  it  signifies  nothing  raising  money  for  you, 
unless  I  see  it  is  to  be  of  real  service.  Observe,  I  make  you 
responsible  for  nothing  but  a  fair  statement.*  The  guard  is 
known  to  the  Marquis,  who  has  good-naturedly  promised  to 
give  him  this  letter  with  his  own  hand ;  so  it  must  reach  you 
in  time,  though  probably  pact  five  on  Saturday." 

Another  similar  application  reached  Scott  the  day 
after  the  guard  delivered  his  packet.  lie  writes  thus, 
in  reply :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne. 

"  Drumlanrig,  Sunday. 

"  Dear  John,  —  I  trust  you  got  my  letter  yesterday  by  five, 
with  the  draft  enclosed.  I  return  your  draft  accepted.  On 
Wednesday  I  think  of  leaving  this  place,  where,  but  for  these 
damned  affairs,  I  should  have  been  very  happy.  W.  S." 

Scott  had  been  for  some  time  under  an  engagement  to 
meet  the  Marquis  of  Abercorn  at  Carlisle,  in  the  first 
week  of  August,  for  the  transaction  of  some  business  con- 

*  John  Ballantyne  had  embarked  no  capital  —  not  a  shilling  —  in 
the  business ;  and  was  bound  by  the  contract  to  limit  himself  to  an 
allowance  of  .£300  a-year,  in  consideration  of  his  management,  until 
there  should  be  an  overplus  of  profits !  —  [1839.] 


LONGTOWN,    AUGUST    1813.  277 

nected  with  his  brother  Thomas's  late  administration  of 
that  nobleman's  Scottish  affairs ;  and  he  had  designed  to 
pass  from  Drumlanrig  to  Carlisle  for  this  purpose,  with 
out  going  back  to  Abbotsford.  In  consequence  of  these 
repeated  harassments,  however,  he  so  far  altered  his 
plans  as  to  cut  short  his  stay  at  Drumlanrig,  and  turn 
homewards  for  two  or  three  days,  where  James  Ballan- 
tyne  met  him  with  such  a  statement  as  in  some  measure 
relieved  his  mind. 

He  then  proceeded  to  fulfil  his  engagement  with  Lord 
Abercorn,  whom  he  encountered  travelling  in  a  rather 
peculiar  style  between  Carlisle  and  Longtown.  The 
ladies  of  the  family  and  the  household  occupied  four  or 
five  carriages,  all  drawn  by  the  Marquis's  own  horses, 
while  the  noble  Lord  himself  brought  up  the  rear, 
mounted  on  horseback,  and  decorated  with  the  ribbon 
of  the  order  of  the  Garter.  On  meeting  the  cavalcade, 
Scott  turned  with  them,  and  he  was  not  a  little  amused 
when  they  reached  the  village  of  Longtown,  which  he 
had  ridden  through  an  hour  or  two  before,  with  the  prep- 
ations  which  he  found  there  made  for  the  dinner  of 
the  party.  The  Marquis's  major-domo  and  cook  had  ar 
rived  there  at  an  early  hour  in  the  morning,  and  every 
thing  was  now  arranged  for  his  reception  in  the  paltry 
little  public-house,  as  nearly  as  possible  in  the  style  usuai 
in  his  own  lordly  mansions.  The  ducks  and  geese  that 
had  been  dabbling  three  or  four  hours  ago  in  the  village 
pond  were  now  ready  to  make  their  appearance  undei 
numberless  disguises  as  entrees;  a  regular  bill-of-fare 
flanked  the  noble  Marquis's  allotted  cover ;  every  hucka 
back  towel  in  the  place  had  been  pressed  to  do  service  as 
a  napkin ;  and,  that  nothing  migr  t  be  wanting  to  the 
mimicry  of  splendour,  the  landlady's  poor  remnants  of 


278  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

crockery  and  pewter  had  been  furbished  up,  and  mus 
tered  in  solemn  order  on  a  crazy  old  beauffet,  which  was 
to  represent  a  sideboard  worthy  of  Lucullus,  I  think  it 
worth  while  to  preserve  this  anecdote,  which  Scott  de 
lighted  in  telling,  as  perhaps  the  last  relic  of  a  style  of 
manners  now  passed  away,  and  never  likely  to  be  revived 
among  us. 

Having  despatched  this  dinner  and  his  business,  Scott 
again  turned  southwards,  intending  to  spend  a  few  daya 
with  Mr.  Morritt  at  Rokeby ;  but  on  reaching  Penrith, 
the  landlord  there,  who  was  his  old  acquaintance  (Mr. 
Buchanan),  placed  a  letter  in  his  hands :  ecce  iterum  — - 
it  was  once  more  a  cry  of  distress  from  John  Ballantyne. 
He  thus  answered  it :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne. 

"  Penrith,  Aug.  10,  1813. 

"Dear  John,  —  I  enclose  you  an  order  for  £350.  I  shah1 
remain  at  Rokeby  until  Saturday  or  Sunday,  and  be  at  Ab 
botsford  on  Wednesday  at  latest. 

"  I  hope  the  printing-office  is  going  on  well.  I  fear,  fron* 
the  state  of  accompts  between  the  companies,  restrictions  OB 
the  management  and  expense  will  be  unavoidable,  which  maj 
trench  upon  James's  comforts.  I  cannot  observe  hitherto  thai 
the  printing-office  is  paying  off,  but  rather  adding  to  its  em 
barrassments ;  and  it  cannot  be  thought  that  I  have  eithei 
means  or  inclination  to  support  a  losing  concern  at  the  rate  of 
£200  a-month.  If  James  could  find  a  monied  partner,  an  activu 
man  who  understood  the  commercial  part  of  the  business,  and 
would  superintend  the  conduct  of  the  cash,  it  might  be  the 
best  for  all  parties ;  for  I  really  am  not  adequate  to  the  fatigue 
of  mind  which  these  affairs  occasion  me,  though  I  must  do  thf 
best  to  struggle  through  them.  Believe  me  yours,  &c. 

«  W.  S." 


LETTERS    TO    JOHN    BALLANTYNE.  279 

At  Brough  he  encountered  a  messenger  who  brought 
him  such  a  painful  account  of  Mrs.  Morritt's  health,  that 
he  abandoned  his  intention  of  proceeding  to  Rokeby; 
and,  indeed,  it  was  much  better  that  he  should  be  at  Ab- 
botsford  again  as  soon  as  possible,  for  his  correspondence 
shows  a  continued  succession,  during  the  three  or  four 
ensuing  weeks,  of  the  same  annoyances  that  had  pursued 
him  to  Drumlanrig  and  to  Penrith.  By  his  desire,  the 
Ballantynes  had,  it  would  seem,  before  the  middle  of  Au 
gust,  laid  a  statement  of  their  affairs  before  Constable. 
Though  the  statement  was  not  so  clear  and  full  as  Scott 
had  wished  it  to  be,  Constable,  on  considering  it,  at  once 
assured  them,  that  to  go  on  raising  money  in  driblets 
would  never  effectually  relieve  them  ;  that,  in  short,  one 
or  both  of  the  companies  must  stop,  unless  Mr.  Scott 
could  find  means  to  lay  his  hand,  without  farther  delay, 
on  at  least  £4000  ;  and  I  gather  that,  by  way  of  inducing 
Constable  himself  to  come  forward  with  part  at  least  of 
this  supply,  John  Ballantyne  again  announced  his  inten 
tion  of  forthwith  abandoning  the  bookselling  business 
altogether,  and  making  an  effort  to  establish  himself  —  on 
a  plan  which  Constable  had  shortly  before  suggested  — 
as  an  auctioneer  in  Edinburgh.  The  following  letters 
need  no  comment :  — 

"  To  Mr.  John  Ballantyne. 

"Abbotsford,  Aug.  16,  1813. 

"  Dear  John.  —  I  am  quite  satisfied  it  is  impossible  for  J.  B. 
ind  Co.  to  continue  business  longer  than  is  absolutely  neces- 
pary  for  the  sale  of  stock  and  extrication  of  their  affairs.  The 
fatal  injury  which  their  credit  has  sustained,  as  well  as  your 
Adopting  a  profession  in  which  I  sincerely  hope  you  will  be 
more  fortunate,  renders  the  closing  of  the  bookselling  business 
inevitable.  With  regard  to  the  printing,  it  is  my  intention  to 


280  LIFE    OF    SIK    WALTER    SCOTT. 

retire  from  that  also,  so  soon  as  I  can  possibly  do  so  with  safety 
to  myself,  and  with  the  regard  I  shall  always  entertain  for 
James's  interest.  Whatever  loss  I  may  sustain  will  be  prefer 
able  to  the  life  I  have  lately  led,  when  I  seem  surrounded  by  a 
eort  of  magic  circle,  which  neither  permits  me  to  remain  at 
home  in  peace,  nor  to  stir  abroad  with  pleasure.  Your  first 
exertion  as  an  auctioneer  may  probably  be  on  'that  distin 
guished,  select,  and  inimitable  collection  of  books,  made  by  an 
amateur  of  this  city  retiring  from  business.'  I  do  not  feel 
either  health  or  confidence  in  my  own  powers  sufficient  to  au 
thorize  me  to  take  a  long  price  for  a  new  poem,  until  these 
affairs  shall  have  been  in  some  measure  digested.  This  idea 
has  been  long  running  in  my  head,  but  the  late  fatalities  which 
have  attended  this  business  have  quite  decided  my  resolution. 
I  will  write  to  James  to-morrow,  being  at  present  annoyed 
with  a  severe  headache.  Yours  truly,  W.  SCOTT." 

Were  I  to  transcribe  all  the  letters  to  which  these 
troubles  gave  rise,  I  should  fill  a  volume  before  I  had 
reached  the  end  of  another  twelvemonth.  The  two  next 
I  shall  quote  are  dated  on  the  same  day  (the  24th  Au 
gust),  which  may,  in  consequence  of  the  answer  the  sec 
ond  of  them  received,  be  set  down  as  determining  thn 
crisis  of  1813. 

"  To  Mr.  James  Ballantyne. 

"  Abbotsford,  24th  August  1813. 

"  Dear  James,  —  Mr.  Constable's  advice  is,  as  I  have  always 
found  it,  sound,  sensible,  and  friendly  —  and  I  shall  be  guided 
by  it.  But  I  have  no  wealthy  friend  who  would  join  in  secu 
rity  with  me  to  such  an  extent ;  and  to  apply  in  quarters  where 
I  might  be  refused,  would  ensure  disclosure.  I  conclude  John 
has  shown  Mr.  C.  the  state  of  the  affairs ;  if  not,  I  would  wish 
him  to  do  so  directly.  If  the  proposed  accommodation  could 
be  granted  to  the  firm  on  my  personally  joining  in  the  security 
the  whole  matter  would  be  quite  safe,  for  I  have  to  receive  in 


LETTER    TO    JAMES    BALLANTYNE.  281 

the  course  of  the  winter  some  large  sums  from  my  father's  es 
tate.*  Besides  which,  I  shall  certainly  be  able  to  go  to  press 
in  November  with  a  new  poem ;  or,  if  Mr.  Constable's  addi 
tional  security  would  please  the  bankers  better,  I  could  ensure 
Mr.  C.  against  the  possibility  of  loss,  by  assigning  the  copyrights, 
together  with  that  of  the  new  poem,  or  even  my  library,  in  his 
relief.  In  fact,  if  he  looks  into  the  affairs,  he  will  I  think  see 
that  there  is  no  prospect  of  any  eventual  loss  to  the  creditors, 
though  I  may  be  a  loser  myself.  My  property  here  is  unincum- 
bered ;  so  is  my  house  in  Castle  Street ;  and  I  have  no  debts  out 
of  my  own  family,  excepting  a  part  of  the  price  of  Abbotsford, 
which  I  am  to  retain  for  four  years.  So  that,  literally,  I  have 
no  claims  upon  me  unless  those  arising  out  of  this  business^; 
Clerkship,  £1300  "]  and  when  it  is  considered  that  my  in- 

M^SCO™'        loo  come  is  above  £200°  a~year' even  tf 

Interest,    '  100  f  the  printing-office  pays  nothing,  I  should 

Somers,  (say)  200     hope  no  one  can  possibly  be  a  loser  by 

£2100  J  me.  I  am  sure  I  would  strip  myself  to 
my  shirt  rather  than  it  should  be  the  case;  and  my  only 
reason  for  wishing  to  stop  the  concern  was  to  do  open  justice 
to  all  persons.  It  must  have  been  a  bitter  pill  to  me.  I  can 
more  confidently  expect  some  aid  from  Mr.  Constable,  or 
from  Longman's  house,  because  they  can  look  into  the  con 
cern  and  satisfy  themselves  how  little  chance  there  is  of 
their  being  losers,  which  others  •  cannot  do.  Perhaps  be 
tween  them  they  might  manage  to  assist  us  with  the  credit 
necessary,  and  go  on  in  winding  up  the  concern  by  occasional 
acceptances. 

"  An  odd  thing  has  happened.  I  have  a  letter,  by  order  of 
the  Prince  Regent,  offering  me  the  laureateship  in  the  most 
flattering  terms.  Were  I  my  own  man,  as  you  call  it,  I  would 
refuse  this  offer  (with  all  gratitude)  ;  but,  as  I  am  situated, 
£300  or  £400  a-year  is  not  to  be  sneezed  at  upon  a  point  of 
poetical  honour  —  and  it  makes  me  a  better  man  to  that  ex 
tent.  I  have  not  yet  written,  however.  I  will  say  little  about 

*  He  probably  alludes  to  the  final  settlement  of  accounts  with  th* 
Marquis  of  Abercorn. 


282  LIFE    DP   SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

Constable's  handsome  behaviour,  but  shall  not  forget  it.  It  is 
needless  to  say  I  shall  wish  him  to  be  consulted  in  every  step 
that  is  taken.  If  I  should  lose  all  I  advanced  to  this  business, 
I  should  be  less  vexed  than  I  am  at  this  moment.  I  am  very 
busy  with  Swift  at  present,  but  shall  certainly  come  to  town  if 
it  is  thought  necessary ;  but  I  should  first  wish  Mr.  Constable 
to  look  into  the  affairs  to  the  bottom.  Since  I  have  personally 
superintended  them,  they  have  been  winding  up  very  fast,  and 
we  are  now  almost  within  sight  of  harbour.  I  will  also  own 
it  was  partly  ill-humour  at  John's  blunder  last  week  that  made 
me  think  of  throwing  things  up.  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 

After  writing  and  despatching  this  letter,  an  idea  oc 
curred  to  Scott  that  there  was  a  quarter,  not  hitherto 
alluded  to  in  any  of  these  anxious  epistles,  from  which 
he  might  consider  himself  as  entitled  to  ask  assistance, 
not  only  with  little,  if  any,  chance  of  a  refusal,  but  (ow 
ing  to  particular  circumstances)  without  incurring  any 
very  painful  sense  of  obligation.  On  the  25th  he  says  to 
John  Ballantyne  — 

"  After  some  meditation,  last  night,  it  occurred  to  me  I  had 
some  title  to  ask  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch's  guarantee  to  a  cash- 
account  for  £4000,  as  Constable  proposes.  I  have  written  to 
him  accordingly,  and  have  very  little  doubt  that  he  will  be  my 
surety.  If  this  cash-account  be  in  view,  Mr.  Constable  will 
certainly  assist  us  until  the  necessary  writings  are  made  out  — 
I  beg  your  pardon  —  I  dare  say  I  am  very  stupid ;  but  very 
often  you  don't  consider  that  I  can't  follow  details  which  would 
be  quite  obvious  to  a  man  of  business  ;  —  for  instance,  you  tell 
me  daily, '  that  if  the  sums  I  count  upon  are  forthcoming,  the 
results  must  be  as  I  suppose.'  But  —  in  a  week  —  the  scene 
is  changed,  and  all  I  can  do,  and  more,  is  inadequate  to  bring 
about  these  results.  I  protest  I  don't  know  if  at  this  moment 
£4000  will  clear  us  out.  After  all,  you  are  vexed,  and  so  aiu 
I ;  and  it  is  needless  to  wrangle  who  has  a  right  to  be  angry 
Commend  me  to  James.  Yours  truly,  W.  S." 


LETTER    TO    THE    DUKE    OF    BUOCLEUCH.          283 

Having  explained  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch  the  posi 
tion  in  which  he  stood  —  obliged  either  to  procure  some 
guarantee  which  would  enable  him  to  raise  £4000,  or  to 
sell  abruptly  all  his  remaining  interest  in  the  copyright 
of  his  works ;  and  repeated  the  statement  of  his  personal 
property  and  income,  as  given  in  the  preceding  letter  to 
James  Ballantyne  —  Scott  says  to  his  noble  friend :  — 

"  I  am  not  asking  nor  desiring  any  loan  from  your  Grace, 
but  merely  the  honour  of  your  sanction  to  my  credit  as  a  good 
man  for  £4000 ;  and  the  motive  of  your  Grace's  interference 
would  be  sufficiently  obvious  to  the  London  Shy  locks,  as  your 
constant  kindness  and  protection  is  no  secret  to  the  world. 
Will  your  Grace  consider  whether  you  can  do  what  I  propose, 
in  conscience  and  safety,  and  favour  me  with  your  answer  ?  — 
I  have  a  very  flattering  offer  from  the  Prince  Regent,  of  his 
own  free  motion,  to  make  me  poet-laureate  ;  I  am  very  much 
embarrassed  by  it.  I  am,  on  the  one  hand,  afraid  of  giving 
offence  where  no  one  would  willingly  offend,  and  perhaps 
losing  an  opportunity  of  smoothing  the  way  to  my  youngsters 
through  life ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  office  is  a  ridiculous  one, 
somehow  or  other  —  they  and  I  should  be  well  quizzed,  —  yet 
that  I  should  not  mind.  My  real  feeling  of  reluctance  lies 
deeper  —  it  is,  that  favoured  as  I  have  been  by  the  public,  I 
should  be  considered,  with  some  justice,  I  fear,  as  engrossing 
a  petty  emolument  which  might  do  real  service  to  some  poorer 
brother  of  the  Muses.  I  shall  be  most  anxious  to  have  your 
Grace's  advice  on  this  subject.  There  seems  something  churl 
ish,  and  perhaps  conceited,  in  repelling  a  favour  so  hand 
somely  offered  on  the  part  of  the  Sovereign's  representative ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  I  feel  much  disposed  to  shake  myself 
Iree  from  it.  I  should  make  but  a  bad  courtier,  and  an  ode- 
maker  is  described  by  Pope  as  a  poet  out  of  his  way  or  out  of 
his  senses.  I  will  find  some  excuse  for  protracting  my  reply 
till  I  can  have  the  advantage  of  your  Grace's  opinion  ;  and 
remain,  in  the  mean  time,  very  truly,  your  obliged  and 
grateful  WALTER  SCOTT. 


284  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

"  P.  S.  — I  trust  your  Grace  will  not  suppose  me  capable  of 
making  such  a  request  as  the  enclosed,  upon  any  idle  or  un 
necessary  speculation  ;  but,  as  I  stand  situated,  it  is  a  matter 
of  deep  interest  to  me  to  prevent  these  copyrights  from  being 
disposed  of  either  hastily  or  at  under  prices.  I  could  have 
half  the  booksellers  in  London  for  my  sureties,  on  a  hint  of  a 
new  poem ;  but  bankers  do  not  like  people  in  trade,  and  my 
brains  are  not  ready  to  spin  another  web.  So  your  Grace 
must  take  me  under  your  princely  care,  as  in  the  days  of  lang 
syne ;  and  I  think  I  can  say,  upon  the  sincerity  of  an  honest 
man,  there  is  not  the  most  distant  chance  of  your  having  any 
trouble  or  expense  through  my  means." 

The  Duke's  answer  was  in  all  respects  such  as  might 
have  been  looked  for  from  the  generous  kindness  and 
manly  sense  of  his  character. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Abbotsford. 

"  Drumlanrig  Castle,  August  28th,  1813. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  I  received  yesterday  your  letter  of  the 
24th.  I  shall  with  pleasure  comply  with  your  request  of 
guaranteeing  the  £4000.  You  must,  however,  furnish  me 
with  the  form  of  a  letter  to  this  effect,  as  I  am  completely 
ignorant  of  transactions  of  this  nature. 

"  I  am  never  willing  to  offer  advice,  but  when  my  opinion  is 
asked  by  a  friend  I  am  ready  to  give  it.  As  to  the  offer  of  his 
Royal  Highness  to  appoint  you  laureate,  I  shall  frankly  say 
that  I  should  be  mortified  to  see  you  hold  a  situation  which,  by 
the  general  concurrence  of  the  world,  is  stamped  ridiculous. 
There  is  no  good  reason  why  this  should  be  so ;  but  so  it  is., 
Walter  Scott,  Poet  Laureate,  ceases  to  be  the  Walter  Scott  of 
the  Lay,  Marmion,  &c.  Any  future  poem  of  yours  would  not 
come  forward  with  the  same  probability  of  a  successful  recep 
tion.  The  poet  laureate  would  stick  to  you  and  your  pro. 
Auctions  like  a  piece  of  court  plaster.  Your  muse  has  hitherto 
been  independent  —  don't  put  her  into  harness.  We  know 


POET    LAUKEATESHIF.  285 

*• 

how  lightly  she  trots  along  when  left  to  her  natural  paces,  but 
do  not  try  driving.  I  would  write  frankly  and  openly  to  his 
Royal  Highness,  but  with  respectful  gratitude,  for  he  has  paid 
you  a  compliment.  I  would  not  fear  to  state  that  you  had 
hitherto  written  when  in  poetic  mood,  but  feared  to  trammel 
yourself  with  a  fixed  periodical  exertion  ;  and  I  cannot  but 
conceive  that  His  Royal  Highness,  who  has  much  taste,  will  at 
once  see  the  many  objections  which  you  must  have  to  his 
proposal,  but  which  you  cannot  write.  Only  think  of  being 
chaunted  and  recitatived  by  a  parcel  of  hoarse  and  squeaking 
choristers  on  a  birthday,  for  the  edification  of  the  bishops, 
pages,  maids  of  honour,  and  gentlemen-pensioners !  Oh  horri 
ble  !  thrice  horrible !  Yours  sincerely,  BUCCLEUCH,  &c." 

The  letter  which  first  announced  the  Prince  Regent's 
proposal,  was  from  his  Royal  Highness's  librarian,  Dr. 
James  Stanier  Clarke  ;  but  before  Scott  answered  it  he 
had  received  a  more  formal  notification  from  the  late 
Marquis  of  Hertford,  then  Lord  Chamberlain.  I  shall 
transcribe  both  these  documents. 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  Pavilion,  Brighton,  August  18, 1813. 

"  My  Dear  Sir,  —  Though  I  have  never  had  the  honour  of 
being  introduced  to  you,  you  have  frequently  been  pleased  to 
convey  to  me  very  kind  and  flattering  messages,  *  and  I  trust, 
therefore,  you  will  allow  me,  without  any  further  ceremony,  to 
say  —  That  I  took  an  early  opportunity  this  morning  of  seeing 
the  Prince  Regent,  who  arrived  here  late  yesterday ;  and  I 
then  delivered  to  his  Royal  Highness  my  earnest  wish  and 
anxious  desire  that  the  vacant  situation  of  poet  laureate  might 
be  conferred  on  you.  The  Prince  replied,  'that  you  had 

*  The  Royal  Librarian  had  forwarded  to  Scott  presentation  copies  of 
his  successive  publications  —  The  Progress  of  Maritime  Discovery  — 
Falconer's  Shipwreck,  with  a  Life  of  the  Author — Naufragia  —  A  Lift 
af  Nelson,  in  two  quarto  volumes,  &c.  £c.  &c. 


286  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

already  been  written  to,  and  that  if  you  wished  it,  every* 
thing  would  be  settled  as  I  could  desire.' 

"  I  hope,  therefore,  I  may  be  allowed  to  congratulate  you  on 
this  event.  You  are  the  man  to  whom  it  ought  first  to  have 
been  offered,  and  it  gave  me  sincere  pleasure  to  find  that  those 
sentiments  of  high  approbation  which  my  Royal  Master  had 
BO  often  expressed  towards  you  in  private,  were  now  so  openly 
and  honourably  displayed  in  public.  Have  the  goodness,  dear, 
sir,  to  receive  this  intrusive  letter  with  your  accustomed  cour 
tesy,  and  believe  me,  yours  very  sincerely,  J.  S.  CLARKE, 
Librarian  to  H.  R.  H.  the  Prince  Regent." 

"  To  Walter  Scott,  Esq.,  Edinburgh. 

"  Ragley,  31st  August  1813. 

"  Sir,  —  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Prince  Regent,  to  express  to  him  my  humble  opinion  that  I 
could  not  make  so  creditable  a  choice  as  in  your  person  for  the 
office,  now  vacant,  of  poet  laureate.  I  am  now  authorized  to 
offer  it  to  you,  which  I  would  have  taken  an  earlier  oppor 
tunity  of  doing,  but  that,  till  this  morning,  I  have  had  no 
occasion  of  seeing  his  Royal  Highness  since  Mr.  Pye's  death. 
1  have  the  honour  to  be,  sir,  your  most  obedient,  humble  ser 
vant,  INGRAM  HERTFORD." 

The  following  letters  conclude  this  matter  :  — 

•  To  the  Most  Noble  the  Marquis  of  Hertford,  fyc.  frc.  Ragley % 
Warwickshire. 

"  Abbotsford,  4th  Sept. 

"  My  Lord,  —  I  am  this  day  honoured  with  your  Lordship's 
letter  of  the  31st  August,  tendering  for  my  acceptance  the 
situation  of  poet  laureate  in  the  Royal  Household.  I  shall 
always  think  it  the  highest  honour  of  my  life  to  have  been  the 
object  of  the  good  opinion  implied  in  your  Lordship's  recom 
mendation,  and  in  the  gracious  acquiescence  of  his  Royal  High- 
ness  the  Prince  Regent.  I  humbly  trust  I  shall  not  forfeit 


POET    LAUREATESHIP.  287 

sentiments  so  highly  valued,  although  I  find  myself  under  the 
necessity  of  declining,  with  every  acknowledgment  of  respect 
and  gratitude,  a  situation  above  my  deserts,  and  offered  to  me 
in  a  manner  so  very  flattering.  The  duties  attached  to  the 
office  of  poet  laureate  are  not  indeed  very  formidable,  if 
judged  of  by  the  manner  in  which  they  have  sometimes  been 
discharged.  But  an  individual  selected  from  the  literary- 
characters  of  Britain,  upon  the  honourable  principle  expressed 
in  your  Lordship's  letter,  ought  not,  in  justice  to  your  Lord 
ship,  to  his  own  reputation,  but  above  all  to  his  Royal  High 
ness,  to  accept  of  the  office,  unless  he  were  conscious  of  the 
power  of  filling  it  respectably,  and  attaining  to  excellence  in 
the  execution  of  the  tasks  which  it  imposes.  This  confidence 
I  am  so  far  from  possessing,  that,  on  the  contrary,  with  all  the 
advantages  which  do  now,  and  I  trust  ever  will,  present  them 
selves  to  the  poet  whose  task  it  may  be  to  commemorate  the 
events  of  his  Royal  Highness's  administration,  I  am  certain  I 
should  feel  myse,1£>  Inadequate  to  the  fitting  discharge  of  the 
regularly  recurring  duty  of  periodical  composition,  and  should 
thus  at  once  disappoint  the  expectation  of  the  public,  and, 
what  would  give  me  still  more  pain,  discredit  the  nomination 
of  his  Royal  Highness. 

"  Will  your  Lordship  permit  me  to  add,  that  though  far 
from  being  wealthy,  I  already  hold  two  official  situations  in 
the  line  of  my  profession,  which  afford  a  respectable  income. 
It  becomes  me,  therefore,  to  avoid  the  appearance  of  engross 
ing  one  of  the  few  appointments  which  seem  specially  adapted 
for  the  provision  of  those  whose  lives  have  been  dedicated  ex 
clusively  to  literature,  and  who  too  often  derive  from  their 
labours  more  credit  than  emolument. 

"  Nothing  could  give  me  greater  pain  than  being  thought 
ungrateful  to  his  Royal  Highness's  goodness,  or  insensible  to 
the  honourable  distinction  his  undeserved  condescension  has 
been  pleased  to  bestow  upon  me.  I  have  to  trust  to  your 
Lordship's  kindness  for  laying  at  the  feet  of  his  Royal  High 
ness,  in  the  way  most  proper  and  respectful,  my  humble,  grate 
ful,  and  dutiful  thanks,  with  these  reasons  for  declining  a  situ 

VOL.    III.  19 


288  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

ation  which,  though  every  way  superior  to  my  deserts,  I  should 
chiefly  have  valued  as  a  mark  of  his  Royal  Highness's  approba 
tion. 

"  For  your  Lordship's  unmerited  goodness,  as  well  as  fo? 
the  trouble  you  have  had  upon  this  occasion,  I  can  only  offer 
you  my  respectful  thanks,  and  entreat  that  you  will  be  pleased 
to  believe  me,  my  Lord  Marquis,  your  Lordship's  much  obliged 
and  much  honoured  humble  servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 


"  To  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  fyc.  Drumlanrig  Castle. 

"Abbotsford,  Sept.  5, 1813. 

"  My  Dear  Lord  Duke,  —  Good  advice  is  easily  followed 
when  it  jumps  with  our  own  sentiments  and  inclinations.  I 
uo  sooner  found  mine  fortified  by  your  Grace's  opinion  than  I 
wrote  to  Lord  Hertford,  declining  the  laurel  in  the  most  civil 
way  I  could  imagine.  I  also  wrote  to  the  Prince's  librarian, 
who  had  made  himself  active  on  the  occasion,  dilating,  at  some 
what  more  length  than  I  thought  respectful  to  the  Lord  Cham 
berlain,  my  reasons  for  declining  the  intended  honour.  My 
wife  has  made  a  copy  of  the  last  letter,  which  I  enclose  for 
your  Grace's  perusal:  there  is  no  occasion  either  to  preserve 
or  return  it  —  but  I  am  desirous  you  should  know  what  I  have 
put  my  apology  upon,  for  I  may  reckon  on  its  being  misrepre 
sented.  I  certainly  should  never  have  survived  the  recitative 
described  by  your  Grace :  it  is  a  part  of  the  etiquette  I  was 
quite  unprepared  for,  and  should  have  sunk  under  it.  It  is 
curious  enough  that  Drumlanrig  should  always  have  been  the 
refuge  of  bards  who  decline  court  promotion.  Gay,  I  think, 
refused  to  be  a  gentleman-usher,  or  some  such  post ;  *  and  I  am 

*  Poor  Gay  —  "  In  wit  a  man,  simplicity  a  child,"  —  was  insulted, 
on  the  accession  of  George  II.,  by  the  offer  of  a  gentleman-ushership 
to  one  of  the  royal  infants.  His  prose  and  verse  largely  celebrate  his 
obligations  to  Charles  third  Duke  of  Queensberry,  and  the  charming 
Lady  Catharine  Hyde,  his  Duchess  —  under  whose  roof  the  poet  spen 
the  latter  years  of  his  life. 


POET    LAURBATESHIP.  289 

determined  to  abide  by  my  post  of  Grand  Ecuyer  Trenchant 
of  the  Chateau,  varied  for  that  of  tale-teller  of  an  evening. 

"  I  will  send  your  Grace  a  copy  of  the  letter  of  guarantee 
when  I  receive  it  from  London.  By  an  arrangement  with 
Longman  and  Co.,  the  great  booksellers  in  Paternoster-row,  I 
am  about  to  be  enabled  to  place  their  security,  as  well  as  my 
wn,  between  your  Grace  and  the  possibility  of  hazard.  But 
your  kind  readiness  to  forward  a  transaction  which  is  of  such 
great  importance  both  to  my  fortune  and  comfort,  can  never 
be  forgotten  —  although  it  can  scarce  make  me  more  than  1 
have  always  been,  my  dear  Lord,  your  Grace's  much  obliged 
and  truly  faithful  WALTER  SCOTT." 

(COPY  —  ENCLOSURE.) 

"To  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Clarke,  See.  frc.  frc.  Pavilion,  Brighton. 
"  Abbotsford,  4th  September  1813. 

"  Sir,  —  On  my  return  to  this  cottage,  after  a  short  excur- 
«on,  I  was  at  once  surprised  and  deeply  interested  by  the  re- 
«^ipt  of  your  letter.  I  shall  always  consider  it  as  the  proudest 
incident  of  my  life  that  his  Royal  Highness  the  Prince  Regent, 
wnose  taste  in  literature  is  so  highly  distinguished,  should  have 
thought  of  naming  me  to  the  situation  of  poet-laureate.  I 
feel,  therefore,  no  small  embarrassment  lest  I  should  incur  the 
suspicion  of  churlish  ingratitude  in  declining  an  appointment 
m  every  point  of  view  so  far  above  my  deserts,  but  which  I 
should  chiefly  have  valued  as  conferred  by  the  unsolicited 
generosity  of  his  Royal  Highness,  and  as  entitling  me  to  the 
distinction  of  terming  myself  an  immediate  servant  of  hia 
Majesty.  But  I  have  to  trust  to  your  goodness  in  represent 
ing  to  his  Royal  Highness,  with  my  most  grateful,  humble,  and 
dutiful  acknowledgments,  the  circumstances  which  compel  me 
to  decline  the  honour  which  his  undeserved  favour  has  pro 
posed  for  me.  The  poetical  pieces  I  have  hitherto  composed 
uave  uniformly  been  the  hasty  production  of  impulses,  which 
i.  must  term  fortunate,  since  they  have  attracted  his  Royal 
Highness's  notice  and  approbation.  But  I  strongly  fear,  01 


290  LIFE    OF    SI*  WALTER    SCOTT. 

rather  ain  absolutely  certain,  that  I  should  feel  myself  unable 
to  justify,  in  the  eye  of  the  public,  the  choice  of  his  Royal 
Highness,  by  a  fitting  discharge  of  the  duties  of  an  office  which 
requires  stated  and  periodical  exertion.  And  although  I  am 
conscious  how  much  this  difficulty  is  lessened  under  the  gov 
ernment  of  his  Royal  Highness,  marked  by  paternal  wisdom 
at  home  and  successes  abroad  which  seem  to  promise  the  lib 
eration  of  Europe,  I  still  feel  that  the  necessity  of  a  regular 
commemoration  would  trammel  my  powers  of  composition  at 
the  very  time  when  it  would  be  equally  my  pride  and  duty  to 
tax  them  to  the  uttermost.  There  is  another  circumstance 
which  weighs  deeply  in  my  mind  while  forming  my  present 
resolution.  I  have  already  the  honour  to  hold  two  appoint 
ments  under  Government,  not  usually  conjoined,  and  which 
afford  an  income,  far  indeed  from  wealth,  but  amounting  to 
decent  independence.  I  fear,  therefore,  that  in  accepting  one 
of  the  few  situations  which  our  establishment  holds  forth  as 
the  peculiar  provision  of  literary  men,  I  might  be  justly  cen 
sured  as  availing  myself  of  his  Royal  Highness's  partiality  to 
engross  more  than  my  share  of  the  public  revenue,  to  the  prej 
udice  of  competitors  equally  meritorious  at  least,  and  other 
wise  unprovided  for ;  and  as  this  calculation  will  be  made  by 
thousands  who  know  that  I  have  reaped  great  advantages  by 
the  favour  of  the  public,  without  being  aware  of  the  losses 
which  it  has  been  my  misfortune  to  sustain,  I  may  fairly 
reckon  that  it  will  terminate  even  more  to  my  prejudice  than 
if  they  had  the  means  of  judging  accurately  of  my  real  cir 
cumstances.  I  have  thus  far,  sir,  frankly  exposed  to  you,  for 
his  Royal  Highness's  favourable  consideration,  the  feelings 
which  induce  me  to  decline  an  appointment  offered  in  a  man 
ner  so  highly  calculated  to  gratify,  I  will  not  say  my  vanity 
only,  but  my  sincere  feelings  of  devoted  attachment  to  the 
crown  and  constitution  of  my  country,  and  to  the  person  of 
his  Royal  Highness,  by  whom  its  government  has  been  so 
worthily  administered.  No  consideration  on  earth  would  give 
me  so  much  pain  as  the  idea  of  my  real  feelings  being  miscon- 
itrued  on  this  occasion,  or  that  I  should  be  supposed  stupici 


POET    LAUREATESHIP.  291 

enough  not  to  estimate  the  value  of  his  Royal  Highness's 
avour,  or  so  ungrateful  as  not  to  feel  it  as  I  ought.  And  you 
will  relieve  me  from  great  anxiety  if  you  will  have  the  good 
ness  to  let  me  know  if  his  Royal  Highness  is  pleased  to  receive 
favourably  my  humble  and  grateful  apology. 

"  I  cannot  conclude  without  expressing  my  sense  of  your 
kindness  and  of  the  trouble  you  have  had  upon  this  account, 
and  I  request  you  will  believe  me,  sir,  your  obliged  humble 
servant,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  To  Robert  Southey,  Esq.,  Keswick. 

"  Abbotsford,  4th  September  1813. 

"  My  Dear  Southey,  —  On  my  return  here  I  found,  to  my 
no  small  surprise,  a  letter  tendering  me  the  laurel  vacant  by 
the  death  of  the  poetical  Pye.  I  have  declined  the  appoint 
ment,  as  being  incompetent  to  the  task  of  annual  commemo 
ration;  but  chiefly  as  being  provided  for  in  my  professional 
department,  and  unwilling  to  incur  the  censure  of  engrossing 
the  emolument  attached  to  one  of  the  few  appointments  which 
seems  proper  to  be  filled  by  a  man  of  literature  who  has  no 
other  views  in  life.  Will  you  forgive  me,  my  dear  friend,  if  I 
own  I  had  you  in  my  recollection.  I  have  given  Croker  the 
hint,  and  otherwise  endeavoured  to  throw  the  office  into  your 
option.  I  am  uncertain  if  you  will  like  it,  for  the  laurel  has 
certainly  been  tarnished  by  some  of  its  wearers,  and,  as  at 
present  managed,  its  duties  are  inconvenient  and  somewhat 
liable  to"  ridicule.  But  the  latter  matter  might  be  amended, 
as  I  think  the  Regent's  good  sense  would  lead  him  to  lay  aside 
these  regular  commemorations  ;  and  as  to  the  former  point,  it 
has  been  worn  by  Dryden  of  old,  and  by  Warton  in  modern 
days.  If  you  quote  my  own  refusal  against  me,  I  reply  —  first, 
I  have  been  luckier  than  you  in  holding  two  offices  not  usually 
conjoined ;  secondly,  I  did  not  refuse  it  from  any  foolish  preju 
dice  against  the  situation,  otherwise  how  durst  I  mention  it  to 
you,  my  elder  brother  ir.  the  muse  ?  —  but  from  a  sort  of  in 
ternal  hope  that  they  would  give  it  to  you,  upon  whom  it  would 


292  LIFE    OF    SIR*  WALTER    SCOTT. 

be  so  much  more  worthily  conferred.  For  I  am  not  such  a  a 
ass  as  not  to  know  that  you  are  my  better  in  poetry,  though  1 
have  had,  probably  but  for  a  time,  the  tide  of  popularity  in 
my  favour.  I  have  not  time  to  add  ten  thousand  other  rea 
sons,  but  I  only  wished  to  tell  you  how  the  matter  was,  and  to 
beg  you  to  think  before  you  reject  the  offer  which  I  flatter  my 
self  will  be  made  to  you.  If  I  had  not  been,  like  Dogberry,  a 
fellow  with  two  gowns  already,  I  should  have  jumped  at  :t  like 
a  cock  at  a  gooseberry.  Ever  yours  most  truly, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT.** 

Immediately  after  Mr.  Croker  received  Scott's  letter 
here  alluded  to,  Mr.  Southey  was  invited  to  accept  the 
vacant  laurel.  But,  as  the  birthday  ode  had  been  omit 
ted  since  the  illness  of  King  George  III.,  and  the  Regent 
had  good  sense  and  good  taste  enough  to  hold  that  ancient 
custom  as  "  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  the  obser 
vance,"  the  whole  fell  completely  into  disuse.*  The  office 
was  thus  relieved  from  the  burden  of  ridicule  which  had,  in 
spite  of  many  illustrious  names,  adhered  to  it ;  and  though 
its  emoluments  did  not  in  fact  amount  to  more  than  a 
quarter  of  the  sum  at  which  Scott  rated  them  when  he 
declined  it,  they  formed  no  unacceptable  addition  to  Mr. 
Southey's  income.  Scott's  answer  to  his  brother  poet's 
affectionate  and  grateful  letter  on  the  conclusion  of  thia 
affair,  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  To  R.  Southey,  Esq.,  Keswick. 

"Edinburgh,  November  13, 1813. 

"  I  do  not  delay,  my  Dear  Southey,  to  say  my  gratulor. 
Long  may  you  live,  as  Paddy  says,  to  rule  over  us,  and  to  re- 

*  See  the  Preface  to  the  third  volume  of  the  late  Collective  Edition 
of  Mr.  Southey's  Poems,  p.  xii.,  where  he  corrects  a  trivial  error  I  had 
fallen  into  in  the  first  edition  of  these  Memoirs,  and  adds,  "  Sir  Wai- 
ter's  conduct  was,  as  it  always  was,  characteristically  generous,  and  in 
the  highest  degree  friendly."  —  [1839.] 


LETTER    TO    SOUTHED.  293 

deem  the  crown  of  Spenser  and  of  Dryden  to  its  pristine  dig 
nity.  I  am  only  discontented  with  the  extent  of  your  royal 
revenue,  which  I  thought  had  been  £400,  or  £300  at  the  very 
least.  Is  there  no  getting  rid  of  that  iniquitous  modus,  and 
requiring  the  butt  in  kind  ?  I  would  have  you  think  of  it ;  1 
know  no  man  so  well  entitled  to  Xeres  sack  as  yourself,  though 
many  bards  would  make  a  better  figure  at  drinking  it.  I 
should  think  that  in  due  time  a  memorial  might  get  some  re 
lief  in  this  part  of  the  appointment — it  should  be  at  least 
£100  wet  and  £100  dry.  When  you  have  carried  your  point 
of  discarding  the  ode,  and  my  point  of  getting  the  sack,  you 
will  be  exactly  in  the  situation  of  Davy  in  the  farce,  who  stip 
ulates  for  more  wages,  less  work,  and  the  key  of  the  ale-cellar.* 
I  was  greatly  delighted  with  the  circumstances  of  your  investi 
ture.  It  reminded  me  of  the  porters  at  Calais  with  Dr.  Smol 
lett's  baggage,  six  of  them  seizing  upon  one  small  portman 
teau,  and  bearing  it  in  triumph  to  his  lodgings.  You  see  what 
it  is  to  laugh  at  the  superstitions  of  a  gentleman-usher,  as  I 
think  you  do  somewhere.  *  The  whirligig  of  time  brings  in 
his  revenges.' f 

"  Adieu,  my  dear  Southey ;  my  best  wishes  attend  all  that 
you  do,  and  my  best  congratulations  every  good  that  attends 
yOU  —  yea  even  this,  the  very  least  of  Providence's  mercies,  as 
a  poor  clergyman  said  when  pronouncing  grace  over  a  herring. 
I  should  like  to  know  how  the  Prince  received  you ;  his  ad 
dress  is  said  to  be  excellent,  and  his  knowledge  of  literature 
far  from  despicable.  What  a  change  of  fortune  even  since  the 
short  time  when  we  met !  The  great  work  of  retribution  is 
now  rolling  onward  to  consummation,  yet  am  I  not  fully  satis- 
£ed — per  eat  iste!  —  there  will  be  no  permanent  peace  in  Eu 
rope  till  Buonaparte  sleeps  with  the  tyrants  of  old.  My  best 
compliments  attend  Mrs.  Southey  and  your  family.  Ever 
yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

To  avoid  returning  to  the  affair  of  the  laureatesfcip,  1 

*  Garrick's  Bon  Ton,  or  HigK  Life  Abovt,  Stairg, 
t   Twelfth  Night,  Act  V.  Scene  1. 


294  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT 

have  placed  together  such  letters  concerning  it  as  ap 
peared  important.  I  regret  to  say  that,  had  I  adhered  to 
the  chronological  order  of  Scott's  correspondence,  ten  out 
of  every  twelve  letters  between  the  date  of  his  applica 
tion  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch,  and  his  removal  to  Edin 
burgh  on  the  12th  of  November,  would  have  continued 
to  tell  the  same  story  of  pecuniary  difficulty,  urgent  and 
almost  daily  applications  for  new  advances  to  the  Ballan- 
tynes,  and  endeavours,  more  or  less  successful,  but  in  no 
case  effectually  so,  to  relieve  the  pressure  on  the  book 
selling  firm  by  sales  of  its  heavy  stock  to  the  great  pub 
lishing  houses  of  Edinburgh  and  London.  Whatever 
success  these  endeavours  met  with,  appears  to  have  been 
due  either  directly  or  indirectly  to  Mr.  Constable ;  who 
did  a  great  deal  more  than  prudence  would  have  war 
ranted,  in  taking  on  himself  the  results  of  its  unhappy 
adventures,  —  and,  by  his  sagacious  advice,  enabled  the 
distressed  partners  to  procure  similar  assistance  at  the 
hands  of  others,  who  did  not  partake  his  own  feelings  of 
personal  kindness  and  sympathy.  "  I  regret  to  learn," 
Scott  writes  to  him  on  the  1 6th  October,  "  that  there  is 
great  danger  of  your  exertions  in  our  favour,  which  once 
promised  so  fairly,  proving  finally  abortive,  or  at  least 
being  too  tardy  in  their  operation  to  work  out  our  relief. 
If  anything  more  can  be  honourably  and  properly  done 
to  avoid  a  most  unpleasant  shock,  I  shall  be  most  willing 
to  do  it ;  if  not  —  God's  will  be  done !  There  will  be 
enough  of  property,  including  my  private  fortune,  to  pay 
every  claim;  and  I  have  not  used  prosperity  so  ill,  as 
greatly  to  fear  adversity.  But  these  things  we  will  talk 
over  at  meeting ;  meanwhile  believe  me,  with  a  sincere 
Bense  of  your  kindness  and  friendly  views,  very  truly 
yours,  W.  S."  —  I  have  no  wish  to  quote  more  largely 


JOHN    BALLANTYNE    AND    CO.  295 

from  the  letters  which  passed  during  this  crisis  between 
Scott  and  his  partners.  The  pith  and  substance  of  his, 
to  John  Ballantyne  at  least,  seems  to  be  summed  up  in 
one  brief  postscript :  — "  For  God's  sake  treat  me  as  a 
man,  and  not  as  a  milch-cow!" 

The  difficulties  of  the  Ballantynes  were  by  this  time 
well  known  throughout  the  commercial  circles  not  only 
of  Edinburgh,  but  of  London ;  and  a  report  of  their 
actual  bankruptcy,  with  the  addition  that  Scott  was  en 
gaged  as  their  surety  to  the  extent  of  £20,000,  found  its 
way  to  Mr.  Morritt  about  the  beginning  of  November. 
This  dear  friend  wrote  to  him,  in  the  utmost  anxiety,  and 
made  liberal  offers  of  assistance  in  case  the  catastrophe 
might  still  be  averted;  but  the  term  of  Martinmas, 
always  a  critical  one  in  Scotland,  had  passed  before  this 
letter  reached  Edinburgh,  and  Scott's  answer  will  show 
symptoms  of  a  clearing  horizon.  I  think  also  there  is 
one  expression  in  it  which  could  hardly  have  failed  to 
convey  to  Mr.  Morritt  that  his  friend  was  involved,  more 
deeply  than  he  had  ever  acknowledged,  in  the  concerns 
of  the  Messrs.  Ballantyne. 

"  To  J.  B.  S.  Morritt,  Esq.,  Rokeby  Park. 

"  Edinburgh,  20th  November  1813. 

»*  I  did  not  answer  your  very  kind  letter,  my  dear  Morritt, 
*ntil  I  could  put  your  friendly  heart  to  rest  upon  the  report 
you  have  heard,  which  I  could  not  do  entirely  until  this  term 
of  Martinmas  was  passed.  I  have  the  pleasure  to  say  that 
vhere  is  no  truth  whatever  in  the  Ballantynes'  reported  bank 
ruptcy.  They  have  had  severe  difficulties  for  the  last  four 
months  to  make  their  resources  balance  the  demands  upon 
them,  and  I,  having  the  price  of  Rokeby,  and  other  monies  in 
their  hands,  have  had  considerable  reason  for  apprehension* 
and  no  slight  degree  of  plague  and  trouble.  They  have,  how 


296  LIFE    OP    SIR   WALTER    SCOTT. 

ever,  been  so  well  supported,  that  I  have  got  out  of  hot  watei 
Upon  their  account.  They  are  winding  up  their  bookselling 
concern  with  great  regularity,  and  are  to  abide  hereafter  by 
the  printing-office,  which,  with  its  stock,  &c.,  will  revert  to 
them  fairly. 

"  I  have  been  able  to  redeem  the  offspring  of  my  brain,  and 
they  are  like  to  pay  me  like  grateful  children.  This  matter 
has  set  me  a  thinking  about  money  more  seriously  than  ever  I 
did  in  my  life,  and  I  have  begun  by  insuring  my  life  for  £4000, 
to  secure  some  ready  cash  to  my  family  should  I  slip  girths 
suddenly.  I  think  my  other  property,  library,  &c.,  may  be 
worth  about  £12,000,  and  I  have  not  much  debt. 

"  Upon  the  whole,  I  see  no  prospect  of  any  loss  whatever. 
Although  in  the  course  of  human  events  I  may  be  disap 
pointed,  there  certainly  can  be  none  to  vex  your  kind  and 
affectionate  heart  on  my  account.  I  am  young,  with  a  large 
official  income,  and  if  I  lose  anything  now,  I  have  gained  a 
great  deal  in  my  day.  I  cannot  tell  you,  and  will  not  attempt 
to  tell  you,  how  much  I  was  affected  by  your  letter  —  so  much, 
indeed,  that  for  several  days  I  could  not  make  my  mind  up  to 
express  myself  on  the  subject.  Thank  God  !  all  real  danger 
was  yesterday  put  over  —  and  I  will  write,  in  two  or  three 
days,  a  funny  letter,  without  any  of  these  vile  cash  matters,  of 
which  it  may  be  said  there  is  no  living  with  them  nor  without 
Ever  yours,  most  truly,  WALTER  SCOTT." 


All  these  annoyances  produced  no  change  whatever  in 
Scott's  habits  of  literary  industry.  During  these  anxious 
months  of  September,  October,  and  November,  he  kept 
feeding  James  Ballantyne's  press,  from  day  to  day,  both 
with  the  annotated  text  of  the  closing  volumes  of  Swift's 
works,  and  with  the  MS.  of  his  Life  of  the  Dean.  He 
had  also  proceeded  to  mature  in  his  own  mind  the  plan 
of  the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  and  executed  such  a  portion  of 
the  First  Canto  as  gave  him  confidence  to  renew  hia 
negotiation  with  Constable  for  the  sale  of  the  whole,  or 


AUTUMN,   1813.  297 

part  of  its  copyright.  It  was,  moreover,  at  this  period, 
that,  looking  into  an  old  cabinet  in  search  of  some  fishing- 
tackle,  his  eye  chanced  to  light  once  more  on  the  Ashes- 
tiel  fragment  of  Waverley.  —  He  read  over  those  intro 
ductory  chapters  —  thought  they  had  been  undervalued 
—  and  determined  to  finish  the  story. 

All  this  while,  too,  he  had  been  subjected  to  those  in 
terruptions  from  idle  strangers,  which  from  the  first  to 
the  last  imposed  so  heavy  a  tax  on  his  celebrity ;  and  he 
no  doubt  received  such  guests  with  all  his  usual  urbanity 
of  attention.  Yet  I  was  not  surprised  to  discover,  among 
his  hasty  notes  to  the  Ballantynes,  several  of  tenour  akin 
to  the  following  specimens :  — 

"  Sept.  2d,  1813. 

"My  temper  is  really  worn  to  a  hair's  breadth.  The  in 
truder  of  yesterday  hung  on  me  till  twelve  to-day.  When  I 
had  just  taken  my  pen,  he  was  relieved,  like  a  sentry  leaving 
guard,  by  two  other  lounging  visitors ;  and  their  post  has  now 
been  supplied  by  some  people  on  real  business." 

Again  — 

"  Monday  Evening. 

"  Oh  James !  oh  James !  Two  Irish  dames 

Oppress  me  very  sore ; 
I  groaning  send  one  sheet  I've  penned — 
For,  hang  them !  there's  no  more." 

A  scrap  of  nearly  the  same  date  to  his  brother  Thomas 
may  be  introduced,  as  oelonging  to  the  same  state  of 
feeling  — 

"  Dear  Tom,  —  I  observe  what  you  say  as  to  Mr.  *  *  *  * ; 
and  as  you  may  often  be  exposed  to  similar  requests,  which  it 
would  be  difficult  to  parry,  you  can  sign  such  letters  of  intro 
duction  as  relate  to  persons  whom  you  do  not  delight  to  honour 


298  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

short,  T.  Scott ;  by  which  abridgement  of  your  name  I  shall  un< 
ilerstand  to  limit  my  civilities.'* 

It  is  proper  to  mention,  that,  in  the  very  agony  of  these 
perplexities,  the  unfortunate  Maturin  received  from  him 
a  timely  succour  of  £50,  rendered  doubly  acceptable  by 
the  kind  and  judicious  letter  of  advice  in  which  it  was 
enclosed  ;  and  I  have  before  me  ample  evidence  that  his. 
benevolence  had  been  extended  to  other  struggling  broth 
ers  of  the  trade,  even  when  he  must  often  have  had 
actual  difficulty  to  meet  the  immediate  expenditure  of  his 
own  family.  All  this,  however,  will  not  surprise  the 
reader. 

Nor  did  his  general  correspondence  suffer  much  inter 
ruption  ;  and,  as  some  relief  after  so  many  painful  details, 
I  shall  close  the  narrative  of  this  anxious  year  by  a  few 
specimens  of  his  miscellaneous  communications  :  — 

"  To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

«  Abbotsford,  Sept.  12, 1813. 

"My  Dear  Miss  Baillie, — I  have  been  a  vile  lazy  corre 
spondent,  having  been  strolling  about  the  country,  and  indeed 
a  little  way  into  England,  for  the  greater  part  of  July  and 
August ;  in  short,  '  aye  skipping  here  and  there,'  like  the 
Tanner  of  Tamworth's  horse.  Since  I  returned,  I  have  had  a 
gracious  offer  of  the  laurel  on  the  part  of  the  Prince  Regent. 
You  will  not  wonder  that  I  have  declined  it,  though  with  every 
expression  of  gratitude  which  such  an  unexpected  compliment 
demanded.  Indeed,  it  would  be  high  imprudence  in  one  hav 
ing  literary  reputation  to  maintain,  to  accept  of  an  offer  which 
obliged  him  to  produce  a  poetical  exercise  on  a  given  theme 
twice  a-year ;  and  besides,  as  my  loyalty  to  the  royal  family  ig 
very  sincere,  I  would  not  wish  to  have  it  thought  mercenary. 
The  public  has  done  its  part  by  me  very  well,  and  so  hai 
Government :  and  I  thought  this  little  literary  provision  ought 


LETTER    TO    JOANNA    BAILLIE.  299 

to  be  bestowed  on  one  who  has  made  literature  his  sole  pro 
fession.  If  the  Regent  means  to  make  it  respectable,  he 
will  abolish  the  foolish  custom  of  the  annual  odes,  which  is  a 
drudgery  no  person  of  talent  could  ever  willingly  encounter  — 
or  come  clear  off  from,  if  he  was  so  rash.  And  so,  peace  be 
with  the  laurel, 

'  Profaned  by  Gibber  and  contemned  by  Gray.' 

"  I  was  for  a  fortnight  at  Drumlanrig,  a  grand  old  chateau, 
which  has  descended,  by  the  death  of  the  late  Duke  of 
Queensberry  to  the  Duke  of  Buccleuch.  It  is  really  a  most 
magnificent  pile,  and  when  embosomed  amid  the  wide  forest 
scenery,  of  which  I  have  an  infantine  recollection,  must  have 
been  very  romantic.  But  old  Q.  made  wild  devastation 
among  the  noble  trees,  although  some  fine  ones  are  still  left, 
and  a  quantity  of  young  shoots  are,  in  despite  of  the  want  of 
every  kind  of  attention,  rushing  up  to  supply  the  places  of  the 
fathers  of  the  forest  from  whose  stems  they  are  springing.  It 
will  now  I  trust  be  in  better  hands,  for  the  reparation  of  the 
castle  goes  hand  in  hand  with  the  rebuilding  of  all  the  cottages, 
in  which  an  aged  race  of  pensioners  of  Duke  Charles,  and  hia 
pious  wife,  — '  Kitty,  blooming,  young  and  gay,'  —  have,  dur 
ing  the  last  reign,  been  pining  into  rheumatisms  and  agues,  in 
neglected  poverty. 

"  All  this  is  beautiful  to  witness  :  the  indoor  work  does  not 
please  me  so  well,  though  I  am  aware  that,  to  those  who  are 
to  inhabit  an  old  castle,  it  becomes  often  a  matter  of  necessity 
to  make  alterations  by  which  its  tone  and  character  are 
changed  for  the  worse.  Thus  a  noble  gallery,  which  ran  the 
whole  length  of  the  front,  is  converted  into  bedrooms  —  very 
comfortable,  indeed,  but  not  quite  so  magnificent ;  and  as  grim 
a  dungeon  as  ever  knave  or  honest  man  was  confined  in,  is  in 
some  danger  of  being  humbled  into  a  wine-cellar.  It  is  almost 
impossible  to  draw  your  breath,  when  you  recollect  that  this, 
so  many  feet  under  ground,  and  totally  bereft  of  air  and  light, 
Kras  built  for  the  imprisonment  of  human  beings,  whether 
guilty,  suspected,  or  merely  unfortunate.  Certainly,  if  oiu 


BOO  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

frames  are  not  so  hardy,  our  hearts  are  softer  than  those  of 
our  forefathers,  although  probably  a  few  years  of  domestic 
war,  or  feudal  oppression,  would  bring  us  back  to  the  same 
case-hardening  both  in  body  and  sentiment. 

"  I  meant  to  have  gone  to  Rokeby,  but  was  prevented  by 
Mrs.  Morritt  being  unwell,  which  I  very  much  regret,  as  I 
know  few  people  that  deserve  better  health.  I  am  very  glad 
you  have  known  them,  and  I  pray  you  to  keep  up  the  ac 
quaintance  in  winter.  I  am  glad  to  see  by  this  day's  paper 
that  our  friend  Terry  has  made  a  favourable  impression  on  his 
first  appearance  at  Covent- Garden  —  he  has  got  a  very  good 
engagement  there  for  three  years,  at  twelve  guineas  a-week, 
which  is  a  handsome  income.  —  This  little  place  comes  on  as 
fast  as  can  be  reasonably  hoped ;  and  the  pinasters  are  all 
above  the  ground,  but  cannot  be  planted  out  for  twelve 
months.  My  kindest  compliments  —  in  which  Mrs.  Scott 
always  joins  —  attend  Miss  Agnes,  the  Doctor,  and  his  fam 
ily.  Ever,  my  dear  friend,  yours  most  faithfully, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT." 

"  To  Daniel  Terry,  Esq.,  London. 

"  Abbotsford,  20th  October  1813. 

"  Dear  Terry,  —  You  will  easily  believe  that  I  was  greatly 
pleased  to  hear  from  you.  I  had  already  learned  from  The 
Courier  (what  I  had  anticipated  too  strongly  to  doubt  for  one 
instant)  your  favourable  impression  on  the  London  public.  I 
think  nothing  can  be  more  judicious  in  the  managers  than  to 
exercise  the  various  powers  you  possess,  in  their  various  ex 
tents.  A  man  of  genius  is  apt  to  be  limited  to  one  single 
style,  and  to  become  per  force  a  mannerist,  merely  because 
the  public  is  not  so  just  to  its  own  amusement  as  to  give  him 
an  opportunity  of  throwing  himself  into  different  lines ;  and 
doubtless  the  exercise  of  our  talents  in  one  unvaried  course, 
by  degree^  renders  them  incapable  of  any  other,  as  the  over 
use  of  any  one  limb  of  our  body  gradually  impoverishes  the  rest 
I  shall  be  anxious  to  hear  that  you  have  played  Malvolio,  which 
is,  J  think,  one  of  your  coups-de-maitre,  and  in  which  envy 


LETTER    TO    TERRY.  301 

Itself  cannot  affect  to  trace  an  imitation.  That  same  charge  of 
imitation,  by  the  way,  is  one  of  the  surest  scents  upon  which 
dunces  are  certain  to  open.  Undoubtedly,  if  the  same  char 
acter  is  well  performed  by  two  individuals,  their  acting  must 
bear  a  general  resemblance  —  it  could  not  be  well  performed 
by  both  were  it  otherwise.  But  this  general  resemblance, 
which  arises  from  both  following  nature  and  their  author,  can 
as  little  be  termed  imitation  as  the  river  in  Wales  can  be 
identified  with  that  of  Macedon.  Never  mind  these  dunder 
heads,  but  go  on  your  own  way,  and  scorn  to  laugh  on  the 
right  side  of  your  mouth,  to  make  a  difference  from  some 
ancient  comedian  who,  in  the  same  part,  always  laughed  on 
the  left.  Stick  to  the  public  —  be  uniform  in  your  exertions 
to  study  even  those  characters  which  have  little  in  them,  and  to 
give  a  grace  which  you  cannot  find  in  the  author.  Audiences 
are  always  grateful  for  this  —  or  rather  —  for  gratitude  is  as 
much  out  of  the  question  in  the  Theatre,  as  Bernadotte  says 
to  Boney  it  is  amongst  sovereigns  —  or  rather,  the  audience  is 
gratified  by  receiving  pleasure  from  a  part  which  they  had  no 
expectation  would  afford  them  any.  It  is  in  this  view  that, 
had  I  been  of  your  profession,  and  possessed  talents,  I  think 
I  should  have  liked  often  those  parts  with  which  my  breth 
ren  quarrelled,  and  studied  to  give  them  an  effect  which 
their  intrinsic  merit  did  not  entitle  them  to.  I  have  some 
thoughts  of  being  in  town  in  spring  (not  resolutions  by  any 
means)  ;  and  it  will  be  an  additional  motive  to  witness  your 
success,  and  to  find  you  as  comfortably  established  as  your 
friends  in  Castle  Street  earnestly  hope  and  trust  you  will  be. 

"  The  summer  —  an  uncommon  summer  in  beauty  and  se 
renity —  has  glided  away  from  us  at  Abbotsford,  amidst  our 
usual  petty  cares  and  petty  pleasures.  The  children's  garden 
is  in  apple-pie  order,  our  own  completely  cropped  and  stocked, 
%nd  all  the  trees  flourishing  like  the  green  bay  of  the  Psalmist. 

have  been  so  busy  about  our  domestic  arrangements,  that  I 
have  not  killed  six  hares  this  season.  Besides,  I  have  got  a 
cargo  of  old  armour,  sufficient  to  excite  a  suspicion  that  I  in 
tend  to  mount  a  squadron  of  cuirassiers.  I  only  want  a  place 


302  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

for  my  armoury ;  and,  thank  God,  I  can  wait  for  that,  these 
being  no  times  for  building.  And  this  brings  me  to  the  loss  of 
poor  Stark,  with  whom  more  genius  has  died  than  is  left  behind 
among  the  collected  universality  of  Scottish  architects.  O  Lord ! 
• —  but  what  does  it  signify  ?  —  Earth  was  born  to  bear,  and 
man  to  pay  (that  is,  lords,  nabobs,  Glasgow  traders,  and  those 
who  have  wherewithal)  —  so  wherefore  grumble  at  great  cas 
tles  and  cottages,  with  which  the  taste  of  the  latter  contrives 
to  load  the  back  of  Mother  .Terra  ?  —  I  have  no  hobby-horsi- 
cal  commissions  at  present,  unless  if  you  meet  the  Voyages  of 
Captain  Richard,  or  Robert  Falconer,  in  one  volume  — '  cow- 
heel,  quoth  Sancho '  —  I  mark  them  for  my  own.  Mrs.  Scott, 
Sophia,  Anne,  and  the  boys,  unite  in  kind  remembrances. 
Ever  yours  truly,  W.  SCOTT." 


M  To  the  Right  Hon.  Lord  Byron,  4  Bennet  Street,  St.  James's, 
London. 

"  Abbotsford,  6th  Nov.  1813. 

"My  Dear  Lord,  —  I  was  honoured  with  your  Lordship's 
letter  of  the  27th  September,*  and  have  sincerely  to  regret 
that  there  is  such  a  prospect  of  your  leaving  Britain,  without 
my  achieving  your  personal  acquaintance.  I  heartily  wish 
your  Lordship  had  come  down  to  Scotland  this  season,  for  I 
have  never  seen  a  finer,  and  you  might  have  renewed  all  your 
old  associations  with  Caledonia,  and  made  such  new  ones  as 
were  likely  to  suit  you.  I  dare  promise  you  would  have  liked 
me  well  enough  —  for  I  have  many  properties  of  a  Turk  — 
never  trouble  myself  about  futurity  —  am  as  lazy  as  the  day 
is  long — delight  in  collecting  silver-mounted  pistols  and  ata- 
ghans,  and  go  out  of  my  own  road  for  no  one  —  all  which  I 
take  to  be  attributes  of  your  good  Moslem.  Moreover,  I  am 
Bomewhat  an  admirer  of  royalty,  and  in  order  to  maintain  this 
part  of  my  creed,  I  shall  take  care  never  to  be  connected  with 
>  court,  but  stick  to  the  ignotum  pro  mirabili. 

*  The  letter  in  question  has  not  been  preserved  in  Scott's  collection 
of  correspondence.  This  leaves  some  allusions  in  the  answei  obscure 


LETTER   TO    LORD    B1RON.  303 

"  The  author  of  the  Queen's  Wake  will  be  delighted  with 
your  approbation.  He  is  a  wonderful  creature  for  his  oppor 
tunities,  which  were  far  inferior  to  those  of  the  generality  of 
Scottish  peasants.  Burns,  for  instance  —  (not  that  their  ex 
tent  of  talents  is  to  be  compared  for  an  instant)  —  had  an 
education  not  much  worse  than  the  sons  of  many  gentlemen 
in  Scotland.  But  poor  Hogg  literally  could  neither  read  nor 
write  till  a  very  late  period  of  his  life  ;  and  when  he  first  dis 
tinguished  himself  by  his  poetical  talent,  could  neither  spell 
nor  write  grammar.  When  I  first  knew  him,, he  used  to  send 
me  his  poetry,  and  was  both  indignant  and  horrified  when  1 
pointed  out  to  him  parallel  passages  in  authors  whom  he  had 
never  read,  but  whom  all  the  world  would  have  sworn  he  had 
copied.  An  evil  fate  has  hitherto  attended  him,  and  baffled 
every  attempt  that  has  been  made  to  place  him  in  a  road  to  in 
dependence.  But  I  trust  he  may  be  more  fortunate  in  future. 

"I  have  not  yet  seen  Southey  in  the  Gazette  as  Laureate. 
He  is  a  real  poet,  such  as  we  read  of  in  former  times,  with 
every  atom  of  his  soul  and  every  moment  of  his  time  dedicated 
to  literary  pursuits,  in  which  he  differs  from  almost  all  those 
who  have  divided  public  attention  with  him.  Your  Lordship's 
habits  of  society,  for  example,  and  my  own  professional  and 
official  avocations,  must  necessarily  connect  us  much  more  with 
our  respective  classes  in  the  usual  routine  of  pleasure  or  busi 
ness,  than  if  we  had  not  any  other  employment  than  vacare 
musis.  But  Southey's  ideas  are  all  poetical,  and  his  whole  soul 
dedicated  to  the  pursuit  of  literature.  In  this  respect,  as  well 
as  in  many  others,  he  is  a  most  striking  and  interesting  char 
acter. 

"  I  am  very  much  interested  in  all  that  concerns  your  Gia< 
our,  which  is  universally  approved  of  among  our  mountains. 
I  have  heard  no  objection  except  by  one  or  two  geniuses,  who 
run  over  poetry  as  a  cat  does  over  a  harpsichord,  and  they 
effect  to  complain  of  obscurity.  On  the  contrary,  I  hold  every 
real  lover  of  the  art  is  obliged  to  you  for  condensing  the  nar 
rative,  by  giving  us  only  those  striking  scenes  which  you  have 
shown  to  be  so  susceptible  of  poetic  ornament,  and  leaving  to 


804  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

imagination  the  says  I's  and  says  he's,  and  all  the  minutiae  of 
detail  which  might  be  proper  in  giving  evidence  before  a  court 
of  justice.  The  truth  is,  I  think  poetry  is  most  striking  when 
the  mirror  can  be  held  up  to  the  reader,  and  the  same  kept 
constantly  before  his  eyes ;  it  requires  most  uncommon  powers 
to  support  a  direct  and  downright  narration ;  nor  can  I  remem 
ber  many  instances  of  its  being  successfully  maintained  even 
by  our  greatest  bards. 

"As  to  those  who  have  done  me^the  honour  to  take  my 
rhapsodies  for  their  model,  I  can  only  say  they  have  exempli 
fied  the  ancient  adage,  '  one  fool  makes  many ; '  nor  do  I  think 
I  have  yet  had  much  reason  to  suppose  I  have  given  rise  to 
anything  of  distinguished  merit.  The  worst  is,  it  draws  on 
me  letters  and  commendatory  verses,  to  which  my  sad  and 
sober  thanks  in  humble  prose  are  deemed  a  most  unmeet  and 
ungracious  reply.  Of  this  sort  of  plague  your  Lordship  must 
ere  now  have  had  more  than  your  share,  but  I  think  you  can 
hardly  have  met  with  so  original  a  request  as  concluded  the 
letter  of  a  bard  I  this  morning  received,  who  limited  his  de 
mands  to  being  placed  in  his  due  station  on  Parnassus  —  and 
invested  with  a  post  in  the  Edinburgh  Custom  House. 

"  What  an  awakening  of  dry  bones  seems  to  be  taking  place 
on  the  Continent !  I  could  as  soon  have  believed  in  the  resur 
rection  of  the  Romans  as  in  that  of  the  Prussians  —  yet  it 
seems  a  real  and  active  renovation  of  national  spirit.  It  will 
certainly  be  strange  enough  if  that  tremendous  pitcher,  which 
has  travelled  to  so  many  fountains,  should  be  at  length  broken 
on  the  banks  of  the  Saale ;  but  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest 
we  are  the  fools  of  fortune.  Your  Lordship  will  probably  rec 
ollect  where  the  Oriental  tale  occurs,  of  a  Sultan  who  con 
sulted  Solomon  on  the  proper  inscription  for  a  signet-ring, 
requiring  that  the  maxim  which  it  conveyed  should  be  at  once 
proper  for  moderating  the  presumption  of  prosperity  and  tem 
pering  the  pressure  of  adversity.  The  apophthegm  supplied 
by  the  Jewish  sage  was,  I  think,  admirably  adapted  for  both 
purposes,  being  comprehended  in  the  words  'And  this  alsa 
shall  pass  away.' 


LETTER    TO    JOANNA   BAILLIE.  305 

"  When  your  Lordship  sees  Rogers,  will  you  remember  me 
kindly  to  Mm  ?  I  hope  to  be  in  London  next  spring,  and  re 
new  my  acquaintance  with  my  friends  there.  It  will  be  an 
additional  motive  if  I  could  flatter  myself  that  your  Lordship's 
Btay  in  the  country  will  permit  me  the  pleasure  of  waiting 
upon  you.  I  am,  with  much  respect  and  regard,  your  Lord 
ship's  truly  honoured  and  obliged  humble  servant, 

"  WALTER  SCOTT. 

"  I  go  to  Edinburgh  next  week,  multum  gemens" 


"To  Miss  Joanna  Baillie,  Hampstead. 

"  Edinburgh,  10th  Dec.  1813. 

"  Many  thanks,  my  dear  friend,  for  your  kind  token  of  re 
membrance,  which  I  yesterday  received.  I  ought  to  blush,  if 
I  had  grace  enough  left,  at  my  long  and  ungenerous  silence : 
but  what  shall  I  say  ?  The  habit  of  procrastination,  which 
had  always  more  or  less  a  dominion  over  me,  does  not  relax  its 
sway  as  I  grow  older  and  less  willing  to  take  up  the  pen.  I 
have  not  written  to  dear  Ellis  this  age,  —  yet  there  is  not  a 
day  that  I  do  not  think  of  you  and  him,  and  one  or  two  other 
friends  in  your  southern  land.  I  am  very  glad  the  whisky 
came  safe :  do  not  stint  so  laudable  an  admiration  for  the 
liquor  of  Caledonia,  for  I  have  plenty  of  right  good  and  sound 
Highland  Ferintosh,  and  I  can  always  find  an  opportunity  of 
sending  you  up  a  bottle. 

"  We  are  here  almost  mad  with  the  redemption  of  Holland, 
which  has  an  instant  and  gratifying  effect  on  the  trade  ot 
Leith,  and  indeed  all  along  the  east  coast  of  Scotland.  About 
£100,000  worth  of  various  commodities,  which  had  been  dor 
mant  in  cellars  and  warehouses,  was  sold  the  first  day  the  news 
arrived,  and  Orange  ribbons  and  Orange  Boven  was  the  order 
of  the  day  among  all  ranks.  It  is  a  most  miraculous  revivifi 
cation  which  it  has  been  our  fate  to  witness.  Though  of  a  tol 
erably  sanguine  temper,  I  had  fairly  adjourned  all  hopes  and 
expectations  of  the  kind  till  another  generation :  the  sam« 


306  LIFE    OP    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

power,  however,  that  opened  the  windows  of  heaven  and  the 
fountains  of  the  great  deep,  has  been  pleased  to  close  them,  and 
to  cause  his  wind  to  blow  upon  the  face  of  the  waters,  so  that  we 
may  look  out  from  the  ark  of  our  preservation,  and  behold  the 
reappearance  of  the  mountain  crests,  and  old,  beloved,  and  well- 
known  landmarks,  which  we  had  deemed  swallowed  up  for  ever 
in  the  abyss :  the  dove  with  the  olive  branch  would  complete 
the  simile,  but  of  that  I  see  little  hope.  Buonaparte  is  that 
desperate  gambler,  who  will  not  rise  while  he  has  a  stake  left ; 
and  indeed,  to  be  King  of  France  would  be  a  poor  petti 
fogging  enterprise,  after  having  been  almost  Emperor  of  the 
World.  I  think  he  will  drive  things  on,  till  the  fickle  and  im 
patient  people  over  whom  he  rules  get  tired  of  him  and  shake 
him  out  of  the  saddle.  Some  circumstances  seem  to  intimate 
his  having  become  jealous  of  the  Senate;  and  indeed  any 
thing  like  a  representative  body,  however  imperfectly  con 
structed,  becomes  dangerous  to  a  tottering  tyranny.  The 
sword  displayed  on  both  frontiers  may,  like  that  brandished 
across  the  road  of  Balaam,  terrify  even  dumb  and  irrational 
subjection  into  utterance  —  but  enough  of  politics,  though  now 
a  more  cheerful  subject  than  they  have  been  for  many  years 
past. 

"  I  have  had  a  strong  temptation  to  go  to  the  Continent  this 
Christmas ;  and  should  certainly  have  done  so,  had  I  been  sure 
of  getting  from  Amsterdam  to  Frankfort,  where,  as  I  know 
Lord  Aberdeen  and  Lord  Cathcart,  I  might  expect  a  welcome. 
But  notwithstanding  my  earnest  desire  to  see  the  allied  armiea 
cross  the  Rhine,  which  I  suppose  must  be  one  of  the  grandest 
military  spectacles  in  the  world,  I  should  like  to  know  that  the 
roads  were  tolerably  secure,  and  the  means  of  getting  forward 
attainable.  In  spring,  however,  if  no  unfortunate  change  takes 
place,  I  trust  to  visit  the  camp  of  the  allies,  and  see  all  the 
pomp  and  powe1*  and  circumstance  of  war,  which  I  have  so 
often  imagined,  ana  sometimes  attempted  to  embody  in  verse* 
—  Johnnie  Richardson  is  a  good,  honourable,  kind-hearted 
little  fellow  as  lives  in  the  world,  with  a  pretty  taste  for  poetry 
ifhich  he  has  wisely  kept  under  subjection  to  the  occupation 


LETTER   TO   JOANNA    BAILLIB.  307 

of  drawing  briefs  and  revising  conveyances.  It  is  a  great  good 
fortune  to  him  to  be  in  your  neighbourhood,  as  he  is  an  idolater 
of  genius,  and  where  could  he  offer  up  his  worship  so  justly  ? 
And  I  am  sure  you  will  like  him,  for  he  is  really  '  officious,  in 
nocent,  sincere.'*  Terry,  I  hope,  will  get  on  well;  he  is 
industrious,  and  zealous  for  the  honour  of  his  art.  Ventidius 
must  have  been  an  excellent  part  for  him,  hovering  between 
tragedy  and  comedy,  which  is  precisely  what  will  suit  him. 
We  have  a  woful  want  of  him  here,  both  in  public  and  private, 
for  he  was  one  of  the  most  easy  and  quiet  chimney-corner  com 
panions  that  I  have  had  for  these  two  or  three  years  past. 

"  I  am  very  glad  if  anything  I  have  written  to  you  could 
give  pleasure  to  Miss  Edgeworth,  though  I  am  sure  it  will  fall 
very  short  of  the  respect  which  I  have  for  her  brilliant  talents, 
I  always  write  to  you  a  la  vole'e,  and  trust  implicitly  to  your 
kindness  and  judgment  upon  all  occasions  where  you  may 
choose  to  communicate  any  part  of  my  letters.f  As  to  the 
taxing  men,  I  must  battle  them  as  I  can :  they  are  worse  than 
the  great  Emathian  conqueror,  who 

*  bade  spare 

The  house  of  Pindarus,  when  temple  and  tower 
Went  to  the  ground.'  ± 

Your  pinasters  are  coming  up  gallantly  in  the  nursery-bed  at 
Abbotsford.  I  trust  to  pay  the  whole  establishment  a  Christ 
mas  visit,  which  will  be,  as  Robinson  Crusoe  says  of  his  glass 
of  rum,  '  to  mine  exceeding  refreshment.'  All  Edinburgh  have 
been  on  tiptoe  to  see  Madame  de  Stael,  but  she  is  now  not 
likely  to  honour  us  with  a  visit,  at  which  I  cannot  prevail  on 
myself  to  be  very  sorry ;  for  as  I  tired  of  some  of  her  works,  1 
am  afraid  I  should  disgrace  my  taste  by  tiring  of  the  authoress 
too,  All  my  little  people  are  very  well,  learning,  with  great 

*  Scott's  old  friend,  Mr.  John  Richardson,  had  shortly  before  this 
time  taken  a  house  in  Mis&  Baillie's  neighbourhood,  on  Hampstead 
Heath. 

f  Miss  Baillie  had  apologized  to  him  for  having  sent  an  extract  of 
pne  of  his  letters  to  her  friend  at  Edgeworth?town 

J  Milton  —  Sonnet  No.  VIII 


308  LIFE    OF    SIB    WALTER    SCOTT. 

pain  and  diligence,  much  which  they  will  have  forgotten  alto 
gether,  or  nearly  so,  in  the  course  of  twelve  years  hence  :-  but 
the  habit  of  learning  is  something  in  itself,  even  when  the 
lessons  are  forgotten. 

"  I  must  not  omit  to  tell  you  that  a  friend  of  mine,  with 
whom  that  metal  is  more  plenty  than  with  me,  has  given  me 
some  gold  mohurs  to  be  converted  into  a  ring  for  enchasing 
King  Charles'  hair ;  but  this  is  not  to  be  done  until  I  get  to 
London,  and  get  a  very  handsome  pattern.  Ever,  most  truly 
snd  sincerely,  yours,  W.  SCOTT." 

The  last  sentence  of  this  letter  refers  to  a  lock  of  the 
hair  of  Charles  L,  which,  at  Dr.  Baillie's  request,  Sir 
Henry  Halford  had  transmitted  to  Scott  when  the  royal 
martyr's  remains  were  discovered  at  Windsor,  in  April 
1813.  Sir  John  Malcolm  had  given  him  some  Indian 
coins  to  supply  virgin  gold  for  the  setting  of  this  relic ; 
and  for  some  years  he  constantly  wore  the  ring,  which  is 
a  massive  and  beautiful  one,  with  the  word  REMEMBER 
surrounding  it  in  highly  relieved  black-letter. 

The  poet's  allusion  to  "  taxing  men "  may  require 
another  word  of  explanation.  To  add  to  his  troubles 
during  this  autumn  of  1813,  a  demand  was  made  on  him 
by  the  commissioners  of  the  income-tax,  to  return  in  one 
of  their  schedules  an  account  of  the  profits  of  bis  literary 
exertions  during  the  three  last  years.  He  demurred  to 
this,  and  took  the  opinion  of  high  authorities  in  Scotland, 
who  confirmed  him  in  his  impression  that  the  claim  was 
beyond  tbe  statute.  The  grounds  of  his  resistance  are 
thus  briefly  stated  in  one  of  his  letters  to  his  legal  friend 
in  London:  — 

"  To  John  Richardson,  Esq.,  Fludyer  Street,  Westminster. 

"  My  Dear  Richardson,  —  I  have  owed  you  a  letter  this  long 
time,  but  perhaps  my  debt  might  not  yet  be  discharged,  had  I 


TAXATION    OF    LITERARY    INCOME.  309 

not  a  little  matter  of  business  to  trouble  you  with.  I  wish  you 
to  lay  before  either  the  King's  counsel,  or  Sir  Samuel  Romilly 
and  any  other  you  may  approve,  the  point  whether  a  copy 
right,  being  sold  for  the  term  during  which  Queen  Anne's  act 
warranted  the  property  to  the  author,  the  price  is  liable  in 
payment  of  the  property-tax.  I  contend  it  is  not  so  liable,  for 
the  following  reasons :  —  1st,  It  is  a  patent  right,  expected  to 
produce  an  annual,  or  at  least  an  incidental  profit,  during  the 
currency  of  many  years ;  and  surely  it  was  never  contended 
that  if  a  man  sold  a  theatrical  patent,  or  a  patent  for  machin 
ery,  property-tax  should  be  levied  in  the  first  place  on  the 
full  price  as  paid  to  the  seller,  and  then  on  the  profits  as  pur 
chased  by  the  buyer.  I  am  not  very  expert  at  figures,  but  I 
think  it  clear  that  a  double  taxation  takes  place.  2d,  It  should 
be  considered  that  a  book  may  be  the  work  not  of  one  year, 
but  of  a  man's  whole  h'fe ;  and  as  it  has  been  found,  in  a  late 
case  of  the  Duke  of  Gordon,  that  a  fall  of  timber  was  not  sub 
ject  to  property-tax  because  it  comprehended  the  produce  of 
thirty  years,  it  seems  at  least  equally  fair  that  mental  exertions 
should  not  be  subjected  to  a  harder  principle  of  measurement. 
3J,  The  demand  is,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  totally  new  and  un 
heard  of.  4ZA,  Supposing  that  I  died  and  left  my  manuscripts 
to  be  sold  publicly  along  with  the  rest  of  my  library,  is  there 
any  ground  for  taxing  what  might  be  received  for  the  written 
book,  any  more  than  any  rare  printed  book,  which  a  speculative 
bookseller  might  purchase  with  a  view  to  republication  ?  You 
will  know  whether  any  of  these  things  ought  to  be  suggested 
in  the  brief.  David  Hume,  and  every  lawyer  here  whom  I 
have  spoken  to,  consider  the  demand  as  illegal.  Believe  ma 
truly  yours,  WALTER  SCOTT." 

Mr.  Richardson  having  prepared  a  case,  obtained  upon 
it  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Alexander  (afterwards  Sir  William 
Alexander  and  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer)  and  of  the 
late  Sir  Samuel  Romilly.  These  eminent  lawyers  agreed 
in  the  view  of  their  Scotch  brethren ;  and  after  tedious 


810  LIFE    OF    SIR    WALTER    SCOTT. 

correspondence,  the  Lords  of  the  Treasury  at  last  decided 
that  the  Income-Tax  Commissioners  should  abandon  their 
claim  upon  the  produce  of  literary  labour.  I  have  thought 
it  worth  while  to  preserve  some  record  of  this  decision, 
and  of  the  authorities  on  which  it  rested,  in  case  such  a 
demand  should  ever  be  renewed  hereafter. 

In  the  beginning  of  December,  the  Town-Council  of 
Edinburgh  resolved  to  send  a  deputation  to  congratulate 
the  Prince  Regent  on  the  prosperous  course  of  public 
events,  and  they  invited  Scott  to  draw  up  their  address, 
which,  on  its  being  transmitted  for  previous  inspection  to 
Mr.  William  Dundas,  then  Member  for  the  City,  and 
through  him  shown  privately  to  the  Regent,  was  ac 
knowledged  to  the  penman,  by  his  Royal  Highness's 
command,  as  "the  most  elegant  congratulation  a  sov 
ereign  ever  received,  or  a  subject  offered."  *  The  Lord 
Provost  of  Edinburgh  presented  it  accordingly  at  the 
levee  of  the  10th,  and  it  was  received  most  graciously. 
On  returning  to  the  north,  the  Magistrates  expressed 
their  sense  of  Scott's  services  on  this  occasion  by  pre 
senting  him  with  the  freedom  of  his  native  city,  and  also 
with  a  piece  of  plate,  —  which  the  reader  will  find  alluded 
to,  among  other  matters  of  more  consequence,  in  a  letter 
to  be  quoted  presently. 

At  this  time  Scott  further  expressed  his  patriotic  exul 
tation  in  the  rescue  of  Europe,  by  two  songs  for  the  an 
niversary  of  the  death  of  Pitt ;  one  of  which  has  ever 
Bince,  I  believe,  been  chaunted  at  that  celebration  :  — 

"  O  dread  was  the  time  and  more  dreadful  the  omen, 
When  the  brave  on  Marengo  lay  slaughter'd  in  vain,"  &c.  f 

*  Letter  from  the  Right  Hon.  W.  Dundas,  dated  6th  December  181& 
f  See  Scott's  Poetical  Works,  vol  xi.  p.  309.    Edition  1834. 

END   OF   VOL.    UI. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
THIS  BOOK  ON  THE  DATE  DUE.  THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY  AND  TO  $I.OO  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY 
OVERDUE. 


OCT  14  J936 


SEP  9    '65-iOAM 


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OCT    101945 


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1961 


LD  21-100m-8,'34 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


